Not As Instructed / Dumbed Down

There are things we are taught as school children that are important tools and bench marks for us in life.  At the time we don't give any thought to the subjects and material that are being taught, as it is all new information.  Our young minds have not yet gathered sufficient data to allow for the formation of differing or unique opinions.  As we grow older and began to ask why things are a certain way, the answer in many cases was, "that's just the way it is" or "because I said so" and no further explanation is offered.  There are several things about answers like this that are not so good for the child's inquisitive and growing mind.

• the child is not learning anything from the person that is answering their questions in this manner
• they will learn to get more satisfactory answers from somewhere else, leaving the door wide open to persons outside of their immediate family having influence in their lives.
• it is a huge missed opportunity for conversing with the child about things that are much more important than Mickey Mouse and Chuck E Cheese.

The children grow up with the wrong idea about a great multitude of things in life.  Religion, love, music, history, politics and professional careers to name a few.  Textbooks contain information that teaches the child certain information, whether accurate or not, about certain things and in their minds that information becomes the truth.  Not enough emphasize is given to children in the teachings of logical thinking and how to allow their minds to focus on a thought and then to ask questions when a teaching does not seem logical.  Maybe there is a reason why children are not taught how to focus their thoughts at an early age.

Having the ability to submerge ones self into a thought or an idea and be able to think through all of the aspects of that thought or idea, is a powerful thing.  The challenge in being able to achieve this ability comes with all the stresses and distractions of life.  Having the mind in a peaceful state and being able to keep it in that state while thinking through an idea is very important.  This can be sometimes referred to as "focus" although focus is a more concentrated or directional thinking when there are distractions all around.  What is being discussed here is deep free flowing thinking without the distractions.

The question must be asked, where would a person or a civilization be without pointless distractions?  How would human thinking evolve if there were none of the pointless distractions from things such as the Kardashians, nagging spouses and sensationalized news media?  Even our fanaticism with professional sports can cloud our focus and skew our priorities.  The Keynote speaker at the Austin Black Chamber of Commerce 2015 Awards Gala, Shawn Taylor stated, "We don't need another baseball player.  We need doctors, scientists and engineers".  Statements from president Barack Obama, regardless whether you like him or not, criticize the Kardashian's reality television show for "altering the aspirations of youth".  Terrorism, soap operas, drug abuse, superficial "airheads".  Listening to a conversation between superficial "airheads" is not only one of the most painful events to have to endure, it is also equally irritating and pointless.  These are only a few examples of distractions that keep humankind from reaching a much higher level of being.

There are articles and documentaries available that suggest an organized "force" is at work on this planet to keep most humans distracted such that they are not able to focus on a thought or an idea long enough or deep enough to allow them to advance intellectually.  Some information regarding this "force" favors intelligent forms of life that are not native to this planet while other information points to the power of corporations and specific powerful individuals or group of powerful individuals.  These forces are not interested in democracy and work against the organization of large groups of people that come together and could organize to the point of "voting" away their power.   When the human mind is clean of distractions and can focus, incredible things are possible and these prohibiting forces would indeed be surpassed.

Our children are becoming smarter and smarter.  Common sense, logical thinking and good decision making skills should be equally as important, if not more important, than the traditional Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.  Giving them accurate information, un-sensationalized media and unbiased facts in history, religion, social sciences and geography should be mandatory.  When their fresh brains have an accurate starting point, humanity will be lead to a better place.