Privatizing Education College Essay
60
Daniel J. Neumann
Prof. Walters (Adv. Nonfiction Writing)
March 23, 2010 (edited 5/6/10)
2-page assignment, Mark Twain Quote Response
Privatizing Education
I never let my schooling get in the way of my education .—Mark Twain.
Life educates us—institutions teach a mere quarter, at the most, of what you know. We learn a lot by mistakes, and most of our initial, elemental (elementary) wisdom comes from experience. Who taught us taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch? Who taught us how to approach the opposite sex? Where did we learn about morality, dignity, honor, and legacy? Most of all of this, some may say, is taught, on some level, in schools. But, if we’re honest, most of us notice that context for these concepts really developed outside the classroom. What do you think?
I hope you don’t put too much faith on the educational institution, as a system. In the United States (and many developed parts of the world), we have counter-intuitive legislation like No Child Left Behind (recently renamed and rebranded by President Obama) that standardizes primary education to math, writing, and reading. Some critics argue that they’ve missed a few subjects in that short list: Where’s history, art, science, and physical education? Besides all that mess, we go about it the wrong way. The Greeks had it right. Teaching should be personable, dialogue-oriented, and informal (since all school brats hate authority). Why can’t we use the Socratic method of teaching? Why don’t we try using advanced computer software for “those falling behind”? Why do we punish failing schools by cutting federal funding?
A high school teacher (Ms. DiClimente) had a compelling hypothesis that, to this day, sends sick shivers down my spine: The government wants to privatize education. They figure they could use all the money used for teaching on more pressing matters: like war or increasing agencies. Can you tell that I’m a libertarian and socialist yet? (Is that oxymoronic? Blasphemy ! That’s what they want you to believe.)
I believe education is a human right—a positive, Marxist, liberal, socio-economic, 2nd generation human right. If a country has enough resources to educate the common people, they ought to. I don’t think America does enough. If it takes a college degree to earn a middle-class wage, then it should be free. We would have had the resources to fund higher education if we didn’t invade Iraq. We throw our money away as soon as we borrow it—why not waste some lives, our soldiers and theirs, while we’re at it? The American Military, of course, offers free college if you fight. Dare I make the correlation: We want the poor to join the military, so we’ll only teach them afterwards?
Lucky for the poor, education also comes from the media. Of course, the corporate oligopoly controlling that industry doesn’t exactly have a track record of social responsibility. Maybe the plan is fool-proof. Who will stop the slaughter of socialized education?
No matter what happens, I’ll “never let my schooling get in the way of my education.” I could still learn by personal research, logical reasoning, or by experience of trial-and-error … as long as someone taught me how to read, that is.
