Ive just read this on FaceBook, please discuss freely.

[RATTER15]

Personally I totally agree with it!

“We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and “success”, defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers. A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, which fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.”


Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

[Canary42]

You can't go educating the plebs to think - they might just realise the privileged are shafting them.

[bibblebub]

Education - that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. Ambrose Bierce

[woofgang]

Speaking personally, I have been poor and I have been....well not rich but well off and I am here to tell you that well off is better. As sqad has said, and its my experience too, critical thinking and practical education are both needed for success (Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, any of the Dragons?)

My comment on what you have quoted is that I can see no obvious link between the first and second thoughts (second thought begins "A culture that does not") and I would say that a culture that does not ensure that it has enough plumbers and farmers will condemn itself to death through starvation and plague!

[tamborine]

Apply this to a rich list: Bill Gates, Saudi King, HM Queen & Branson. Gates & Branson are academically rich, king & queen inheritently rich. None are Einstines (who was financially poor.

I would rather cry in a RRoyce than on a bike.

[RATTER15]

You all seem to forgetting there is a mid ground, I am neither talking about the the poor or the rich, I am talking about being content with what you have and not thriving for wealth.

Sqad: >>Sorry about that, but you must have disposed of your income in some way, to whom do you blame for this state of affairs? <<

Why are you sorry? and why would I blame anybody?

I said: \\\I have always worked hard and I have been rewarded and I have hardly a penny to my name\\\

I have always been rewarded, yes, the rewards I got could not be spent or put in the bank! you probably wont understand that either!!

Im fortunate to find total peace and happiness in life and with my partner, we don't need wealth and we don't strive for it. In a few months we will be leaving Devon and setting up a business in North Wales (if all goes to plan) again this is not a money making venture, we are hoping to open a centre for people with all kinds of disabilities where they can come and have a place where they can mix with animals and in a place built and designed specially with them in mind. This is where we get our wealth and happiness, certainly not in material things like some.

Im not saying we live like paupers and we cant put food on the table, we do enjoy our home comforts as well, I'm just saying there are more important things in life to some people.

[RATTER15]

Tambo, but naming wealthy people means absolutely nothing, I dont suppose they are any happier than most other people, many of these type of business executives make their money by trampling over and swindling people and charging exorbitant prices for their services and goods. I really would not want to make money that way!

[NOX]

I completely agree with that RATTER- it's one of the reasons that all of my kids were home educated rather than put through the conveyor belt to mediocrity that is so often presented as education through mainstream schooling. Ironically to date most of them have been very successful in what they have chosen to do, but then all of them, excepting one who works in the city, run their own companies and largely march to the beat of their own drum and are I'm glad and quite proud to say very caring, thinking people not afraid to stick their necks out for what is right rather than what's popular.

[Mosaic]

Ratter - I could do the Harry Met Sally thing over this quote.
yes! Yes!
We need as a country and society to talk very seriously about what education is for and how it should be achieved.
Yes!

[Davethedog]

Am I missing something here, when did this become about money, I thought this was a philosphical question about the need or not to criticaly think about the culture that surrounds us and the humanities or not required to progress as humans.

Tamborine Bill Gates actualy fits Ratters example and he was and is a very clever man who in the last four years has given has given vast amounts to charoty and given up work to run his charitable trust. He is no longer the worlds richest man as he has given so much away.

[woofgang]

[i]We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and “success”, defined monetarily[i]

It became about money from the first sentence of the OP's quote

[woofgang]

RATTER did you not get the job you went for or are you going to do that as well?

[tenrec]

Is this the reason young children continually ask "Why?"

[RATTER15]

Woofgang, Yes I did get the job im just waiting for a CRB. We will still be moving, I just need to get away from my current job, I have spent 5 years fighting the management at it is now at a critical point with them, I need to leave before it goes too far and something is said or done that someone may regret. I think the new job will be a whole new avenue for me to experience and will possibly continue in this field with new venture, it is all valuable learning and Im sure I will love every minute.

[woofgang]

congratulations. i hope it all goes well for you and the family.

[RATTER15]

Thank you Woofgang xx :0)

[belrec]

Interesting discussion here.

The education system is desgined to give kids a rounded knowledge of everything so they can pick and choose what they want to do as an adult; whether this is an "altrusitic" path or "money-grabbing" path.

Also it there, like the job parents do, to make sure that children grow up to be good and contributing members of society.

As we are essentially "pack animals" it is vital that we get on with each other and help each other otherwise our society would crumble.

[RATTER15]

>>As we are essentially "pack animals" it is vital that we get on with each other and help each other otherwise our society would crumble.<<

I agree and that is the crux! and that is why our society is crumbling!

[Mosaic]

"The education system is desgined to give kids a rounded knowledge of everything...."
This doesn't reflect the education system I've just spent 32 years working in.