Some points that came across were:
School is Expensive
the System is outdated
The System is based on the model of industrialization.
So this leads me to the question of value.
At this point we respect education because it is supposed to get us a job.
Then you go to college and realize that almost everything you major in won't really get you a job, so you learn the idea of the value of education for the sake of education. You don't need to go to college and major in art, you can be an artist without the education, but there is value to you personally to learn from people surrounded by your peers.
Really, there are very few jobs out there for someone who majors in Piano, American Studies, Chicano Studies (ahem, theatre), religious studies. women's studies, queer studies, dance, ...perhaps I should break it down by college.
In the university setting there is value to education for education's sake. Is this because more than anything Universities are still a business? Have they falsely created the value in order to have more buyers for their product? Or is there really some value and we just don't see it in the rest of the world.
If there is value in just education, then why does it not translate down to the high school level? If that were the case, then I would not be the only one forced to put lessons of other subjects in my coursework, there would be teachers from Math, English, and Science having to slyly introduce lessons in theatre and pottery in their classes. They don't, because Math, English, and Science are the classes that will push you forward, they are the classes that will get you into a good college, get you a good job, and buy you a house.... or something...I think that's the end goal. I am a bit foggy on the American Dream. The goal is a house, right?
The goal is social normativity.
ReplyDeletedumb social normativity
ReplyDeleteThe value of education. The only thing my education did for me is get me a job out of school. That’s right. This is no epiphany. The workforce is littered with people who did well in school and were able to survive in the industrial environment that school is. Perhaps that’s why most of them do so well in the corporate industrialized world. Like robots, going through their mundane daily tasks: waking daily at same time, driving same route, coffee, learning to manage their manager, checking out to go home and doing it all over again. I commented on another post on how our greatest inventors/thinkers were undoubtedly the most imaginative living outside of a structured or standardized classroom. Great minds like Sir Isaac Newton sitting under a tree and his theories of gravity; Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity; Edison’s multiple failures of the lightbulb; Franklin’s kite flying and electricity studies; etc.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the laugh. What you said about specific degrees, I can totally relate to it. I have my BA and MA in History, I pursued those degrees because that's what interested me when I went to school. I did think about what I wanted to do, didn't take much time to actually to research if I would be able to find a job in the field I wanted to go into.
ReplyDeleteUniversities are in the business of education, but I think they need to take a step back and look at how they can what they are promoting to the high school level. I think we all buy into what the universities are selling at some point or we wouldn't have our degrees. But some point schools need to sell creativity and what it can do for you and where it can take you. You are right there is a gap between what high school and universities promote, but I'm not sure on how to close that gap.
It is a difficult time and perhaps a changing one. I was watching the news a couple weeks ago and on it the news anchor was saying that the norm for past generations was that if you received a college degree you would almost be guaranteed to make more money than someone who just went thru high school…unfortunately they said that is not the norm nowadays. Its sad that there is so much knowledge to be shared and college it seems is starting to be less attractive then in previous generations. I personally think that college is important; I think that you learn and grow as a person and when you are finished you are ready to join and participate in the world. How do we get the schools organized? Where every degree counts? And encourages a job afterwards? I’m not sure
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