Published in The Great North Arrow, July 1, 2023: I, Meme, Mine

 - jim Young

"No-one's frightened of playing it, everyone's saying it, flowing more freely than wine." - George Harrison

Memes are a funny thing - even when they’re not funny. Some of those that you see on Facebook of course are funny and mostly shared for entertainment purposes. But memes can also be educational, controversial and even political. They can be used to express an individual’s perspective or provoke discussion.

So often memes fall into the same category as adages like “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” or “everyone is entitled to their own opinion”.

Some memes will likely become adages in their own right but of course for that to happen they would need to first express a “general truth”.

Sadly some memes, either intentionally or through happenstance, share falsehoods some of which may be benign enough, but oftentimes can be negative in cruel, vicious or simply misleading ways.

In this fast-paced world of ours, everyone wants to share their opinions and points of view and are in so much of a hurry to do so, I think they often click and share memes that may appear to support their beliefs without taking the time to consider the complete message.

This following meme is not cruel or vicious or even harmful, but it is very inaccurate.

Let’s take a look at what this meme is likely supposed to mean vs what it really says.

The author of this meme appears to be a self-reliant gardening enthusiast who likely relies on the literal fruits (and vegetables) of their labour. That’s highly commendable and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

To suggest however, that purifying water, growing your own food, cooking, building and loving is the only knowledge that matters is arguable. They might have done better to qualify this knowledge as being “more important” than “the only knowledge that really matters.”

The author would also have been well advised to stop there. 

But to suggest none of this is taught in school is… well it’s just not true.

Without mathematics how would one cook a meal or build a house? Some kinds of measurements are crucial to both. How could you take a basic recipe and cut it or increase it without some knowledge of math? 

Geometry, algebra and trigonometry all play a vital role in even the most primitive form of construction. That is not to suggest that any of these skills cannot be self taught but all of them in fact are being taught in school.

In the society in which we live, it really isn’t crucial or even likely that everyone must or will have the knowledge described in the original poster’s meme or possess those skill sets. 

Some people are just naturally more adept at gardening or building. Their ability to produce excess in these areas provides the opportunity to barter with those that don’t have those skills for whatever alternate skill sets they do have, even if only for entertainment or some other such purposes that are not part of the basic skill sets described in the meme. 

Beyond the simple skills of mathematics there actually are schools and courses that teach cooking and building and purifying water and pretty much anything else anyone would want to learn.

Or was the author only referring to the “free” schools provided by the government?

But “how to love”? Isn’t this primarily a parent’s responsibility? I pity the child who attends his or her first day of school without already having been taught “how to love”. And I pity the society that has these children trying to cope within it.

At any rate, schools are not intended to provide ALL of a child's education. In fact the responsibility of a child's FULL education lies solely with their parents until the child is of an age to accept that responsibility for him or her self.

It is the parent’s responsibility to educate their children, first in the home and then by finding the resources such as public or even private educational systems to teach their children in the fields that they cannot.

In days gone by, as schools were being introduced in Canada, the formal education children were offered, was a supplement for what many parents couldn't provide - the 3 Rs' - reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. Apparently spelling would come later.

The school year ended when the summer months arrived, not to reward children with a “summer vacation” but to allow them to work on the farms with their parents where they would learn how to grow things, how to purify water, how to build and to continue their life-long education in love; love of family, love of life, love of others and love of self.

In more recent years the summer months have provided students with the opportunity to learn through experience as they take on summer jobs and discover the “real world”.

Sometimes it seems parents today blame the educational system for failing their children when it is they who have failed, not just their children, but society as a whole for not properly educating their own.

It Takes A Community…

Education should never be considered the sole responsibility of the state nor should it be considered the sole responsibility of the parent.

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