Children born this beautiful spring day have just been sentenced to 15 years behind school walls, the sentence is mandatory and is to be carried out as soon as they turn three. Kids in my country (Romania) aren't particularly wild or vicious. Our legislators in their infinite wisdom have decided today that it is for their own good and that's the Western trend in education and we need to catch up.
What this means is that as soon as they reach a certain degree of independence they're to be placed in an environment where they need to ask permission to go to the bathroom and they're expected to defer to authority, by answering Yes, sir/No, sir, without asking why.
Legislators say children have a right to education. To benefit from it they must give up on any other rights they foolishly thought they have.
Parents, too, are stripped of their right to decide what's best for their children. God forbid they'd take it into their heads to enjoy a beautiful day in the park, let their four or five years old run around like maniacs. Their right to education comes first, so they must spend their childhood behind bars.
This totally bleak building is the institution where my son was supposed to serve his sentence, spend a happy carefree childhood enjoying a ten minutes break on that lovely patch of concrete in the yard!
Conditions are pretty much sub-standard in most schools, but the infinitely wise legislators have not mentioned building new modern schools, as there are no money for that (not when you need to buy second-hand American weapons systems).
However, this is not about material conditions, it's about taking away children' rights. Placing a three year old in school, tell them what to do and when to do, day after day – they become institutionalized.
They're trained to obey and even if they do get out after serving their sentence they'll instinctively look for someone in authority to tell them what to do. And we have plenty of those- the government, the media – they'll tell them what to do. It's not even complicated – work, pay taxes, die.
The overuse of quotes and images from 'The Shawshank Redemption' is intentional. I keep seeing Morgan Freeman working at the supermarket, trying to catch the eye of his supervisor, asking for permission to pee.
Thanks for reading
