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title = "The Best Education"
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*First heard in Mošorin, 2023.*

█ ███ █ █████ ███████ ██ ████████, ██████. ████ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████, ████████ █████. ██ ███ █████, ██ ████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ █ theatre and education festival ██ █████. ███ █ ███ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ██ group, who were 16 or 17 years old, it was a big deal—they’d █████ ████ ██ █████, █████ even traveled before. So it was an exciting opportunity for them. But the performance had to be original, and it had to be about education or at least educational in some way. Their first response was, “Does this mean we have to do something about not getting pregnant, or not smoking, or not drinking?” I reassured them, “No, don’t worry, it’s not about that. It just has to be something related to education.” Now, I’m pretty good at getting groups to express themselves, but when it came to the topic of education, it was like talking to a wall. Nothing. No ideas, no inspiration. It was like trying to get blood from a stone. I was about to give up, and even the idea of going to Italy wasn’t motivating them. That’s how stuck we were. Then, on one of the last days, I happened to notice █ ██████ ████—███ ███ a hole in her jeans, and I thought I saw writing ██ ███ ████. ██ █ █████ ███, “███, ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████?” ███ ███████ █████ ██ ██, ████ ██ ███████████. ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ████████. ███ ████ ███ █████████, “It’s the answers to a test at school.” Suddenly, everyone was laughing. It was the first time in three months that I got any kind of reaction related to school! Then someone ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ██ entire test written on her leg, with all the answers. The group was in hysterics. Finally, we had something. They were so proud and energetic, talking about all the different ways they’d cheated on tests. █ ███████ ██ ██████, "████, █████ ███ ████ ████." So, we created a play about cheating—about someone who cheats their way through school and succeeds. In the end, the character in the play graduates, and we projected a picture of Berlusconi on the backdrop, as a kind of nod to the situation in ██████, where buying diplomas was becoming common practice. Now, here’s the kicker. ████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ █████, █ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ █████ ███ █ █████ ███████ ██ ██████████. █ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ ██, ███ ████████ █ ███ ████, “██ ██ ███!” ███ ████ █ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████████, ███ ██ █████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ██████. █████████, we had a discussion. We’d been through this whole process, creating a play about cheating, criticizing the education system. So I asked them, “What would a perfect education system look like? Ideally, what should it be?” One boy raised his hand and said, “It would look exactly like the one we have.” I was shocked. “What are you talking about? We’ve just spent this whole time criticizing it!” And he replied, “No, because ██ ████ ██ ██████. To survive ██ ██████, ███ have to cheat. So, what better education system than one that trains you to cheat in order to succeed?” 

