School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. It doesn't take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not.
Interpretation
School days can often be seen as monotonous and devoid of genuine value, leading to unhappiness.
H. L. Mencken critiques the educational system, portraying school as an unhappy time filled with meaningless tasks that violate common sense. He suggests that students quickly realize that much of what they are forced to learn is irrelevant, and educators are indifferent to their understanding, leading to a sense of disillusionment and frustration among students.
In practice
In a speech about the flaws of current educational practices.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Money buys the most experienced teachers, less-crowded classrooms, high-quality teaching materials, and after-school programs.
Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.
Why are fanatics so terrified of girls' education? Because there's no force more powerful to transform a society. The greatest threat to extremism isn't drones firing missiles, but girls reading books.
The best way to get started on the path of sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.
The idea of education has been so tied to schools, universities, and professors that many assume there is no other way, but education is available to anyone within reach of a library, a post office, or even a newsstand.
I don't care what town you're born in, what city, what country. If you're a child, you are curious about your environment. You're overturning rocks. You're plucking leaves off of trees and petals off of flowers, looking inside, and you're doing things that create disorder in the lives of the adults around you.
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