(Jack Linthicum) wrote in message . com...
(Michael Petukhov) wrote in message . com...
Learning to Be Stupid in the Culture of Cash

by Luciana Bohne


You might think that reading about a Podunk University's English
teacher's attempt to connect the dots between the poverty of American
education and the gullibility of the American public may be a little
trivial, considering we've embarked on the first, openly-confessed
imperial adventure of senescent capitalism in the US, but bear with me.
The question my experiences in the classroom raise is why have these
young people been educated to such abysmal depths of ignorance.

First, Edinboro really is a podunk university, the U.S. has about
2200 four year degree granting universities and colleges and Edinboro
is not in the first or second rank.

Although this may or may not be true I do not see how relative ranking
of a few US top universities discussed below is related to the main message
of the article. Namely that generally US education system is, according to
the author, the way to "Learn to Be Stupid in the Culture of Cash".
If you disagree you have to prove that 1) it is not "learning to be stupid"
or/and 2) US Culture is not "the Culture of Cash". Stanford problems
of being 5-th rank only in US has nothing to do with all that.

Michael

Secondly, although I am sure that
the Chilean coup was important in 1973, that was 30 years ago. There
are very few Fascists or Communists on the streets today. I get a
slight hint that perhaps Ms Bohne's class may have been pulling the
pretentuous leg of their European teacher. She is, after all, an
internationally published voice of what's going on out there.
In case Ms Bohne is worried about the actual reading habits of those
in real academic positions I met several in California who do not read
the newspapers because they are just 'liberal trash.' Remember the
line in Being There where Chauncy says he doesn't read, and all the
President's advisors agree it's a waste of time.

Those who carry on about our schools and school teachers are often the
same people who invent statewide and nationwide tests of 'standard'
knowledge and then whine at the teachers because their kids didn't get
perfect scores. The University of California at Berkeley used to be
one of the top three schools in the country, rated academically with
Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Stanford was way down the list. Then
someone decided that the movements of the 60s were somehow signs of
academic elitism and now Cal ain't even in the top 10, probably now
below UCLA. Stanford is in that top 5 or 10 because they don't have
100 legislators making up their hiring lists and admissions.

Most Europeans don't understand the American style of education, early
on the Eurps are told whether they are smart or not and the unsmart
ones end up in trades training, the smart ones at the few
universities. Almost all of these are national universities, run by
the government, usually what would pass for socialist governments. If
you think teachers' unions are pushy try a union with the ruling
government party behind it.

American youth are told they need a college education to succeed. This
breeds the Edinboros of the US, in California they worked out the idea
that a cheap source of the first two-years of college could be
obtained at a two-year junior or community college. The next level
after the JC/CC was either a California state university (one system)
or the University of California (a different, somewhat higher rated
system).