Unfortunately, “education,” like “racism,” is one of those words that has a different meaning every week. (Even people who would prefer that we eliminate K-12 STEM classes will claim to be advocates for education.)
I do wonder how the kind of education kids in China get relates to the organization of social life in China. I want kids in t…
Unfortunately, “education,” like “racism,” is one of those words that has a different meaning every week. (Even people who would prefer that we eliminate K-12 STEM classes will claim to be advocates for education.)
I do wonder how the kind of education kids in China get relates to the organization of social life in China. I want kids in the US to know how to read and write and solve for X, but I wouldn’t want the US to become China in order to compete with China. (Russia, meanwhile, is just a trainwreck—not an economic powerhouse in waiting.) And even though we need to give kids a better education than they’re getting today, we can’t become a nation of 382 million electrical engineers and neurosurgeons.
Also: a child who’s materially deprived can’t really compete with a child whose basic needs are being met. Educational outcomes are always going to be affected by economic policies, like our current policy of letting profitable corporations pay their full-time workers less than a living wage.
(I guess this is a sidenote—and I’m sure you’d agree with me—but: our society would be healthier and more democratic if we had full respect for the contributions of people who aren’t book-smart. Janitors and Wendy’s cashiers—and plumbers, and bricklayers, and administrative assistants—are all doing honest and important labor. They do more for us than Deloitte consultants and hedge-fund managers do! In exchange for their work, they should be guaranteed secure housing, access to health care, the chance to spend time with their families, leisure time, and the ability to retire when they become old. Wasn’t that guarantee part of “the American dream?” Everyone made fun of Trump when he said, clumsily—or shrewdly?—that he “loved the poorly educated.” But we SHOULD love, and respect, people who can’t or won’t get degrees and can’t or won't master calculus. I have a friend who barely made it out of high school. He’s a cool guy, works exactly as hard as he should, and deserves a stable, dignified life. He’s not a failure.)
You make many very good points. Janitor's and Wendy's cashiers - and plumbers and bricklayers and administrative assistants all do important work. We should have a society where all can achieve the quality of life and dignity you describe. That doesn't mean we need to diminish reading books, being smart, thinking critically and expressing ideas clearly. We should all do that, regardless our perceived station. As for Trump's respect for the poorly educated, he didn't show much respect in paying contractors and laborers when he filed Chapter 11 on his casinos. He remained wealthy: his contractors and workers received 10-15 cents on the dollar.
Just a point. In may places those plumbers, mechanics, electricians and others are out earning "college educated" clerks, white collar mid-level managers, and others. Supply and demand are at play here. Over the road truckers are now in demand and are paid pretty well and education is now too important. In an ideal world education would be its own reward and any career enhancement would be a good by product.
The problem isn't about "earning' it's about organizing society to serve society instead of bullshitting people into thinking their jobs are their identity.
We've been tricked into allowing the "economy" to organize society instead of society organizing society.
Notice how we have no control over the economy anymore ? Funny how private banks run the economy/society don't you think ?
Shuffling people from one shrinking industry into another just lowers wages anyway.
If you haven’t done so, I recommend reading “Bullshit Jobs.” It reinforced the gut feeling I had every day that my job is worthless, contributes nothing to society and can essentially be done by a monkey (no offense to monkeys). But that college degree financed by the govt sanctioned equivalent of the loan shark down the street makes me “highly marketable.” I don’t know whether to laugh because it’s such a freakin scam or cry because I bought the lie
I watched an interview with the author of that book. I never read the darn thing but the interview did a very good job of pointing out the futility of our current system of creating system managers who never dare to ask why the system still works the way it does or why we never change it.
Glad to hear you are able to laugh about the fact we've all been tricked by western cultural hang ups.
When you ask western capitalists why we need more worthless beads and trinkets they tend to run away from the question.
If we continue on the way the system works now we will soon be buried in Trump ties and Kim Kardashian purses or some other sort of plastic crap that cannot fill the spiritual/emotional void that materialism has been hiding.
Yet Amazon is still setting records selling crap to people that they don't need just because they want to come home to a christmas present every day despite the good feeling only lasting a few minutes.
Unfortunately, “education,” like “racism,” is one of those words that has a different meaning every week. (Even people who would prefer that we eliminate K-12 STEM classes will claim to be advocates for education.)
I do wonder how the kind of education kids in China get relates to the organization of social life in China. I want kids in the US to know how to read and write and solve for X, but I wouldn’t want the US to become China in order to compete with China. (Russia, meanwhile, is just a trainwreck—not an economic powerhouse in waiting.) And even though we need to give kids a better education than they’re getting today, we can’t become a nation of 382 million electrical engineers and neurosurgeons.
Also: a child who’s materially deprived can’t really compete with a child whose basic needs are being met. Educational outcomes are always going to be affected by economic policies, like our current policy of letting profitable corporations pay their full-time workers less than a living wage.
(I guess this is a sidenote—and I’m sure you’d agree with me—but: our society would be healthier and more democratic if we had full respect for the contributions of people who aren’t book-smart. Janitors and Wendy’s cashiers—and plumbers, and bricklayers, and administrative assistants—are all doing honest and important labor. They do more for us than Deloitte consultants and hedge-fund managers do! In exchange for their work, they should be guaranteed secure housing, access to health care, the chance to spend time with their families, leisure time, and the ability to retire when they become old. Wasn’t that guarantee part of “the American dream?” Everyone made fun of Trump when he said, clumsily—or shrewdly?—that he “loved the poorly educated.” But we SHOULD love, and respect, people who can’t or won’t get degrees and can’t or won't master calculus. I have a friend who barely made it out of high school. He’s a cool guy, works exactly as hard as he should, and deserves a stable, dignified life. He’s not a failure.)
You make many very good points. Janitor's and Wendy's cashiers - and plumbers and bricklayers and administrative assistants all do important work. We should have a society where all can achieve the quality of life and dignity you describe. That doesn't mean we need to diminish reading books, being smart, thinking critically and expressing ideas clearly. We should all do that, regardless our perceived station. As for Trump's respect for the poorly educated, he didn't show much respect in paying contractors and laborers when he filed Chapter 11 on his casinos. He remained wealthy: his contractors and workers received 10-15 cents on the dollar.
Just a point. In may places those plumbers, mechanics, electricians and others are out earning "college educated" clerks, white collar mid-level managers, and others. Supply and demand are at play here. Over the road truckers are now in demand and are paid pretty well and education is now too important. In an ideal world education would be its own reward and any career enhancement would be a good by product.
The problem isn't about "earning' it's about organizing society to serve society instead of bullshitting people into thinking their jobs are their identity.
We've been tricked into allowing the "economy" to organize society instead of society organizing society.
Notice how we have no control over the economy anymore ? Funny how private banks run the economy/society don't you think ?
Shuffling people from one shrinking industry into another just lowers wages anyway.
We need a new system, that's all there is to it.
If you haven’t done so, I recommend reading “Bullshit Jobs.” It reinforced the gut feeling I had every day that my job is worthless, contributes nothing to society and can essentially be done by a monkey (no offense to monkeys). But that college degree financed by the govt sanctioned equivalent of the loan shark down the street makes me “highly marketable.” I don’t know whether to laugh because it’s such a freakin scam or cry because I bought the lie
I watched an interview with the author of that book. I never read the darn thing but the interview did a very good job of pointing out the futility of our current system of creating system managers who never dare to ask why the system still works the way it does or why we never change it.
Glad to hear you are able to laugh about the fact we've all been tricked by western cultural hang ups.
When you ask western capitalists why we need more worthless beads and trinkets they tend to run away from the question.
If we continue on the way the system works now we will soon be buried in Trump ties and Kim Kardashian purses or some other sort of plastic crap that cannot fill the spiritual/emotional void that materialism has been hiding.
Yet Amazon is still setting records selling crap to people that they don't need just because they want to come home to a christmas present every day despite the good feeling only lasting a few minutes.