: Yes, there certainly is a problem with schools in America. Lark is painting with a pretty broad brush when he says they produce nothing but dumb people however. You can still get a good education, even at a bad school, provided you have drive and self reliance.In which case the schooling system is still totally useless and it is the individual who has to achieve, there is of course a class and social dimension to that middle class peer groups and associates will attach no stigma to learning or achieveing while working class groups are more libel to be victims of an anti-intellectual 'it's great to be dumb but loyal' culture.
: If Hank is going to blame the troubles on 'Big Corporations'
I dont feel it's the 'Big Corporations', that is a liberal bogey man, liberal because it doesnt acknowledge that it's not a few bad individuals in the system but the system itself that is at fault.
The logic of demand and supply dictates to educators who want to remain 'solvent' that they will have to dilute difficult qualifications and in the process cheapen education altogether.
:then I'm going to blame the lefties
What you refer to as 'lefties' arent lefties because lefties have, well alright depending on who you speak to, a greater degree of realism. In my country the left has been instrumental in pushing through education reform that makes vocational qualifications a priority, education for life, that is, how to influence the law, civics, politics and basic skills like, dont do all your shopping on a Saturday (that still hasnt gotten through to people), it's good to save (that hasnt gotten through either) and how to write a check or postal order etc.
The 'Left' has also been instrumental, against right wing resistance (they see it as a threat to their privileges) in pushing through continuos assessment and reducing the gravity of failure in intense examinations, this before anyone slabbers about meritocracies, is not only fairer to the working people but far closer to the way things are done in the workplace.
:who put kids in diversity training and hug therapy classes instead of math and science. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for diversity. Hugs are great. But let's be serious for a minute people. The public schools in America had better start to act their age. Seriously, if someone has a hang nail they cancel class and call in the grief counselors. If I had to do it over again I would have gone into grief counseling. Talk about a growth industry, good grief. The students today are slowly learning that how they feel is far more important than what they know.
I dont know if it's got that bad but I definitely agree that people are learning to be conniving, manipulative, selfish liers, of course it is not just the result of the educations system, public/state or private/capitalist elitism.
: To fix the problem they created the schools adopt bare minimum, poorly crafted standards like Goals 2000, School To Work, and the Profile of Learning. Trust me, this is serious Mickey Mouse shit.
Now this I hate, there has never been, in any country let alone America, a no nonsense government that was prepared to tackle socially constructed problems, prepared to say this needs fixing now you can mess around and have governments taxing you by stealth for years and years and years, money pissed away on bureacracy etc. and half assed measures or you can accept a period of 'take no prisoners' tax and reform to solve the problems once and for all.
:The students get coached through it and passed on to graduation all the while being told that they need to go on to college. In lump sum, they move on to the nearest university to have their tuition coddled away from them. It's pretty disgusting because a lot of these kids believe they are being educated, only to have the rug yanked out from under them when they attempt to join a work force they are totally unprepared for.
That is damn right, the logic of demand and supply has created an education system that bares absolutely no resemblance to the real world.
: Myself?...after 12 years at public schools I put myself through four years of private college and started my dream job a month after graduating. Does that make me smart in the eyes of some European wonk? I could give a flying fuck. At the end of the day...I know I'm smart.
Patriotism where is thy sting? Not for me.
: (To lark's credit, some of the best work being done in my field is coming out of the Royal Academy of Art in London. To my credit, my yankee work is still better than theirs.)
You think. Art's a bunch of shit too (you can probably tell I suport the art schools of social realism and socialist realism).
