Re: Me & my soapbox: was(PHYS-L Digest - 28 Feb 2000 to 29 Feb 2000 (#2000-68))

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

> Hugh Haskel wrote in part:
> >  . . .In this climate
> >  education was limited to what people needed to get the immediate job
> >  done--enough reading to be able to read a set of instructions and the
> >  Bible, enough writing to sign your name and maybe write a letter home
> >  when away at war, and enough arithmetic to be able to handle
> >  money--anything more was a luxury for the rich. . . .
> >
> >  . . . and hope that those newly admitted bring a thirst
> >  for learning that will eventually overwhelm our anti-intellectual
> >  heritage and change it. A tall order, but maybe our only chance.
> >  Otherwise, our days as the leading nation of the world may be
> >  numbered.
>
> I find it a bit ironic that the defence of education against the
> anti-intellectual masses (last sentence and paragraph) is based on a
> utilitarian need; the sort of which is seen as limiting in the top
> paragraph.
>
> If education and intellectualism must be defended by the utilitarian need of
> keeping the good ole US of A the leading nation of the world; we've lost the
> battle already.
>
> Joel Rauber

You may be right, but I think the day when one could plan on getting
an education for the pure joy of being educated is long gone. In this
country now, education is being treated as a practical necessity, as
much as knowing how to sharpen a plow or cut logs to make a cabin was
two hundred years ago. Our position as the only "superpower" left in
the world, if that is one worth holding on to, is dependent on how
well we can educate our population to be able to live in the
post-industrial age. In these days its just isn't good enough to be
able to do the things that could get one by a hundred years ago, when
graduating from high school was not the norm and graduating from
college was a rarity unless you were a child of wealthy parents. Much
more is demanded of us, and we can ill-afford to create a two-class
society, of educated and therefore successful people and of
uneducated and therefore unsuccessful people if we expect to survive.

I appreciate the inconsistency of all this, but nobody said the world
has to be consistent, and I didn't create this situation all by
myself. I only hope that our society can evolve quickly enough to be
able to adapt to the present situation. I'm not overly optimistic.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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