Our Education Has Failed Us.

"Do good in school"
"Get good grades"
"Listen to your teachers"
"Read your books"

We have all been failed by our educational system. We have all been taught poison; intellectual poison that kills off innovation, poison that does away with originality and confuses conformity with ingenuity. As children, we possessed the skill of challenging all that was said to be true with questions and more often than not, rebellion. To challenge what you were taught was not tolerated and to ensure you never challenge authority or ideology again, you were punished.. Punished for thinking on your own and punished for having the audacity to criticize what you were being taught.

Our education has crippled our youth and maimed the legs of which our generation is to stand. We are taught to do well on standardized tests by regurgitating what we've memorized instead of expanding on material we've genuinely analyzed. We've been taught to believe that in order to succeed, we must often adhere to failed policies. The nature of our society is being hijacked by ideological tyrants who can't stand the idea of different world views and perspectives. Liberalism and Conservatism have condemned outside thinkers. Under the guise of "open-mindedness", the brains of these very liberals fall out their heads. On the other side of the same token, traditional conservatives cling to their obsolete and outdated ideas. These two, when placed within the education system, force us; students present and students past, to pick our poison.

In our education system, we are too concerned with our intellectual, social and political games of tug of war, we forget the very reasons for education's existence.

Our professors have meant well. Our teachers have taught. Our instructors have instructed. Yet somewhere between the formulation of educational curriculum and its very implementation, our nation has lost sight of what really matters: innovation. We've forgotten the fundamentals of an everchanging nation amongst a world of everchanging circumstances. We have fallen from our pedestal and in our attempts to climb our way back, we have confused ourselves into believing intellectual conformity with being synonymous to educational ingenuity.

Our educational system has failed us. It's become reliant on statistical rates and percentages. It's commercialized all that is involved and learned in education and hampered our minds with mere promises of 'financial success' and yet the most academically "educated" men and women in the country are often the very same perpetrators of ill-conceived and counter-effective financial, social and political disasters!

The "educated" in Wall Street have shamelessly run our economy to shambles.

The "educated" in our medical companies do away with medical innovation in exchange for profitability.

The "educated" in Capitol Hill have had their loyalties purchased away in the interests of being reelected.

The "educated" in healthcare companies insure that they make the most profit providing the least amount of healthcare.

When we say "We're all dealt a different set of cards", we forget to ask.. "Who's the dealer?"

Mere ideas give birth to change. Change is not something found on slogans. Change is not found in our pockets.

To change, we must adapt. To Adapt is to Sustain.

- David Javier Solis

"An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life."

Trying to figure out twitter: HELP!

A few months back, I got on the twitter bandwagon and decided I'd see what the big fuss is about. At this point, I'm not overly impressed with it; not because I don't think it has its potential.. I just don't know how to use it for what it's worth. Apparently it helps with networking but being on Facebook for so long, I'm not really sure Twitter can do anything that Facebook can't. Twitter's apparently something that you update regularly to let the world know what you're doing and 'tweets' are frequently updated so that depending on what words you use in your tweet, people can find what you're saying about a particular thing. I don't really understand what Retweet is all about but from what I've heard, apparently it's "rude" to make someone else's tweet your own and to give them credit for it; you "retweet"... I want to network. I want to interact with people all around the world and talk about issues I'm interested in and while I know Twitter can help me with all that, it's not very beginner-friendly; at least not to me. Someone out there... Explain to me please how to make Twitter work for me.. Work with me; I'm a noob, sorry.

- David Javier Solis

P.S. "Follow me" at DavidJSolis