Square pegs and such

The square peg theory.

It's the major reason that I believe today's high schools sorta, kinda, majorly, epically fail.

You know those peg board toys with the little hammer?

The concept of these toys - in case you've been living under a rock your whole life and this is your first encounter with their existence - is that you use the little hammer to smack the pegs through the board.

Now think of this peg board as a high school. The board itself is the school system, and the pegs are the students in said school system. The system expects, and is set up for the students to be nice little round pegs. However when a student comes along who is a square peg, the system doesn't know how to deal with it, or in many cases, doesn't have the funding to deal with it.

The poor square peg child has to suffer the consequences of learning differently. Because the peg board/school system doesn't have the solutions to help the square peg student learn in a different way, they have to resort to the normal methods of teaching. So they line the square peg child up with the peg board and start whacking away at it.

Eventually the square peg student's corners get worn away, and they fit through the peg board. Every aspect of their individuality and creativity has been beaten out of them by the system, but dammit they fit through the peg board. The system isn't entirely at fault. They are in turn controlled by a bigger system - the entire toy box if you will. Without the say-so from the larger system they don't have the money to spend on improving their smaller system. It's not enough to just expand the existing peg board, but they have to improve the peg board to accommodate square pegs, triangular pegs, elliptical pegs, hexagonal pegs, and whatever else might come their way.

Unfortunately that's easier said than done. So the square peg theory lives on.

I am a square peg. I cannot wait to bid farewell to the oppressive peg board in which I habitate.