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Recently
in the media there has been a multitude of attention focused on
the declining standards of education in the public spectrum.
These reports openly condemn educational practices and offer as
a buffer the promise of revisionary tactics with the purpose of
taking existing standards and enhancing them. But this revisionist's
dream is the equivalent of fixing a blown tire. Sooner or later,
after plugging it many times over, you'll have to purchase a new
one.
Furthermore,
the culprits in this mess have been the educators themselves, a
point that pseudo-political commentators such as G. Gordon Liddy
have championed with sublime ignorance. Ideological considerations
in the educational arena have been entirely ignored, as America
wages a frontal assault on the pawns of the system: teachers and
educators. The problem exists in that America has largely promoted
what we will call academic education; i.e., the social sciences
in the elementary, secondary, and college level educational systems.
This promotion has been calculated on two fronts: both from the
social reformers who assert that education has a civilizing tendency
which, much to their chagrin, translates into intellectual oppression
with its strict adherence to systems of methodologies. (Dewey, considered
the champion of education systems would have turned over in his
grave.) The other front deals specifically with the idea of social
promotion. Granted by the capitalist bourgeoisie camp, this front
creates the illusion that education enables a better standard of
living, for it pays out on its returns and catapults individuals
into higher tax brackets, a direct correlation with a person's worth
in society.
Even when such
an economic blossom cannot be achieved in the strictest sense, individuals
are meagerly compensated with honorary titles, e.g., administrative
assistant as opposed to secretary. Unfortunately, these problems
are much more complex. Simply stated, formalized education offers
neither of the two options which the educational gurus have tenaciously
defended. In the first instance, the civilizing tendency of education
is equally true of religious and cultural beliefs. Peaceable peoples
are not created or monopolized by autocratic forms of government.
There is great evidence that a high quality of civilized living
exists in nation-states not yet tainted by the dogmatic trickery
of Western civilization and their formula of 'education equals civility.'
If we understand civilization to be concomitant with moral practices,
then the evidence against education is more daunting.
Needless to
say, there has never been in the history of the world any proof
that education, unequivocally, produces a higher standard of civilized
living. The idea that technological advancement equals civilization
is as much a product of Western propaganda as is the belief that
all men can reap the benefits of capitalism in equal proportion
to their worth.
In the American
system of social gospel and hard-line propaganda, education has
been wedded with the concept of formalized education. This education
takes as its sword and shield the social sciences and related business
fields. What becomes surprising is the limited, almost non-existent,
attention given to vocational training and education that represents
the backbone of, to use a 'Marxism,' the proletariat. Here, the
attention deficit is a matter of quality. Bare minimum salaries
only help to widen the gap between social education and vocational
training. This becomes a more practical problem, for it imposes
cultural standards on the quality of work being done rather than
the worth of the individual doing it. Worth must not be misunderstood
as "right" in the sense of racial propaganda, but rather the worth
of every individual to find dignity in his work-related field regardless
of his educational background.
As an educator,
I have seen the degradation of standards of excellence in public
education, not as an unrelated phenomenon, but as a direct result
of the general malaise created by American society. An educational
system which must answer to the students is not an educational system
when the challenges it presents are measured by student interest
and involvement. But student involvement is not the essential problem
here. Social educational efforts and mandatory attendance only compound
the much larger, more engrossing problem. It is educational Puritanism
at its best; no different from the religious Puritanism in which
absences from church could result in severe repercussions.
Ever since
education has become an apparatus of social controlling, the level
of education has changed. Not to mention that students who would
rather pursue other vocational fields are being forced into the
melee of social sciences because of the promise of better tomorrows.
Vocational training has been devalued, and academic education glorified.
This is the work of the true educational elite. The word "privilege,"
which has taken on a pejorative character, must be termed on new
grounds.
The sad fact
of the matter is that this elitism is openly fostered in the public
spectrum when public education becomes, as it has, an entitlement
rather than a privilege. And we do not mean here a privilege based
upon economic class-standing, but rather a privilege awarded to
those achievers not only gifted in their field, who do not see it
as a mere means to an end, but to those ambitious individuals who
are willing to sanctify their academic successes with raw determination
and internal fortitude: a virtue all but lost in the chaotic and
unfocused classrooms across America. In this sense, when academic
education is seen as a privilege, the chasm which has separated
vocational and academic education will narrow, and the unspoken
devaluing of unskilled labor disintegrate, as the distribution of
individuals levels out and each sees his or her place not as a necessity
contrived by specific class associations (e.g., a wealthy young
man from an affluent family attends college because it's expected,
or an indigent worker goes to the steel mill because this is expected)
but as a reward for hard work and dedication.
With such an
approach, students (I hesitate to call them that) who are locked
within the public school arena will be encouraged to look in other
directions. Those directions rather than being repressive imprecations
of society-at-large will be glorified for what they are--essentials.
Of course, wage labor should be increased drastically. But the gap
only exists economically. The ideological gap is subtle and without
basis in a society that believes in the rights of all men, the equalization
of each. Once the ideological gap can be breached, it is the obligation
of our American autocracy to dissolve the economic gap as well.
As a pragmatic
example, the educational elite--which continues to dig its own grave--has
realized that with a market flooded by recent graduates, new markets
must be created to grapple with the new job demand. This is a different
cognation of a Marxist reality because, for the first time in history,
the surplus exists in people power rather than in material goods.
This has created an undervaluing at the bottom--those jobs occupied
by unskilled laborers. If we are to remove the shroud of elitism,
which has blinded democratic virtue, we need to reinforce through
incentive the importance of vocational training in unskilled labor
management.
As mentioned
before, the ideology of education and its function in society are
important issues. Thus, the ideological necessity rests on a new
interpretation of education in its two basic manifestations that
I have previously stated. With the unprecedented rise in college
enrollment, the graduate's ability to find a suitable job will correspond
directly to the effort of Big Business ventures to create new markets.
A harrowing task that will eventually see more and more college
graduates working in 'unskilled labor roles'--the very thing their
parents encouraged them to liberate themselves from in the first
place. As a side note, we are in the process of witnessing a shortage
of highly coveted blue- and white-collar jobs as markets become
increasingly more competitive and more selective.
Technology
remains the only salvific vehicle to remedy this situation. But
in our highly technologized society the market will soon surpass
the creation of new technologies, as skilled-labor camps increase
their ideological stranglehold on college students across the land.
As a result, the faith we have accorded to technology to create
these markets and new employment opportunities will be our undoing.
One way to
prevent the threat of massive unemployment is to start a war, which
has always been an effective alternative to deter job shortages
and unemployment. But, if our oil refineries are filled to overflowing,
and our corporate presence in transnational markets becomes undisputed,
then it might be said that postmodern breadlines are likely to form.
And when they do, they will consist of accountants, computer specialists,
and masses of college graduates fighting for the same morsel. Why?
Because they've been deceived into believing this is the only morsel
that exists, when a bread of dignified virtue rests in the factories
and manual labor opportunities spotting our American landscape.
Copyright
© 2000 Frank S. Palmisano III All Rights Reserved
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