Fahrenheit 451 Insight on Education

Where is our freedom of choice? When do we get to decide for ourselves what we are capable of thinking? Who is to tell us what we are supposed to think and what we are supposed to know? These are all questions that only a handful of people in Montag’s world asked. These questions can be tied into our everyday lives. Just look at the education system. They tell one that they are not allowed to say certain things and that thinking certain thoughts is a wrong thing to do. Clarisse says that all their school does is ‘teach you the facts’. Is this not what the education system is doing now? They are trying to fill one’s mind full of non-applicable data so that we can spit it back out for a standardized test for the county’s observation. All some teachers want to see are good test results, all the board wants to see are increasing test numbers from these standardized tests. Why does everything have to be standardized? Testing, testing, and testing. Yes we can spit back information, but can we apply it? How is knowing everything in the world anywhere close to going out and living it? She also stated that her school classifies her as anti social. What do psychiatrists do to teenagers or kids who are off in their own world thinking all of the time? They classify them as educationally challenged, ADD or ADHD. What if they are just on a totally different level of thinking? Have these ‘professionals’ ever stopped to ask themselves, “Is there something that we are missing here?” “Are we speeding by life to quickly to take a second and enjoy what other options we have?” Yes, rules and _____________ are fine, but just think if it gets carried out too far we might literally end up in Montag’s world!