Education -- the issue -- has become a political football in recent years. This is not because teachers have not been trying hard enough, essentially. It is because various persons of wealth, unbelievably, have sought to make education a profit center!
The other aspect, the fact that education in America has been troubled in recent years, is a fact. What America most assuredly does not need is a swift technocratic fix along the lines of what a corporation might do to "streamline" and make itself more efficient.
In the book dealt with in the linked article below, famous author Neil Postman helps us clarify what education is supposed to be about in the first place, particularly in a democracy. The purpose of education in a democracy, declares Postman, is not so much to serve the public as to create a public. This the founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson were keenly aware of. The so-called "Dark Ages" inasmuch as they were in fact dark, were so, in a large way because of lack of knowledge. This is the reason the Enlightenment thinkers were interested in education. This is the reason the founding fathers were interested in teaching people how to read.
In America today if people can get the right reading material they can learn how to think more clearly and to become solid, creative citizens. That is the theory. I challenge anyone to verify the theory.
A New Way to Look at Education
The other aspect, the fact that education in America has been troubled in recent years, is a fact. What America most assuredly does not need is a swift technocratic fix along the lines of what a corporation might do to "streamline" and make itself more efficient.
In the book dealt with in the linked article below, famous author Neil Postman helps us clarify what education is supposed to be about in the first place, particularly in a democracy. The purpose of education in a democracy, declares Postman, is not so much to serve the public as to create a public. This the founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson were keenly aware of. The so-called "Dark Ages" inasmuch as they were in fact dark, were so, in a large way because of lack of knowledge. This is the reason the Enlightenment thinkers were interested in education. This is the reason the founding fathers were interested in teaching people how to read.
In America today if people can get the right reading material they can learn how to think more clearly and to become solid, creative citizens. That is the theory. I challenge anyone to verify the theory.
A New Way to Look at Education
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