> Forwarding from PEN-L --joanna
>
> Learning to be stupid in the culture of cash
> --------------------------------------------
>
> by Luciana Bohne . 12 August 2003
>
> You might think that reading about a Podunk University's English
> teacher's attempt to connect the dots between the poverty of American
> education and the gullibility of the American public may be a little
> trivial, considering we've embarked on the first, openly-confessed
> imperial adventure of senescent capitalism in the US. Bear with me. The
> question my experiences in the classroom raise is why have these young
> people been educated to such abysmal depths of ignorance.
Thanks for forwarding this. It got me to thinking about how little our culture reinforces the education that children do get in school. At one time the FCC required TV to broadcast a certain amount of educational material every day over the public air waves. Now that requirement no longer exists.
Until the entire society is engaged in educating children, what they learn in school will literally go in one ear and out the other, because it has no relevance for the world kids in America live in today.
There are no more Chatauqua societies as there once were in towns across America to make learning part of the fabric of American life. News broadcasts have been reduced to fluff, while spelling bees, history bees, once social events for the entire town, have gone the way of the buggy whip. Towns with a preponderance of retired people vote down tax referendums that would fund their schools.
While it sounds cliche, it really does take a village to educate a child. The whole society has to be committed to learning, not just for the children, but for adults as well. The article is right; as long as corporate America can make more money selling pop culture, and our society demands nothing more of them, we will get nothing more. It's time we stood up and made them pay for some of the social costs of their actions, or at least used their tax money more wisely.
I think this fits in nicely with the article about bankruptcy and the middle class, as well, because it is part of the same theme. Schools have become a way of keeping property values high. People now have something to lose by pooling education money and funding schools equally. They complain that they worry that the level of education in their school will drop but what they really mean is their property values will fall. Schools in areas where parents are better educated and parental involvement is high have always done better than average despite not because of funding levels.
The result of spreading out the funding for schools would not just mean more educational opportunities for more kids, but also more affordable housing for more people.
I know at least one Presidential candidate favors pooling education funds. I hope some of the other ones are thinking of ways to fix this problem, too.
-joan