Garbage is anything that takes energy but doesn't produce value. It's work done for its own sake, tasks that exist only because they've always existed, requirements that serve the institution instead of the person. School is full of it. Homework, testing, mandatory attendance—all garbage. And it's not just useless. It's actively harmful. It drains the limited energy people have to succeed and leaves them with nothing left for what actually matters.

Think about homework. For a student who's interested in a subject, homework can be meaningful practice. But for the vast majority of students who are forced to study things they don't care about, homework is just busy work. It's time spent on tasks that lead nowhere, learned nothing, and are forgotten as soon as they're graded. The student knows this. The teacher knows this. Everyone knows this. And yet we keep doing it because that's how it's always been.

Think about testing. Tests measure one thing: how well you perform on tests. They don't measure understanding. They don't measure capability. They don't measure creativity or persistence or problem-solving. They measure test-taking. And yet we've built an entire system around them. We spend months preparing for them. We stress students out to the point of anxiety and depression. We reduce learning to test prep. Then we wonder why students hate school and forget everything after the test is over.

Think about mandatory attendance. This is the clearest garbage of all. If what's being offered has value, people will show up. If it doesn't, they won't. Forcing attendance doesn't create value. It just creates resentment. It turns learning into a punishment. It teaches students that their time doesn't matter, that their judgment doesn't count, that their presence is required even when their mind is elsewhere. Then we wonder why they're disengaged.

The problem with garbage is that it consumes finite energy. Every person has only so much mental and emotional bandwidth to devote to growth. When you waste that bandwidth on garbage, there's less left for what actually matters. A student who spends hours on meaningless homework doesn't have those hours to pursue something they're passionate about. A teacher who spends nights grading busy work doesn't have that energy to connect with students. A parent who's constantly fighting with the school about attendance and grades doesn't have that energy to support their child's real development.

For low-income families, this is even more devastating. They don't have margin. They don't have cushion. Every ounce of energy counts. When the school system piles garbage on top of them, it's not just annoying. It's a barrier to survival. The time a kid spends on algebra homework they'll never use is time they could be working, helping at home, or developing a skill that might actually lift them out of poverty. The system makes their path harder, not easier, and then blames them when they struggle.

The idea that garbage builds character is one of the cruelest lies we tell. Struggle for its own sake doesn't build character. It builds resentment, exhaustion, and learned helplessness. Meaningful struggle—struggle that leads somewhere, that produces growth, that matters to the person doing it—that builds character. But forced struggle through pointless tasks just breaks people down. It teaches them that effort doesn't pay off. It teaches them that the system is arbitrary and unfair. It teaches them to give up.

Eliminating garbage is not about making things easier in some soft, lowering-standards way. It's about removing the obstacles that stand between people and actual success. It's about clearing the path so that energy can go where it matters. It's about respecting people enough to stop wasting their time.

Imagine what would happen if we rooted out garbage. No more homework for the sake of homework. No more tests that measure nothing. No more forcing attendance where there's no value. Instead, every minute spent in school would be aimed at something real. Every task would have a purpose. Every requirement would be justified by whether it actually helps people succeed. The energy saved would be enormous. The motivation gained would be incalculable.

This is not radical. It's just efficient. It's just respectful. It's just honest. We have finite time and finite energy. Wasting either on garbage is a crime against humanity. Let's stop defending it and start eliminating it.

Back