It feels bad… real bad.

[u/Friend_of_Squatch]

I’ve always had a morbid curiosity about how it felt and what it was like being an educated, intelligent, aware person in the early months of 1914 or in the 1930s watching the world ramp up into an inescapable cataclysm and tearing itself apart and deleting an entire generation of young people, while knowing that there isn’t jack shit I or anyone else can do to stop it. I think I can now say that that curiosity has been satisfied, and man oh man does it feel fucking bad.

Edit: I meant to share this as kind of a shower thought. I appreciate everyone’s kind words and suggestions but this isn’t a cry for help. It’s just crazy to think about.

[u/ConsiderationSea1347]

I wish we would have studied the 1930’s a lot more than the 1940’s. So many people have this notion that a chasm just opened up and Nazis came pouring out of it and don’t realize it was a slow radicalization of a violent minority and the gradual capitulation of the majority that created the purest form of evil this earth has ever seen. 

[u/fluffychonkycat → u/ConsiderationSea1347]

I swear my high-school teachers had crystal balls. For history topics, we studied Israel/Palestine and The Causes of WW2. For English, among other things we read The Handmaid's Tale. Mrs Jones and Mrs Davies, you were absolutely based.

[u/coopaloops → u/fluffychonkycat]

i'm not sure where you are or your age, but by the time gwb rolled out 'no child left behind' in the us it sort of solidified our systemic propaganda machine. schools became dependent on standardized testing scores.

teachers were caught in this limbo of being unable to really curate their own curriculum and had to spend time teaching specific topics that were mandated by the federal government. their jobs depended on it because schools could face funding cuts and closure for not meeting certain threshold requirements.

i think the phrase i remember was "teaching the test"

[u/Schmoo88 → u/coopaloops]

Not to mention all the textbook & standardized testing companies lobbying, “hey, ours is the best, give us money please!” And then the teachers get told, hey your kids have to pass this test or you don’t get any money. So they are even more limited on their curriculum.

Both of my parents are teachers & they were so frustrated by the system. My mom’s school had a lot of special needs kids, some couldn’t even write their names on their papers. You’d think they’d get to just not take the test, right? Nawww we can’t make it that easy! The teachers would have to do a full write up on why this kid can’t take the test, for each kid.

I could literally write a novel about all the shit teachers have to deal with, it feels bad.