[lbo-talk] School Debate: Central Focus

[James Heartfield]

Dennis Claxton writes: ‘Just as a machine is seen as an alien thing by the worker, and the normal and necessary activity of labor is converted into a horror, so too is much of schooling. Everything that might be good is turned into an evil. But surely machines and labor and reading and writing are not inherently evil. Surely a good argument can be made that all are fundamental.’

Which is a good analogy, and well put, I think.

If there is a criticism of education to be made is that it could be better, less dull, and more remarkable. That it is not is mostly that the distribution of education mirrors the distribution of power. What the mass of people get is just what is needed for their ‘station in life’. They deserve much better.