(via Daily Kos)
That's my question, too: when is enough going to be enough for us Americans?
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An interesting YouTube I stumbled upon a couple of years ago called "Rethinking Education." Thoughts on education from a street hustler, a British academic doing a TED Talk, and, of course, George Carlin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sm0rL8HrRM
George Carlin kills me. "Nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care." But he says that in a sold-out concert hall packed with cheering fans.
In a way, it's like conspiracy enthusiasts, don't you think? People simply like to think they're one of the brave few fighting back against the overweening powers that run the world.
Of course, most of what he says is true, I suppose, but I wonder if he's got the focus backwards? I suspect that the 1% are terrified of the rest of us.
When it comes to education, I'm just not sure. For one thing, a college degree is where a high school degree used to be. It's nothing special, but without it, you've probably got no prospects at all. And prospects are important. Not everyone can be a street hustler.
I don't mind education aimed at producing a productive adult, not really. (At that age, it's not going to work on everyone, anyway. It didn't with me, certainly. I never gave one thought to what I was going to do with my degree.)
But these days, we already produce more than we need. Indeed, we have to work hard to convince the gullible to buy even more crap, just because we produce so damned much of the stuff!
The worst part of it is that productivity has shot through the roof, but we're still working 40 hours a week. Well, that's because the 1% have taken all of the gains from that increased productivity. But I'm really getting off the subject now, aren't I? :)
I'm not even sure that higher education should be free. Do we really want college to be like high school? As far as I'm concerned, high school was the biggest waste of time in my entire life. I'd like college students to have some motivation.
Oh, I think it should be a lot more affordable than it is now! I think everyone should be able to go to college, if they really want to.
I think that student loans should be more about helping students than about helping bankers make even more money. And I think that 'for-profit' colleges should be run out of business. (And the best way to do that would be to make college cheap.)
But I want college students to have some motivation for being there - other than the beer parties and abundance of nubile bodies. Some really want to learn stuff. That's ideal, of course. But I don't think it's a particularly high percentage of students.
I guess I'd like to see all this increased productivity giving people more time to do what they want to do. And I'd like to see education producing people who can (1) enjoy that extra free time, (2) understand reality, (3) vote reliably, intelligently, and responsibly, and (4) do something productive (ideally, for many of them, in finding ways to help people accomplish the first three of these).
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