Breaking The Code To The Catcher In The Rye discussion

The Catcher in the Rye starts out in a school called Pency Prep. Someone on this discussion board noted the word Pencey as a reference to Pence or money. I have heard John Taylor Gatto say that education is big business! It is how we train people to become consumers. Not good cunsumers either, but debtors, as testimony to the student loan crisis.

But i was talking about school with a mother who said that her child was damaged by school. That his self esteem was damaged through testing his weaknesses rather than focusing on his strengths. Sye said that he was brainwashed into believing that he needs the paper from The Great Wizard of State that says he has brains.

I thought about my own paradigm that was conditioned school, that is that if you done get good grades you won't make it in life. If you don't measure up to this school standard somehow you will be defective for life.

Even though there are plenty of examples of people having dropped out of school and making it another way we still want to believe our captors. I say captors because most children wouldn't go to school willingly. If school was a job they would quit and find something better to do with their time. But school is an institution that controls thought.

So i was thinking about the relationship we have with school when we get out and discover that it isn't the real world nor did it prepare us for the real world ajd yet we perpetrate this onto the next generation.

And the Stockholm Syndrome came to mind!

What do you think?

Why do we support a form of education that waste time making kids think about things in a chaotic and confusing system. Especially when YouTube and Google can do a much better job.

Tonight i am reading Pinocchio.

Pinocchio is going to school. His father sells his coat so he can buy Pinocchio a spelling book. On his way to school he is attracted to a puppet show. To get in the show it cost 2 pence.

Do you see any connection here between Pinocchio and Pencey Prep?