On Nov 21, 2009, at 9:23 PM, Miles Jackson wrote:
>
> More people getting more formal education does not solve the problem; if
>> Obama had his fondest wish granted and all U. S. adults earned a college
>> degree, we'd just have lots of low-paid janitors, security guards, and
>> restaurant workers with college degrees.
>>
>
> And maybe a lot more pissed-off people? Isn't that part of what brought
> down the Soviet Union and its EE clones?
>
Nixon education advisor Roger Freeman famously warned in 1970, "We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. That's dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow to go through higher education. If not, we will have a large number of highly trained and unemployed people."
All that aside, surely we can agree that scientific and cultural literacy is a desirable goal for all people, and that mastery of a field can bring great enjoyment and satisfaction regardless of its vocational utility.
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."