People say this all the time like it’s some edgy gotcha.
And while Public education in the United States did really come to full fruition during the industrial revolution, and does do a lot to prepare a person for the workforce, noting not all school are the same…
…I am fully greatful my little rural New England School did a good job teaching me critical thinking. I really loved learning as I grew up and had many fantastic teachers.
To note, over the last 25 years, education funding, for whatever reason, is funded…but poorly. My son is in middle school, I’ve noticed he doesn’t have music class. They have a band and chorus as extracurriculars, but no music theory/history class like I did. I was the last class group to take home economics, and there is no computer class either. Every kid has a Chromebook, but no one is watching a Sweeny Todd on stage, or picking a composer to write a report on. No kid is sewing a teddy bear or making pizza cookies, and they don’t have general computer instruction. My son is in special education, so it’s hard to gauge one to one, but I definitely feel like his quality of education is less than when I was in middle school 25 years ago, especially when we look at “specials”, for what its worth. And this disappoints me.
But education as I see, is not “just to get you ready for the workforce” though that is part of it. A lot of teachers really care, and try to help kids find joy in learning, even still today. Well rounded schooling is important for children to become individuals with the power of critical thought beyond the scope of preparing them to work in a factory.
School where I went, and were my son goes, definitely fit “you get out what you put in”.
Not as long as the industrial complex is the most important thing to our society. You treat special cases but on average it’s a workforce. You know the Ontario government has an investment plan for higher education because society financially benefits from more intelligent people?
I dont see how the industrial complex is the most important thing to our society, here in the states.
I do see a cultural tendency to associate wealth with success. A notion that confuses me and I dont subscribe to, however is very prevalent here.
In the early 2000 the focus was college prep. College was marketed as the average persons line to success (wealth).
Today I think a lot of teachers are just trying to get through the day. The United States education, in my area, seemed to have peaked when I was in school. When the Bush administration passed the “no child left behind” act… I’ve since watched education go in the shitter. It should have been called “pass every student no matter what”. Also around 2010 they switched from teaching 5/6 year olds phonics and instead tried “sight words” for a time. A massive failure. I believe they have gone back to phonics now, I hope.
In the states, schools sign contracts with tech companies to supply chrombooks to each student, but like I mentioned, dont teach music composition anymore. Students of today, it’s been noted to me by professionals I work with, absolutely have less tolerance for difficult things than the students 20 years ago. But in my discussions, it’s not evident why. Even children with low/no/modersted screen time stuggle with task tolerance. So I don’t know.
I do know my state (2nd or 3rd state in the country for quality of k-12 education) now has public community college education available for free, or nearly nothing. Ive seen the flyers and buildings, I don’t know much about it, but I’m proud my state is offering alternatives to the large expensive universities. They are trying very hard to invest in the the everyday person here.
Just lay off “school is just a place you are trained to be a worker” alluding it is not important or meaningful outside of training machine cogs. It’s a juvenile thought made with little consideration to other invaluable educational experiences within childhood education. The purpose of school is to have an intelligent, healthy society capable of critical thought so that we may uphold democracy and society as a whole. Have we swayed from this in the last 10,15, 20 years? A good question. But I’ve heard the school/worker machines comment for longer than that.
People say this all the time like it’s some edgy gotcha.
And while Public education in the United States did really come to full fruition during the industrial revolution, and does do a lot to prepare a person for the workforce, noting not all school are the same…
…I am fully greatful my little rural New England School did a good job teaching me critical thinking. I really loved learning as I grew up and had many fantastic teachers.
To note, over the last 25 years, education funding, for whatever reason, is funded…but poorly. My son is in middle school, I’ve noticed he doesn’t have music class. They have a band and chorus as extracurriculars, but no music theory/history class like I did. I was the last class group to take home economics, and there is no computer class either. Every kid has a Chromebook, but no one is watching a Sweeny Todd on stage, or picking a composer to write a report on. No kid is sewing a teddy bear or making pizza cookies, and they don’t have general computer instruction. My son is in special education, so it’s hard to gauge one to one, but I definitely feel like his quality of education is less than when I was in middle school 25 years ago, especially when we look at “specials”, for what its worth. And this disappoints me.
But education as I see, is not “just to get you ready for the workforce” though that is part of it. A lot of teachers really care, and try to help kids find joy in learning, even still today. Well rounded schooling is important for children to become individuals with the power of critical thought beyond the scope of preparing them to work in a factory.
School where I went, and were my son goes, definitely fit “you get out what you put in”.
Not as long as the industrial complex is the most important thing to our society. You treat special cases but on average it’s a workforce. You know the Ontario government has an investment plan for higher education because society financially benefits from more intelligent people?
Well, it’s not. We outsourced the bulk of our heavy industry to East Asia 30 years ago.
Now the most important thing to our society is sales and marketing.
I dont see how the industrial complex is the most important thing to our society, here in the states.
I do see a cultural tendency to associate wealth with success. A notion that confuses me and I dont subscribe to, however is very prevalent here.
In the early 2000 the focus was college prep. College was marketed as the average persons line to success (wealth).
Today I think a lot of teachers are just trying to get through the day. The United States education, in my area, seemed to have peaked when I was in school. When the Bush administration passed the “no child left behind” act… I’ve since watched education go in the shitter. It should have been called “pass every student no matter what”. Also around 2010 they switched from teaching 5/6 year olds phonics and instead tried “sight words” for a time. A massive failure. I believe they have gone back to phonics now, I hope.
In the states, schools sign contracts with tech companies to supply chrombooks to each student, but like I mentioned, dont teach music composition anymore. Students of today, it’s been noted to me by professionals I work with, absolutely have less tolerance for difficult things than the students 20 years ago. But in my discussions, it’s not evident why. Even children with low/no/modersted screen time stuggle with task tolerance. So I don’t know.
I do know my state (2nd or 3rd state in the country for quality of k-12 education) now has public community college education available for free, or nearly nothing. Ive seen the flyers and buildings, I don’t know much about it, but I’m proud my state is offering alternatives to the large expensive universities. They are trying very hard to invest in the the everyday person here.
Just lay off “school is just a place you are trained to be a worker” alluding it is not important or meaningful outside of training machine cogs. It’s a juvenile thought made with little consideration to other invaluable educational experiences within childhood education. The purpose of school is to have an intelligent, healthy society capable of critical thought so that we may uphold democracy and society as a whole. Have we swayed from this in the last 10,15, 20 years? A good question. But I’ve heard the school/worker machines comment for longer than that.