The original idea behind school isn't to educate the masses. Why would a factory worker need to know calculus and Shakespeare? He needs to read the clock and timetables, be on time, wake up in the morning early enough to be punctual, ...

Likewise higher education isn't about the thinks you learn. It is about learning methods to learn. If you can learn the nitrogen cycle, you can learn our scrum statuses. If you can hand in your homework in time, you can keep our deadlines.

This isn't to say the system is good, but it helps to understand it when you want to criticize it.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 4 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Ah, Elementary through Highschool teaches you to be an employee.

Higher education is being sold dreams and taking on debt to learn to be a better employee. Sounds about right.

I teach myself new complex skills all the time, but I imagine I'm still written off a ton because I didn't pay for at least the four year license to learn to learn. Lol

(I want to emphasize I'm being playfully sarcastic about our clown world society and not attacking you, you are very correct about needing to understand before one critiques!)

[–] pumpkinseedoil@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well that's about the system in the USA or some third world countries. Locking higher education behind a paywall only helps to keep the population uneducated, combine that with no focus on critical thinking in school and you get a population that's easy to control and to polarise.

Of course politicians like Trump (or pseudo-democracies or straight up autocratic regimes in third world countries) really benefit from an easily-convinced population that's not questioning them too much, so, given how strong the republicans currently are, that sadly probably won't change anytime soon.

At some point they'll realise that they need free or at least very affordable education to stay internationally competitive...

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 3 points 4 months ago

Agreed with every word.

On a national level we're reaping the tainted harvest wrought by years of cultivating an uneducated populace.

They make for great desperate-workers, emotionally swayed voters, readily-motivated armed forces, and well-trained consumers, but making higher education an increasingly lofty privilege while also undermining it at every turn for politics is totally coming back to bite us.

Instead of being seen as the wealth of our nation, people are seen as another commodity product for corporations to buy and sell. (Readily evident at the defunding and disrespect towards arts and social sciences.)

Now when there's a "shortage" of educated workers, they just import them from wherever's cheapest.

...And tons of our college funding still goes to the football teams. To entertain and profit off the uneducated masses.

Well that's about the system in the USA or some third world countries.

And boy, are we feeling it. Infrastructure crumbling. Crime, unemployment, homelessness on the rise. Everybody is stupid. But check out our new super-carrier! /s

Man I wish I had some positive note to end this with but I'm just frustrated, and a lot of me wishes to just escape. Lol.

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