Day 230: The Krotons Episode 3

Let's make a comment about the titular Krotons, shall we? They're an interesting foe because of the way in which they represent society, or to be more specific, colonial society. They're obviously the ruling classes in colonial areas, as witnessed by their strong South African accents and their willingness to educate the masses. As they do this, however, they tend to avoid areas that might cause problems in the future, such as Chemistry which would teach the Gonds knowledge of how to produce the chemicals necessary to destroy them. It's an exercise in censorship, and draws attention to the ideas that people instill in future generations, where they avoid contentious issues because people cannot be trusted with this information.

Also of note is a comment made by one of the Gonds where they state that they would prefer to discover this information for themselves, and that they are tired of being spoon-fed information by their oppressors. What this draws attention to is the way in which we teach people. Some people like to just spoon-feed information, and they believe that the only way to learn is by rote. However others prefer learning through discovery, through using previous knowledge to build pathways to new knowledge. These two methods have their attractors, however it quickly becomes clear which one serves a society better as a whole, and which one should be used in education.