Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall (single edit version) - disco one-hit wonder of 1979

This kid starts schooling in the second part of “Another Brick in the Wall.” His pain does not end there. In school, he is forced to believe, think, and do to a set criteria. There is no crossing the lanes. There is no free thinking. Everyone becomes emotionless humonoids at the end of this ‘production line.’

The worst part of his schooling is the mental and physical abuse the children have to suffer. The teachers are portrayed in a very dark and cynical light in this song, where they are seen getting pleasure out of emotionally degrading and punishing the kids. In the movie ‘The Wall,’ we are shown a scene where the teacher catches this kid composing a poem. Instead of complimenting him, the teacher goes on to mock the kid and emotionally scar him. An even worse aspect of this is that Pink Floyd reveals us that this behaviour of teachers is something born in their homes. In the song “The Happiest Days of Our Lives,” a mockery on the schooling days consisting of a similar theme to “Another Brick in the Wall” part 2, Pink Floyd says that teachers behave in such a cynical manner at school because “when they got home at night, their fat and Psychopathic wives would thrash them…” at home.

The kid’s choir makes a powerful impression on the song, as they sing about the same system they are stuck in. In these lyrics, we hear Roger Waters and the kids screaming to abolish ‘education’ and ‘thought control’ system that creates tasteless human beings. What comes down as ‘education’ in schools are restricted to mathematics, science, history and a brainwash of religion. This is not education. This would be mental conditioning. No free thinkers, creators, innovators and visionaries will be born out of such an education system. These kids are protesting against this form of education only. 

Pink Floyd also brings in the nature of behavioral controls used in schools back in the ’70s. Lunch provided by the school cafeteria included a pudding but was restricted to the ones who have finished their lunch only. The teachers/headmasters would be seen using this as a form of behavioral conditioning, which takes a massive toll on a kid’s personality and psychological development.