hopelessly hopeful

I consider myself an educator. On second thoughts everybody can. Educating others seems an inherent quality of life. Be it our partners, children or dogs we educate to get others to do or think what we believe is right.
But the thing is I'm an educator professionally as is my mother and as was her mother before her. The difference between ordinary, say, real-life, educating and learned educating is that the latter is systemic.
We all agree that teaching others to do things better or, consequently and more generally, have better lives is a good thing. Probably for that very reason there have been so many people in our history ready to devote much of their time and energy to spontaneous making up and spreading ideas of educational value. But spontaneous educating is one thing (and very enjoyable at that) and systemic educating is another.

Imagine people gathered at the original Sermon on the Mount. Or a bunch of Scandinavians loaded with mead being told Beowulf for the first time. (It's all education, stories.) What are they doing there? Are they listening intently? Are they engaged?  Will they tell anyone about what they were told?

Now, fast forward a few thousand years. Imagine a group of young people sitting in a room with somebody retelling Beowulf or quoting Jesus. What are they doing there? Are they listening intently? Are they engaged? Will they tell anyone about what they were told? When will be the test? What's for supper? Hey, is that nice looking lass is smiling at me?

So we have two very different approaches to spreading the news.
You can start talking, try to make it interesting and count on the people to come and listen  (if you're good at it, they may even ask you to sign some obscure body parts of theirs, which is kinda fun).
Or you have someone tell/pay/sexually incentivise people to come, tell them to listen and only then do the talking (which kinda spoils the surprise, but attendance has its cost).
This is voluntary education and obligatory education.
Which one sounds like a better deal, eh? Learning about stuff you want to learn about or learning about stuff somebody told you was interesting.

And yeah, I do know people who say they don't want to learn anything, too. But what they mean by learning is systemic learning. They learn of their own will how to be better drivers, lovers and gamers. Some of them might even be interested in learning to cook, dance and tie their shoelaces. So it's not that education sucks. Or, better, it does and does not at the same time.

Experience tells me (apparently, many feel similarly) that only a handful of people approach educational system voluntarily. Many more declare that they need to go to school of some sorts. After all we live in the times when all of us recognize the importance of formal education. But still, needing is different from wanting, isn't it?.
As a pro I keep asking myself this question: can I do anything to make wanting stand out more in their personal narrative landscape? (this, of course, can be stretched to a more general discussion on motivation cos' real wanting is everything you need to make things happen).

Well, I can do it the hard way, beat the hell out of them (or, better still, let somebody do it) and coerce them into wanting (to avoid pain or sth). I could also buy them into wanting through forceful mental persuasion, commercial/school style, but it'd be just beating the crap out of their minds rather then bodies.

I can not give a fick, but if you've read the first post, you know it's impossible (believe me, I've tried a thousand times).

I could also talk to them, ask what they want and try to establish a highly personalised plan that at least partially takes into account the thing they want to learn (that they want to learn something is as certain as it can be, which is very) and bootleg some of the things I want them to know into it.
I know it sounds very time-consuming, but once the wanting is there, you just sit and watch as it kindles and just steer the boat instead of rowing all the time.

Yeah, sorry for that, but times when only the willing went to schools are long over. Systemic education grew out of proportion and waiting for schooling-hungry devotees will become more and more frustrating. Instead of just moaning about the Zeitgeist just learn something from the systems that've already taken people's attention captive like the media and entertainment industry. Or religion for that matter (which does know a few decent tricks). I'm not asking you to betray your ideals. Just be consumerist in your teaching methods, take that which works and use it for whatever purpose you deem worthy. Recognise diversity among recipients, it has increased along with their numbers. Screw the system, it's becoming more and more bureaucratised and what we need is more flexibility.

Do what you can, cos' we might well be a few ficks given away from raising a generation we really won't be happy to have around.