in Education, Government, Politics, Public Policy 258 Words

How Important Is Education?

To me the answer is…..an absolute necessity.

When I left the service of my country I asked for one thing and one thing only…..an education….and I was fortune enough to get my request.  So education in my book should be free and public from K-12….it should NOT be a money making industry….period.

Pres. trump has made his selection for Sec of Education…..and what do we know about her…yes he chose a woman…..

Education will be set back a 100 years…..once again it will be the wealthy and privileged that get the good education…..

But her best statement….was this……

Now that we know President-elect Donald Trump has tapped right-wing megadonor Betsy DeVos as his pick to lead the Department of Education, now is a good time to examine some of the many shady organizations she’s funded.

One such organization is the Acton Institute, a think tank on whose board DeVos has served, and whose self-described goal is “to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.”

And one way to promote a virtuous society, it seems, is to bring back child labor.

Source: Think Tank Funded by Trump’s Education Secretary Pick Advocated Bringing Back Child Labor | Alternet

I do not see the GOP in Congress growing a set of nuts and challenging Trump on much at all….

I was giving Trump some time to make his picks…..but so far I have little confidence that this will be an admin for ALL Americans.

35 thoughts on “How Important Is Education?”

      1. I believe Idiocracy is most often referred to now as “the movie that started as a comedy, but is rapidly becoming a documentary.” Seriously, if you haven’t seen it, the first 10 minutes at least are certainly worth it…then of course enjoy the rest. Wowza.

  3. Your post brings up some basic points. About Trump, and the choices he’s making. A leopard doesn’t change his spots. Trump is the product of elitist predatory capitalism and has demonstrated that nature throughout his business career. He can ONLY make choices that enhance his “nature.” He can ONLY surround himself with people who think like him. If Ayn Rand was alive and kicking, she’d be in his cabinet. On aspects of a nation that should never be “for profit”: that would be all things that make life possible and good. Education is one, but health care is another. So is housing, water, air, heating fuel, lighting, transportation, open air park space and of course a standard wage suitable to guarantee a good life… see where that goes? The only things that should be “for profit” are those that are totally unnecessary; frills, entertainment. In plain words, even plain capitalism (as opposed to the current form of predatory capitalism) cannot be a part of government. The two are diametrically opposite in philosophy. This is what people don’t understand, that capitalism in government is the wolf in sheep’s skin. Capitalism is profit and competition driven, so it must always “make” more money with every “investment.” Since resources and labour are finite, capitalism in government can only work with increasing taxation and decreasing public services reslting in rising oppression, never the other way.

    Reply

      1. Ok, not to belabour the point but, why education, particularly? Anyone who wants to become “educated” past the basic grades, say grade 9, having a good grounding by then in basics, can further their education if they want to without attending any “accredited” institutions. The means are all around us and that’s where self-empowerment comes in. But further to this, why education in particular? If people are hungry no amount of “free” public education is going to work. Before education you need guaranteed health care and guaranteed income to not go without food, and a roof over your head. The “hegemon” is increasingly denying these basic commodities to people as it guts the nation to support its empire. One more point: since education became accessible to more and more people you’ve seen elitism go through the roof. Educated people become the entitled at the expense of the rest. So now you have to have more socialism putting a cap on what educated professionals can earn so they don’t gouge a working and impoverished society as doctors, lawyers and assorted bureaucrats (for example) are currently doing. Full education can only work in a properly ordained society… and that means socialism. Now I am not in the least opposed to socialism, I think it’s the best system man can have at the moment, but it is not a popular concept in a predatory capitalistic environment.

      2. I agree….but public education teaches more than just the subjects….we have too much separation among the people now….

      3. OK Chuq, I know this is important to you, much more than to me, I never had to rely on system “education” to get by and some, just smarts. By skips and jumps and correspondence courses, I did graduate from grade 12, but mainly my system education ended at grade 8. By then the farm, community involvement and work, with long hours reading the classics by coal oil lamp had provided the real education. I’m not special. Most students these days pack a higher IQ than I did then. Government education is force feeding of facts, most of which the brain promptly forgets. It’s not real because it’s not experienced. Education isn’t about IQ or memorization. It’s social and people skills. You don’t learn that in college, you learn that interacting with others, rubbing shoulders, helping, supporting and observing in order to learn new moves. I’ve worked with autistic people who were much more “educated” than the stiff suits that ran the corporation I worked for, for 42.5 years! The suits had degrees, the autistic people had kindness, humility, gentleness and naive trust. I learned much more from these people than from the “educated” suits. And that’s why I don’t really give a rat’s ass about public education after the basic years. Put your children to “work” – not for pay since that’s now a dead issue, but to help your neigbourhoods flourish in peace and prosperity. Teach your children to be human beings, which means compassionate people, not competitively driven robots of the corporate state. That’s my point. I know it won’t fly, not because it can’t work but because it would demonstrate that corporate education is a huge young developing mind prison, nothing else. The status quo can’t allow anyone to see that “higher education” is a Wizard of Oz facade, where they manufacture the few elitist characters destined to run the world. The rest are there for fodder, to pay for the maintenance of the institution; neither mortar nor cornerstone.

      4. I agree that one should continue to learn…the problem these days is students are not taught learn but rather to take tests…there is a difference…

  4. It has always been the richer kids who get the better educations because — for one thing — they receive better teaching at home about the necessity of focusing on their studies and paying attention in school while those from the wrong side of the tracks are usually focused on talking, smoking, girls, playing pool or basketball, being bad asses and getting the Hell out of school as soon as possible. Been there, done that! Education is very important — there is no argument there– but it seems more important to those who have the most to gain by getting it or the most to lose by ignoring it and less important to the lower classes who would rather prove who is tougher in a fight or who can run their automobiles faster than the other guy.

    Public education can do a wonderful job but before it does we have to get it out from under the federal government and into the hands of local states and school boards and we have to get out of the mode that requires passing endless tests as some measure of academic success and we have to start running the schools more like places of learning and less like student penitentiaries – — and we have to force the loca school boards to be transparent about how they spend the money they receive to educate the kids with. All Public Schools should be req

    Reply

    1. The thing published before I got done typing so here is the rest of it: “Public schools should be reuired by law to issue annual financial statements just the same as any business in order to help people see where the money they get goes. Nobody wastes more money than schools because they know the parents will always pass whatever levies they ask for “For the sake of our children.”

      Reply

    2. I would agree except I do not like the idea of all these different boards all with different standards…..there should be standardized education…in my day teachers taught today they give tests to boost their positions….and we can tell just how ignorant the population is becoming…more so with each passing year.

      Reply

      1. The way I see things, “Standards” for Education implies government control. Government control means teaching in the classrooms that is approved for student consumption by some bureaucrat. This implies censorship and the open potantial for brainwashing the students to toe the government line. If there were parent groups to watchdog all of it then I could agree with you on this one. The watchdogs would solve the whole problem for me. (Oversight from the ground level.).

      8. I sure there is an answer but I do not have one right now…..our schools are so bad that I think home schooling is a good idea….never said that before…that is how bad they are

    2. Yes, “learning” comes from experiencing, not from reading about it. Tests were the closest approximation to experience, a way to determine if any “learning” was actually taking place. But the problem exacerbates if tests are removed and actual work experience isn’t substituted. The memory or rote “learning” then becomes even more meaningless. Now, if “learning” became a sought after profession in which some sort of living could be derived, you would have something. Those who entered the learning profession would be there because they desire to be there, not because they want to use it as a means to an end. The problem isn’t with students necessarily, that they don’t want to learn – they must want to, they pay a high enough price for it – but with a self-serving education monolithic empire that uses students numbers and fees to feather its own nest. Is what they offer as “learning” relevant to a rapidly changing work environment in which “jobs” are becoming an obsolete concept due to automation, outsourcing and a crumbling economy which cannot afford the services of high end professionals (see the situation in India today)? Yes for some, for those with money and connections. For the rest, bankruptcy is what they are looking at while trying to find jobs in the service industry at minimum wage. Sorry, I never got used to wearing rose-coloured glasses, I think they look silly.

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.