Just a thought...
May. 16th, 2006 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilI always hear lots of alarmists saying that education is going down the toilet; we should put more money in schools and over-haul the incredibly poor quality programs; we're light years behind Japanese schools or whatever; America is full of dunderheads; blah blah blah. Okay - my husband is going into teaching (as of yesterday he officially has a masters in Theatre Education! Yay!) and I will readily acknowledge that students are woefully lacking in a lot of areas of knowledge - math, basic writing skills, geography, history, science, etc, etc.
and say this, at the risk of sounding tremendously arrogant - we are at an unprecedented level of widespread education, not just in America but throughout the world. Never, in the history of mankind, has there ever been the notion of every single person having not only the privilege, but the right to learn to read and write. Nowadays, generally speaking, to find someone with illiteracy is an anamoly, a shame, with the idea that they've been unfairly denied and that this wrong should be righted. Go back a handful of centuries? Being able to read was a token of the upper class, and a luxury no poor person could afford or be bothered with. Widespread literacy, or extensive education of any sort, was unheard of, and if it had been suggested as something to be aimed for, the response would likely have been a baffled, "Why?" Now, it's never questioned - everyone deserves a solid background in all the basics of learning, including literacy, arithmetic, history and so on. The definition of "the basics" is, of course, hotly disputed, but the idea holds pretty universally (and I'm sure there's many an exception to this in countries I'm not familiar with - I have a vague idea of women being denied such things in some Mid-Eastern countries? - but I'm speaking from my own experience, and, I imagine, the experience of the majority).
There are many reasons for this, which I can only speculate on, having after all not much more than a high school level knowledge of history. :Bows head in shame: I assume the printing press had a huge impact on widespread literacy, by making writing so much more accesible and distributable. Nowadays, forms of the written word are everywhere, from television to the Internet to billboards outside - it's inescapable; you're bound to pick up something, right? Meanwhile, the spread of democracy and democratic ideals has greatly influenced the idea of equal opportunities. More practically speaking, the specialization of economic systems has led most people away from farms and cottage industries, taking them instead to workplaces where the ability to read is a necessity. (On the other hand, who's to say that widespread education is actually a cause rather than a result of such a change? Chicken and egg dilemma, really). In any case, we live in a different world, and in this world, someone living in the slums without barely a penny is still likely to have at least a basic level of literacy.
So what am I saying? Let's give ourselves a nice little pat on the back and relax? We've done a nice job; let's quit pushing ourselves when we've already come far enough? Quite the contrary! Instead, I look at how much has come about in the way of widespread education over just a few centuries, and I can look forward with optimism regarding what we will yet accomplish. By all means we should keep working at it; improvement is a perpetual process. But darn it, let's not be so bitterly hard on ourselves! The very fact that we care so much about giving every single child a decent education is a sign of our progress. We've come a long, long way.
Luke finally got back to school today. He would have missed yesterday even if not for my husband's graduation because they actually closed the district because of the flooding! If this rain doesn't let up soon I'll be in danger of turning permanantly gloomy.
and say this, at the risk of sounding tremendously arrogant - we are at an unprecedented level of widespread education, not just in America but throughout the world. Never, in the history of mankind, has there ever been the notion of every single person having not only the privilege, but the right to learn to read and write. Nowadays, generally speaking, to find someone with illiteracy is an anamoly, a shame, with the idea that they've been unfairly denied and that this wrong should be righted. Go back a handful of centuries? Being able to read was a token of the upper class, and a luxury no poor person could afford or be bothered with. Widespread literacy, or extensive education of any sort, was unheard of, and if it had been suggested as something to be aimed for, the response would likely have been a baffled, "Why?" Now, it's never questioned - everyone deserves a solid background in all the basics of learning, including literacy, arithmetic, history and so on. The definition of "the basics" is, of course, hotly disputed, but the idea holds pretty universally (and I'm sure there's many an exception to this in countries I'm not familiar with - I have a vague idea of women being denied such things in some Mid-Eastern countries? - but I'm speaking from my own experience, and, I imagine, the experience of the majority).
There are many reasons for this, which I can only speculate on, having after all not much more than a high school level knowledge of history. :Bows head in shame: I assume the printing press had a huge impact on widespread literacy, by making writing so much more accesible and distributable. Nowadays, forms of the written word are everywhere, from television to the Internet to billboards outside - it's inescapable; you're bound to pick up something, right? Meanwhile, the spread of democracy and democratic ideals has greatly influenced the idea of equal opportunities. More practically speaking, the specialization of economic systems has led most people away from farms and cottage industries, taking them instead to workplaces where the ability to read is a necessity. (On the other hand, who's to say that widespread education is actually a cause rather than a result of such a change? Chicken and egg dilemma, really). In any case, we live in a different world, and in this world, someone living in the slums without barely a penny is still likely to have at least a basic level of literacy.
So what am I saying? Let's give ourselves a nice little pat on the back and relax? We've done a nice job; let's quit pushing ourselves when we've already come far enough? Quite the contrary! Instead, I look at how much has come about in the way of widespread education over just a few centuries, and I can look forward with optimism regarding what we will yet accomplish. By all means we should keep working at it; improvement is a perpetual process. But darn it, let's not be so bitterly hard on ourselves! The very fact that we care so much about giving every single child a decent education is a sign of our progress. We've come a long, long way.
Luke finally got back to school today. He would have missed yesterday even if not for my husband's graduation because they actually closed the district because of the flooding! If this rain doesn't let up soon I'll be in danger of turning permanantly gloomy.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-18 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-18 02:30 pm (UTC)Love your icon!