They call this an education?

Have you ever noticed that "education" has come to mean the recreation of real situations into barely recognizable lessons which are more tedious and more expensive than the real thing? Take public school math, for example. The children count pictures and they call it adding. There aren't any real addition (numbers only) problems but they claim there is addition happening... somewhere.
But, even the entire math text book could be seen in the same light. After all, the student could simply learn math as needed in a full everyday life. (Notice I said full. You'll have a hard time convincing me that constantly plugged in kids will learn real life skills. For one.. they aren't experiencing real life. That seems like a no brainer to me. Oops! Sorry... got off track.)

Today, I came across this picture at Photobucket.



I assume this was to teach the child about mammals giving milk, or that cows create milk, how to milk a cow, etc....

But.... um..... Really??

Is this "lesson" anything close to the real experience? It's a cartoon version of reality!
Why not take the kiddo to visit the farm and see a real cow. Or heck, drive in the country and your child will see cows everywhere! Just seeing a real cow is surely more educational than "milking" a paper/rubber cow.
Maybe there aren't any cows around, huh? Well, then why the hell are you focusing on them so much? Why is it so important to create an entire lesson about something the child can't use every day anyway?

Do we all fall into this trap? Oh yeah. I think we all do. I know I have.

I will likely never become a full fledged unschooler because I believe explicit lessons are in order for many skills. But, I can at least attempt to keep my lessons real and effective.