What changed? In early childhood I learned how to learn through play with doses of structure and ciriculum, but without intention to learn. The more I grew the less I played. The more I grew the less I looked forward to school. So knowledge was not a good incentive. Interestingly sports became a larger part of my life. It was how playing was integrated into school. It was the incentive that motivated me to learn.
I once herd a man describe a metaphor about sport. He describes sport as an analogy to war. I never realized how directed I was. My desire to play and have fun was exploited by a country designed for and gearing up a war culture. When I describe war I don't necessarily mean military, I include corporate strategy and capitalist mentalities.
If I wanted to play I had to have good grades. Here lies the incentive. I was lured into knowledge versus immersed through a passion. I haven't thought about what could have been different but I feel like I joined a flow of people that never really learned for liberated reasons. I was never in group of kids that were curious for knowledge. I was in a group of kids curious about winning, popularity, and status. The incentives created from athletics put in the path of education but it did not teach me think critically.
I accept that society kept me in school and that might have satisfied thier need to educate me, but I am still wondering how I might have been inspired to think critically. I think my adolescence and family lifestyle have a greater influence on advanced learning and it now seems unfair for me to be so critical of a system that is providing a service versus a solution.
