Beyond School

But if you listen to this while still laughing, yes, but also thinking, you’ll notice how language arts works in the real world. Listen to the first five minutes of his act, and list how many “literary elements” you notice him using.

You’ll see that there is some literary device, some sort of figurative or poetic language, happening in just about every sentence he speaks. Alliteration, allusion, hyperbole, understatement, irony, analogy, sarcasm, on and on.

And endless, natural, real critical thinking. He doesn’t believe what everybody else believes just because…everybody else believes it. He thinks critically instead. (The problem with schools is that, too often, they preach “critical thinking” while avoiding subjects that matter, because dangerous subjects - things some percentage of the population believes in strongly - will make people angry, and it’s safer to be safe, and “critically think” about safe subjects. An oxymoron if ever there was one. Who gives a flip, at the end of the day, about school uniform debates, when there are real-world issues of importance to think critically about? Oh, but a student or parent will get mad¹, and then teacher has a problem. So let’s be safe, boring, and irrelevant - and just talk about how important critical thinking is.)

And that’s how he makes millions and is an international star. Notice, too, how politically informed everything he jokes about is. He’s not some know-nothing who doesn’t keep up with the world. He’s brilliantly aware of current issues. And that’s not because he has to be for a homework grade. It’s because he’s a civilized human being who cares about more than his shopping habits, his food trough, and playing with little rubber balls in a thing called “sports.” It’s probably also because he realizes world events are more interesting than our trivial little entertainments. You just have to be able to read and think in order to enjoy them.