We do not ask questions, we do not stop to say no

“Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. One for my master, one for my dame, one for the little boy who lives down the lane. Baa, baa, black sheep!”

Those are the words of a nursery rhyme we sang as children that many children still sing today. As a parent, who wakes up every morning to go toil hard in order that among other things, you can pay school fees for your children alongside every other school requirements, have you thought about the fact that one of  the first things taught at infancy is for children to recite that rhyme?

What does it mean when a child recites and sings about a black sheep providing wool for a master and a dame? If the mind of the child is like a board or a computer in which you are inputting information in order that it may give a particular outcome, what can we expect from a black sheep? Are we surprised by the kind of results we are seeing and experiencing as a people and a generation? I had a conversation with a friend who has amassed nine post graduate degrees and he is pursuing the tenth. He blew my mind when he said each single day, he feels all credentials and education he has gained are a fraudulent.

“What?” “Why then are you still towing this line? I asked in absolute shock. “I do not know,” he replied. “But I am sure it is all useless.” He then went on to emphatically say that our learning system and education in general is made of big blind faith.

As he continued to explain, I started to reflect. “Look at how everything and everyone is driven by the school system. Look at how the economy runs around the school system. See what happens at the beginning of every school term and see what happens when schools are on a break,” he noted.

“He does have a point,” I thought to myself. It is evident we all go about this whole schooling thing almost blindly. We do not ask questions, we do not stop to say no, we simply do as we are told. Sometimes we complain in our small communities and WhatsApp groups, and that is where it all ends.  Depending on who is driving what agenda, we go along. And the children go along too, learning what is given to them, cramming and going about studying what may not be relevant by the time they finish their current grade.

May we stop and think about what is going on, what happened before and what we hope to happen in the future. May we open our eyes to truly behold what is before us.