Making Education a Dragon


	Children need to learn through play. They need to learn through freedom 
of the mind. But they learn best when they believe that what they are learning 
is to improve their own survival and enjoyment.
	Like Ender trapped in the space training camp, the children must 
believe that learning is what is necessary for them to survive. It will be a 
grueling time. A time when they feel as if they will die for the overwhelm of 
the learning, but this threat must not be greater than the threat of the 
outside world. The outside world’s lack of education must be more threatening 
than the education system’s constant deprivations of what the children most 
love.
	Why is this any better than the system we now have? Well, you see, the 
current system is as good as not having one. The child sees not his need for 
the education he is provided. He believes that he is better off outside of the 
educational system. If children truly believe this, then the education system 
has failed to make the child believe in its value. To prove its worth, the 
system must become hostile to the child. It must threaten his very life. It 
must make him afraid to continue. The present system does not threaten the 
child in the slightest. The thought of moving upward in the ranks of education 
does not frighten him. Instead he easily glides up through the ranks of 
classes, not being challenged by the terror of the teacher. Instead, he finds 
all of his lessons easily palatable.
	Those children who aren’t frightened by the terrible beast that will 
be this new educational system will be prepared for immense struggles and small 
wars of living. They through the slaying of education’s terrible dragon are 
ready for any challenge that life faces them. However, in the system maintained 
at present, there are no dragons to slay. Children pick and choose skirmishes 
in place of battles and, through the laziness natural to man, choose no 
challenges.