Yesterday when I took the GED

I’m sitting in a college that looks and feels just like my old middle school, except it doesn’t smell like Axe body spray mixed with puberty. Plus, the logo for the school is plastered over everything. I just finished taking the GED test. The GED (General Education Diploma) is a test Americans take because they didn’t graduate from high school when they were eighteen. Some people take the test for other reasons, but I went and got it for that reason. 

I wasn’t really planning on getting any diploma. You see, I don’t really believe in them. Dealing with the school system is like trying to make an insurance claim or telling the government to stay within their budget: it’s just an exercise in futility. In the United States, we have mandatory education from five years old to eighteen years old. Those years can be spent in a private school, or charter, or public but you have to pay taxes for public education no matter what choice you choose. I have done all three and home school, and public education was the highest cost for the least amount of results. 

I believe that education should be a renascence institution. A student should fall in love with wisdom. A student should get excited when they find a book that hasn’t been in circulation for a thousand years. A student should be like DaVinci; drawing, calculating, and building for no other reason than because learning thrills them. Today’s factory style system though, is a total farce. It does not take thirteen years to teach someone English, Math, Science, and the Social Studies. 

So I guess the reason I didn’t graduate high school is because I’m a rebel. Not the kind that protests at Washington or dyes their hair pink. Those people think they’re rebels but really they are trying to standout by being like everyone else. They rebel by dropping out of school to go to the skate park. I rebel by dropping out of school to read Immanuel Kant. They rebel against authority, societal norms, morality, truth, and even God. I rebel against tyranny, lies, corruption, and evil. 

However, few people value the same things as I do and power comes from community. The main reason I got my GED was so that I could go to college not to get a diploma, but to find community. Hopefully.