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this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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Education education education god dammit. The only thing that can save our planet and mankind from mankind is free and mandatory quality education all over the world. Teacher should be the best paid and praised job in the world. This is where investment should be made to hope for benefits in two generations... But we are doomed aren't we?
I mean I've got things to say:
Like don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have recieved a state education, it's a jolly good thing, but let's not oversell it.
For your education then, I benefitted from free and mandatory education. Free as my parents nor I did have to sell a kidney or get indebted: mandatory as it was illegal for my parents to pull me out of school before 16. (yes, illegal)
Now I wish the quality would have been a notch up, but the era was already full speed reducing the supposed "cost" of the education system and civil servants, not weighing in the societal benefits. 40 some years later and the trend hasn't reversed yet
Would your parents have pulled you out of school if it had not been illegal?
What punishment would you have desired to be put upon them if they had?
Why stop at sixteen? Plenty of adults are stupid, children at least tend to still have some their natural curiosity, unstrangled by the world. I suggest mandatory refresher courses, each adult spends every other tuesday evening at a local community centre, learning the latest in medicine, ecology, queer theory, historical research etc... If they fail to attend they get a fine of two days wages. That's hardly unreasonable? Afterall the current polycrisis is urgent! can we really afford to wait 40 years (first for the new education to be implimented) then for the children who go through it to reach positions of influence in society, the skills they've learned dulling against the grindstone of bloodless office jobs all the while?
Yeah, it's nice to have, but it didn't cure my stoopid did it?
Same as a glass of orange juice.
I was enjoying the irony of the two statements together :-)
IMHO quality education is the only cure for stupidity.
That is to say: I don't think anyone anywhere is inherently stupid. I my experience, the stupid people I've met are all just lacking critical thinking skills, those skills can be learned.
The problem is many people live where those skills are not taught, or other factors prevent them being taught.
I feel like a lot is being swept under the rug of "quality", there.
To make an analogy, I am reminded of when chirstians say a "true babtism" saves the soul, and then you look into their theology and it turns out they only believe 0.5% of babtisms to be genuine.
A quality education could be a panacea for all things, that still wouldn't be a good argument for paying for an extra three years schooling, unless you can actually guarentee those years will be a "quality education".
There's a serious case of deminishing returns to education. I know plenty of people who've gone through a good high school and 4+ years of university only to come out of it with not a shred of curiosity or critical thinking skills. I couldn't tell you why, sure it's quite possible their teachers just weren't passionate enough, or their class rooms small enough. It's also possible they just don't value 'not being stupid' enough to even try.
I should have been more specific! I was referring to early or basic schooling education: years 1 to 13 in my country. These are the formative years and are the most important for everybody universally. The quality of this education is paramount.
Higher-education wasn't even on my mind! I'd call that quantity of education for the purposes of this discussion.
This is what I meant by "quality", though I'd add the expertise of their teachers. Anecdotally, I often suspect that kids find maths hard because their teacher doesn't understand the maths they're teaching.
Some people I know wear their ignorance as a badge, I just don't get it. I assume there was some fundamental lesson not learned very early on, but can't even guess what that lesson was.
"the big rock will be fine".
I maintain my car monthly so it is able to provide me with mobility. I could not do that, "the big old piece of metal will be fine", it has no feelings and doesn't understand what commuting is, but then it isn't of any use to me now is it.
When we say save the planet, we mean save/sustain the environment we need to live. Nobody actually thinks the rock cares.
Imagine how far off the point you are with your other arguments.