Recently Rick Santorum called President Obabma a snob for suggesting all Americans should attend college. To be accurate the President has never said this and reiterated this point after Santorum's attack, that what he wants is for all Americans to get an education that extends after high school. That could be a four year college or university, a two year program or a trade school of some kind. And the President is dead-on about this: the days of a high school education being all a person needs to have a successful career are long, long gone. I know Santorum loves the way things used to be (dude should get in a time machine and run for president in 1952) but facts are facts. And nobody is going to be able to get a decent job in the 21st century with only a high school education.
The other thing that bugs me about what Santorum had to say was the idea that wanting people to further their education is snobbish. I would think the opposite of that is true, that suggesting some people don't need to be educated because they're "only" going to be a blue collar worker. Why wouldn't an auto mechanic benefit from a bachelors degree in business? Why shouldn't people of all walks of life benefit from knowing about art, poetry, science and history? Isn't it really snobbery of the highest order to say (as Santorum does) that people like him should be educated but others really shouldn't be?
And in a nutshell this is why we have such a subpar educational system in the United States of America.
While I don't think you'll find many Americans, liberal or conservative, who will declare education irrelevant and unimportant there are hordes of people who see education simply as Mr. Santorum does: something you need in order to get the job you want. If you want to be a doctor you should get a higher education. If you want to be a construction worker you don't really need to be all that educated. After all, you don't NEED a college degree in order to work with your hands for a living. So why waste your time filling your head with information about sociology and psychology and literature when it's not the base requirements for your job?
In other words, Americans see education as not much more than a dodge or a hustle. This makes perfect sense since our true love is money. If you want a better paying job then you have to go to school. Enlightenment doesn't enter the picture at all. Being a more intelligent, thoughtful and well rounded person has no relevance whatsoever. An education = more money. Is it any wonder, then, that our education system is in the plight that it's in?
If knowledge for knowledge sake isn't really important or necessary at all, then why the hell should anybody care about school?
I taught high school English for ten years and the thing that frustrated me the most about it (besides the pay) was this same question being asked over and over and over again: "Are we going to need to know this for the test?"
See what we've done? We've programmed our kids to only care about knowledge insofar as it helps them pass a test. They don't see a lot of value in learning for the sake of knowing something or being edified by it. That's what the system has created: test takers. Not artists. Or free thinkers.
I remember having to attend a seminar several years ago in which the presenter talked about how we as teachers shouldn't teach a concept if we couldn't directly relate it to a real-life application for the kids. I said it then and I believe it just as strongly now: this is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard in my entire life. As an English teacher, how was I supposed to show how Shakespeare could be applicable to real-life? It can't! Does that make it a bad thing? For people's lives to be enriched by things that can't be applied to real life? If we strip our lives of the things that enrich us and give us meaning then we have moved right back into the cave again.
We started as cavemen and then discovered fire and then invented the wheel. Over time we have created many things (music, science, sports, art, fashion, etc) that add beauty to the world. Our lives are the better for it. The world is a better place because of it. Life is worth living as a result of it.
So I guess I'm a snob, too. I think everybody should be well educated. I think everybody should live lives that are not just about getting by or making ends meet but of real value and consequence. A full life enhanced by a good education. I know it's a crazy idea but I think a ditch digger should enjoy the opera as much as brain surgeon.
No comments:
Post a Comment