Reply #13: An Acquired Problem.... [View All]

[xocet]

Part of the problem that this society faces is that it states that it values education on some level, yet does not make it possible for all who care about education to attain it. University-level education needs to be made free to those who would study hard: if everyone would be willing to study, then all should be granted a free education. I believe that a reasonable argument for free university education is that no one truly knows who will make progress in any given field. There are too many factors involved in achieving progress to be able to predict who will attain that progress from just looking at a group of students.

Unfortunately, students are turned away from what they would hope to be based on the earlier schools and communities from which they have come. Not all curricula adequately prepare people for university, and not all teachers know their subject material well enough to adequately prepare students for university. Even though the teachers and school boards may try to provide an adequate background for a university education, they often fail. This requirement is simply too difficult, for they likely do not have sufficient perspective on the university-level material to really prepare students for said material. (Other difficulties are laid aside for the moment.) Teachers, generally, do not deserve blame, for I believe that they for the most part do care and do want the best for their students. However, it seems as though the teachers have been given an assignment analogous to having house painters teach the significance of Rembrandt's work. (Note that it even takes college faculty time to get a full grasp of their subject material. Getting a PhD and doing post-doctoral studies are experiences that most high school teachers do not have, so it would be too much to expect them to have a truly deep knowledge of their subject presuming that they teach a single subject.)

These students who would have been successful but for their origins deserve a chance. So far, though, universal single-payer education is as much a pipe dream in this country as is universal single-payer health care.

I think that it is the lack of universal single-payer education that binds education to elitism in this country. I put forth that people who must live their lives purely in response to circumstances over which they have no control discount study and hold it to be an impractical endeavor as it does not immediately put food on the table or pay the rent. This leads to devaluing education as a pursuit. So, to a large extent, by not allowing all who would want education and by not expecting most citizens to be educated well, our society is destroying itself.