The Decision – How Institutional School influences how I make them – and what I’ve leared to do about it

 Last week I found myself sitting in my new GI doctor’s office, face to face with my young doctor talking about how I was doing and feeling and how to treat this newly diagnosed condition of ulcerative colitis.

Actually, I was feeling pretty good that day and I told him that every day was better than the day before.  If only I could just do something to get rid of the few remaining symptoms of this flare up (that came on because of the colonoscopy), I would be just fine.

The doctor said no problem and prescribed two medications for me, Asacol and hydrocortisone. I smiled, thanked him, and then quickly jumped on my Kindle in the waiting room, trying to read about these two medications as quickly as I could.

30 years ago or so I never would have done that.  I would have filled the prescriptions and started taking them dutifully without a second thought.  But at 54, I’ve had enough experiences with the medical system to be a little more wary and take on more responsibility myself for my health care than to just accept everything I am told by the professionals (who I am really hiring for an opinion in the first place!)

It wasn’t always so.  I can remember being wheeled down to the operating room for a Cesarean section that I was told was necessary and wondering how the heck this happened?  I had willing complied with every thing including being confined to bed, having my water broken for me, getting pitocin and an epidural. I did what ever they told me to do and now I was being prepped for surgery while two nurses or technicians  jovially chatted away over me.  I kept wondering how it could be an “emergency” when no one was really acting emergent!

I’ve gone over those birth experiences at great length, but what has interested me in recent years is WHY was I so willing to just go along with everything at the time.

After reading  Designed to Fail: Catholic Education in America  and Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, I think I figured it out…

The answer lies in Prussia and started over 100 years ago. 

You see the Prussians were sorely licked by Napolean and decided they needed to change their system to avoid a similar defeat int he future.  Long story short, compulsory education for the masses
was born out of that need.
 

The Prussian mind, which carried the day, held a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver: 1) Obedient soldiers to the army;2 2) Obedient workers for mines, factories, and farms; 3) Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their function; 4) Well-subordinated clerks for industry; 5) Citizens who thought alike on most issues; 6) National uniformity in thought, word, and deed.

By 1844, this way of educating  children was coming to America.

I went to public school for grades K-3 and the Catholic school 4-12.  I learned to raise my hand, wait my turn, study what everyone else was studying when they were studying it, and standing in line to eat and go to the bathroom as well as changing classes whenever a bell was run!  None of this took much forethought or planning on my part.

So is it any wonder that after 13 years or being told what to think,when to think when to eat and when to go to the bathroom, that this programming would carry over into my adult life – just as it was supposed to.  And part of that includes taking my medicine like a good girl and following the advice of the experts.

I’ve been a little shocked to read some of the UC forums.  There are a lot of 20 and 30 somethings taking powerful medications and living with all kinds of side effects while still suffering from the disease symptoms.  A few have broken away to find other remedies and cures but most seem skeptical and even afraid to question their doctors.  It occurs to me that these younger people were probably even more indoctrinated to be good compliant citizens and therefore patients, than I was!

But by now, I’ve learned to be more discerning when it comes to my
medical care and the care of my family. My body is unique and I
ultimately have to decide what’s good for it because I’m the one that
has to live in it – hopefully for a few more decades at least! Which doesn’t mean I won’t ever seek medical treatment or fully trust a medical recommendation – but it means that when I do it will be MY decision based on professional advisement and my own research and even gut feeling ( no pun intended).