Strength and Weaknesses, Person to Person

For a while now I have been reflecting on the idea that man-made social structures are not made for people to function in.

This thought began when I was processing through some particularly frustrating requirements that I have to fulfill at Calvin. Would a school function better if it evaluated the needs of its students (educational and otherwise) based on the individual? Would students graduate more equipped for their field, or further education if they were able to create a customized plan that addressed their weaknesses while bolstering their strengths?

In the social structure of an educational institution, students are no longer people. The institution views each student as a piece to be assembled, and each student moves through the production line, no different than an engine block or a plastic doll. The teachers/professors stand by and try to fix the broken, or otherwise disabled pieces, and if they cannot fix them, then they throw them out. The administrators decide what it means to be a functional product, and once a student has passed all of the tests then they are able to move from the factory into use.

This frustrated me because I was an engine block struggling through the tests made for a plastic doll.

Get it?

Then I had this reflection. The problem is larger than school. The entire western world is fixated on this factory line production model. Efficiency is God. If you get in the way of the people's God... well, we all read about the crusades.

This model has been pushed so far that it permeates every aspect of our world.

But this is what I propose: Human beings need to be treated as human beings: micro organisms that have strengths and weaknesses; each unique; each an individual.

Man-made social structures need to be treated in the same way. Nobody is perfect, so nobody’s ideas are perfect. Social structures are macro organisms (they are living, organic beings) that will reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the creators in flux. If we cut out every organism in its moment of failure, we will take away every organism’s ability to thrive. In this model ingenuity can't happen, in this model you will never see the true potential of a human organism.

Strengths need to be bolstered, and weaknesses addressed appropriately for each individual.