Kayla Worley

Tufts Peace Action/ International Youth Relay Marcher
No Nukes! Women’s Forum 2017

I think I’ve finally recovered from my jet lag, so get ready to hear all the ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for the past few days. As you may know, I marched in the International Youth Relay this May through Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka prefectures. Through my 25 days of meeting the citizens of Japan then, and the few days so far of constant inspiration here at this conference, my thoughts have really kept coming back to this: so many regular people know so little about these events and issues that we’ve been discussing.

A world that serves the rights and interests of the people cannot be realized unless there is a STRONG foundation of an informed, educated public. Otherwise, the government is able to get away with violations of people’s rights without them even knowing. We need to operate outside of our existing education and mass communication systems, which are corrupt and perpetuate an industrially focused, civically unaware public. Modern society, at least from my perspective in a developed country, is constantly creating and encouraging distractions like mindless consumption and entertainment that direct the people’s attention away from the increasingly autocratic actions of their governments. My generation is so absorbed in making sure they get a job and supporting themselves that many have no interest in what’s happening in the world.

We youth are constantly fed this panic that we aren’t going to get good enough grades to have enough money to buy all this junk we’re creating in this, again, mindlessly consumeristic society. Since I can remember I’ve been asked, what job do you want? How are you going to make money 10 years from now? We need an education that destroys this type of thinking. Why don’t we have moral education? Why didn’t I learn anything about the Korean or Vietnam wars in all of my schooling? Why don’t we know about who is being paid unlawful wages to produce the dirt cheap products we consume? And why on earth did I never learn that I could call my local government representative or who my representative was?

And our militaristic, industrial- minded government is of course designing our curricula that supports and supports their goals. Our education system should be the foundation of our society by creating a well-informed, critically thinking populace who can ensure the government is protecting their interests. Instead, it is more like a factory, trying to crank out unquestioning robots who work all day with money dangling in their face and a wasteland of human rights horrors in the far periphery.

It frightens me that if I had stayed in my rural, somewhat isolated hometown, I could have spent my entire life much like I just described, ignorant to how my complacency was perpetuating these unjust systems. I almost didn’t vote in the presidential election last year when I turned 18. I felt like I didn’t know enough about any of the issues the candidates were talking about, and I wanted my vote to be informed by understanding, not emotional appeals. Now I feel like I have to major in history or political science just to be adequately informed.

That is so backwards!

So I guess what I’m proposing is that we entirely change the way we educate, with a much heavier focus on civics—which, I might add, was not even a required class in my high school. We are not going to get anywhere unless the next generation is freed from their ignorance about their governments from the beginning. We should also think about trying to spread our information through new channels that the government can’t so easily control like social media. I’m not sure quite how to do all of this, but I do know that we can’t continue with the current model. I’d love to hear the thoughts of teachers and others about this issue.