I should challenge more people directly. I should have challenged more people in past instances of my life. But I didn’t. I held back. Because people are fragile. It’s not that they don’t want to be challenged, only that they want to do it on their terms. If I challenged everyone when I should have it may have led to an influence towards change but, the chances of that happening now are lower than the chances of a person just getting mad, responding emotionally, and not realizing what I was challenging and how that could make them better. 

It’s not only that people are fragile, but also that once they understand another person, they expect certain things. People don’t expect a challenge from me. At least not all people and if they do it’s in a very specific place. When you do something people don’t expect from you it throws them off but if you act normally — however that may be — then everything is fine. I don’t blame other people for my lack of involvement, I understand that I have to also be active. But I do blame people — at least human nature — for not being more open to a consistent change in their environment. People don’t like thinking about their problems all the time, or complex ideas, so I often stay quiet or tailor my input to the conversation.

But in an academic environment, people are a bit more prepared for challenge. Still, in the current state (in the USA and to some degree, other countries), those challenges aren’t well-coordinated. Curriculum, public funding, and the lack of preparation that teachers are given do not account for the constant change and variety of thought that exists in a classroom. Students aren’t given the option to learn and their individual skills and interests aren’t properly addressed. Teachers give lessons and assignments that work for the a percentage of a classroom, but even a clock is right twice a day. Students are told they need to pay attention but they’re learning blindly, they have no direction.

People are protective of themselves and of others. Growing is hard, questioning your own beliefs and ideas: moreso. Having everything you understand about the world around you deconstructed by an other people is not something people willingly look for. But these things are necessary for progress. People are afraid of being mistaken and they don’t like admitting to being wrong but the way I understand the world around me is that we don’t actually know what is actually correct so I keep looking for new questions.

You have to think about creating change in terms of revolt and societal understandings. It has to be timed well, you have to know how to challenge so people learn and apply those lessons in real life. Education is hypothetical and people need to learn more to connect those ideas to the physical reality. I believe my role is to do challenge others to become better but I’m still working on how exactly to do that.