Selling Education, Manufacturing Technocrats, Torturing Souls

[marmar]

from TomDispatch:



Selling Education, Manufacturing Technocrats, Torturing Souls
The Tyranny of Being Practical

By William Astore


Hardly a week goes by without dire headlines about the failure of the American education system. Our students don't perform well in math and science. The high-school dropout rate is too high. Minority students are falling behind. Teachers are depicted as either overpaid drones protected by tenure or underpaid saints at the mercy of deskbound administrators and pushy parents.

Unfortunately, all such headlines collectively fail to address a fundamental question: What is education for? At so many of today's so-called institutions of higher learning, students are offered a straightforward answer: For a better job, higher salary, more marketable skills, and more impressive credentials. All the more so in today's collapsing job market.

Based on a decidedly non-bohemian life -- 20 years' service in the military and 10 years teaching at the college level -- I'm convinced that American education, even in the worst of times, even recognizing the desperate need of most college students to land jobs, is far too utilitarian, vocational, and narrow. It's simply not enough to prepare students for a job: We need to prepare them for life, while challenging them to think beyond the confines of their often parochial and provincial upbringings. (As a child of the working class from a provincial background, I speak from experience.)

And here's one compelling lesson all of us, students and teachers alike, need to relearn constantly: If you view education in purely instrumental terms as a way to a higher-paying job -- if it's merely a mechanism for mass customization within a marketplace of ephemeral consumer goods -- you've effectively given a free pass to the prevailing machinery of power and those who run it.

Three Myths of Higher Ed

Three myths serve to restrict our education to the narrowly utilitarian and practical. The first, particularly pervasive among conservative-minded critics, is that our system of higher education is way too liberal, as well as thoroughly dominated by anti-free-market radicals and refugee Marxists from the 1960s who, like so many Ward Churchills, are indoctrinating our youth in how to hate America. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175076/william_astore_educating_ourselves_to_oblivion (scroll down a bit after clicking the link)

[AnnieBW]

1. We've stopped teaching Liberal Arts

As a proud liberal and Liberal Arts school graduate, I can honestly say that the focus on business, science, and engineering without the "liberal arts" of English, history, philosophy, etc. is detrimental to college graduates. I know so many brilliant engineers that can't write to save their lives. That's why we have the field of "technical writing", so that you have someone translate geek-speak into English. We're losing our critical thinking, and second-order thinking abilities because we're so focused on the problem in front of us. I especially see it in interactions with the average Repub wingnut, but I see it on DU as well. It's the difference between strategy and tactics. Tactics are short term plans designed to win a battle. Strategy is long-term planning designed to win a war, or avoid one.

My remedy would be to require a critical thinking class for every high school senior. Of course, that's not covered under No Child Left Behind, so it won't fly.

[tomreedtoon]

2. "What do you do with a B.A. in English?"

What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge
have earned me this useless degree...

(from "Avenue Q")

You know, it's a real pity that knowing how to speak and write your own language, and knowing the history of literature, and other really self-involved and self-referential things like that, isn't prized by business or society at large.

But that's what I see here. Lots of articulate, bright people who write fascinating articles about how bad the world is, who can't make a living in the real world. Oh, and who can't communicate with the people they need to communicate with, the people who voted Republican, the people who are more occupied with buying food and shelter for their families than in navel-staring self-contemplation.

This, by the way, was written by someone with a B.A. in Communications, whose real education in the subject came long after college, when I worked my first job at a genuine television station. Theory and deliberations of college professors evaporate so quickly when they encounter reality.

[AnnieBW]

3. My BA was in Communications

That was 20+ years ago. I just got my MS in Information Technology Systems Management (sort of a cross between an MBA and an IT degree). I'd rather have done it in History or Comparative Religions, but my employer won't pay for it that way. Sigh. At least the university that I just got my degree from (Johns Hopkins) stresses ethics and making people think.

[Mopar151]

4. Fine, as far as it goes

But what about the history of technology? A lot of the reason freshly schooled engineers are lost in the workplace is that they might know a little of How, but they can't fathom WHY. Like why traceable measurement standards are important, and where they came from. And the people involved? You could get a semester just out of the historic context and implications of "The Great Radio Controversy" aka Tesla vs. Marconi.
How about the history of organized labor, or the economic and social implications of changing from an agrarian to an industrial society, or the economic rape known as the transcontential railroad.
I'm sorry if this offends any academics, but teaching Chaucer to a kid who does'nt know who Smedley Butler was is a complete waste.

[bighughdiehl]

5. George Carlin said it best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI&feature=related

[AdHocSolver]

6. Education is designed to turn out corporate minions who will "do whatever it takes" to make profit.

Corporations need scores of "witless wonders" who will unquestioningly follow orders so that the executives can get away with stealing millions from their customers and the company.

Art, music, and literature may be good for the soul, but they don't help the employee produce profit so lets not "waste" money on them.

Since the offshoring of jobs has reduced the availability of employment for large numbers of students, let's further reduce funding for public education. NCLB will provide cover for that effort.

We can further preclude the rabble from higher education by making it so expensive that only students from the "best" families can afford to attend.

A word about computerization mentioned in the linked article. It isn't used to save money or improve efficiency or increase accuracy. It is used in the corporate world to enforce uniformity and corporate policy. A side benefit is it can be used to monitor employees very tightly.

Every keystroke can be monitored, every contact between every employee and the rest of the world, including personal information, is available to the corporation, and many other employees in the company.

Computer usage precludes any privacy. It enables the world to know everything you do at any time almost instantaneously forever and ever.

There are two main functions for computer systems. One is to "deskill" jobs so that little expertise or independent decision making is needed or possible. A second function is spying on and control of the population. Any activity done in which a computer is involved can be recorded and examined and linked to other databases to create a profile of any individual.

If you think you have privacy, just think Eliot Spitzer.