There has been absolutely no accountability, repercussions or punishment for government officials who commit crimes - they work AGAINST the common good and are actually rewarded for it! So this is what children are learning - BEING SELFISH PAYS VERY WELL!! Members of Congress own multiple houses, enjoy six figure salaries, and do as they damn well please, being funded by corporations. Our "votes" are a joke, since it takes years to get somebody "fired." Maybe American citizens need to organize a week-long strike in which ALL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS are denied goods and services until they start listening to the people who pay their salaries!
Our current problems are due to poor education: science, biology of humans, civics, honest history, geography, etc. i went to school in Chicago during the late 40’s and 50’s and I had a decent education in elementary school and fair in high school. Still college at a Jesuit university was a shock. I learned critical thinking skills and to question everything. Two of the most important things you can learn.
I agree wholeheartedly with the need for civic education, and I would add on to that the need for early education in a foreign language and world geography. Children learn languages easily when they are very young, and in doing so, are able to expand their view of the world. I think world geography used to be a subject in school but we are woefully lacking in that area. Most Americans are very provincial and lack a basic knowledge of the world outside of the U.S. So yes, civic education to understand our own country, along with an education about the world outside would hopefully serve to enlighten and broaden minds.
Despotism, slavery, and authoritarianism all hold hands when it comes to education. We must start educating our young people to respect our constitution as it is intended and to learn that no one is above the law.
I also think teachers should be better paid rather than being one of the lowest paid professions. These days, they should probably also get combat pay.
Better pay would, hopefully, entice the best and the brightest into the profession. Would-be teachers should not have a degree only in Education; they should also have a degree in a teaching subject as well--perhaps a 5-year combined BA or BSc or BMus / BEd or a 4 year Bachelor's degree and a 2 year after degree in Education. Entrance into Education programs should be highly competitive, requiring the highest marks in all university subjects. Students who qualify should be given a full scholarship to encourage them to take up the 5 or 6 year academic challenge without accruing crippling debt--subject, of course, to their keeping their grades up..
A two-year National Service requirement such as Dr. Reich proposes could allow would-teachers to have classroom experience as teacher's aides to find out if they enjoy teaching and are suited to it before committing themselves, and some of their classroom experience could be counted toward their Education degree.
The points you make are excellent, and I agree with the exception of requiring two years of service with a "modest stipend". I have helped run a number of programs for inner city and Native American youth, and I have learned that in many families in these communities the work that young people do helps to support their families. If they are not available to care for their younger siblings and older relatives, and if they cannot make a salary that helps pay the bills, you will unfairly burden their families. In our programs we have provided salaries equivalent to what they would otherwise make, and provided services to the families to help offset the loss of assistance from their students during the time they are busy with activities we provide like STEM education (including bioethics and a good helping of civics). You have to remember that young people from some communities are not able to engage in work that benefits either themselves or the larger public without compensating for what their families will be burdened with in their absence.
Republican political operative Karl Rove asserted that ignorant people are easier to control, years before Trump proclaimed, "I love the poorly educated."
Former late night host Jay Leno had a segment called Jaywalking, in which he would go out in the plaza outside his studio or on a public street and ask random people simple civics questions, sometimes taken from the citizenship test. Their ignorance was astonishing. For example, they could not identify the sitting vice president at the time, and did not know how many justices sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. More than half of Americans cannot name all five freedoms protected by the First Amendment. So, yes, we need civics education, along with education on why it is important.
Professor, this is a powerful and convincing essay. I can't see how anyone could say it better without writing a book. The only worry that arises from me is the way our education system works, with local school boards and State run departments of education, we don't seem to have the tools to deploy the things you have suggested? It seems, once again, what we need is more Democrats in positions of influence and power, including in education, who will work against narrow, parochial, culturally-defined education and who will work for the goals and objectives you have surveyed in this piece. I hope we can do that.
From childhood, thanks to my mom, I've traveled -- first by car to 48 states, then as an airline pilot to many countries, not for quick visits but returning frequently, getting to know the culture and people. My small-New-England-town, non-traveling friends still make race jokes and vote MAGA, but travel has brought me to see the world in a different way.
That didn't happen because I went to school with other types of students -- that helps -- but travel made the greatest difference. So I'd support traveling "corps" or other experiences for students. I'd make it mandatory for teachers.
Second, I'd reform education. I remember reading of a politician -- maybe Bush --whose brother corrupted the testing and textbook business. And deVos. And as a town meeting member, myself, seeing the education department flagrantly waste money because they had to "use it or lose it" for the next year's budget. I think education needs help with corruption as well as curriculum.
I'd reform teachers unions. I think they suffer some of the same problems as the pilots unions. Yes, unions are necessary to fight abuse by power, but a person would be naive to believe that power and ill-gotten gains corrupt only corporate and not union leaders.
I'd change teacher requirements to make room for people who have extensive travel, life, and/or professional experience rather than only the "right piece of paper." In my education, the teachers who made the biggest positive impact on me and my classmates were "doers" -- professionals taking time from their real-world experience to teach. They didn't teach "by the book." Given a classroom evaluation from a by-the-book supervisor, they's probably fail, but they taught useful reality and life skills, and they had credibility.
There's a saying, "Those who can't do, teach." In my education, that was largely true. Most of those who taught full time and didn't "do" out in the world were not the best teachers. In our current system, teaching below college level is generally a full-time job. Therein lies what might be a problem. Maybe a different system could help -- maybe a trimester in the workplace once per year might bring more practical viewpoints to the classroom.
Our current system is dismal. We should be the best. Therefore, perhaps we need to practice first-principle thought, toss out all status quo, and design a new system from the ground up.
The worst teachers I had were the small-minded, inexperienced people who had the certificate boxes checked but had no life experience, could teach only by the book, and possessed little creativity and no original-thinking skills. I had some very bad teachers, damaging influences, institutionalzed by tenure. Yet, barring political warring, one almost dares not admit that all teachers are not saints, but until we face reality, the problems can't be addressed.
Based on the state of our country and the fact that half of our voting public -- mostly products of our education system -- support a lunatic, lying, corrupt despot, maybe our education system needs overall rethinking.
This article is another reminder of how far we have fallen as a people. You and I are about the same age, and WE let this happen! Let us admit it; we chose MONEY over democracy. Our generation went to college to learn how to make more MONEY, not to learn how to sustain a democracy. The American vision of the ideal is no longer the sustaining of a democracy; the ideal is now about a vision of wealth. We live in a state of denial. The American caste is made of money not the ideals of a government. I am seventy-four years old, retired, and live in a home with a swimming pool and beautiful gardens. We have two grandchildren we spoil with time and gifts. We travel when and where we want. I'm vote Democrat. I'm a hypocrite. I have a lot of rich Democratic friends who scream about equality but live this lifestyle. We need to be about taking less from this earth and its economy. I am a hypocrite, and I don't like it. I've taken more than I deserve! Have you?
We can’t have a healthy democracy without an informed citizenry; one educated to understand how a healthy democracy should work, why ours is currently very sick, and wanting passionately to return it to good health. Perhaps two years of service to our people would be the antidote needed to show our young that there is more to life than “I” phones, fancy cars and continuous entertainment. I love the idea of a civilian conservation corps as one way of doing that service.
Dear Robert, I have followed you closely ever since you created "Inequality for All" and I'll keep my modest subscription here because of all the good work (brilliant, really, thank you) you do. However, I really wish you would consider pulling back from your partisan belief that there is a good party or at least a lesser-evil party.
I don't believe in Gods, Devils or evil. I believe in consequences. I don't believe there is a good party or a bad party, just good people and bad people. Democrats only ever talk the talk, but never walk the walk. Who is worse really, depraved oligarchs whose system deprives the many for the benefit of the few or the enabler oligarchs who "give back" paltry crumbs of their wealth to treat the symptoms of diseases they perpetuate because it pays them well to do so.
The billionaire psychopaths will wrap their little get-together in Davos today having done NOTHING to treat the disease, that is poverty, whether spiritual, intellectual or economic that is destroying our world and its people. Please start calling out Democrats for the craven enablers they really are. Your voice can really make a difference if you discontinue paying lip-service to a do-nothing Party.
The Enabler Party is as much to blame as The Perpetrator Party. How else can you read giving $40B to the military industrial complex to kill all the ordinary people in Ukraine while the gluttonous perps and their enablers are safe and well-fed in Davos?
i agree with you 110%. as a scientist, i am daily confronted by shockingly poor science knowledge amongst many of the people i deal with, and this is often accompanied by astoundingly high levels of pseudoscience retention. it's almost as though people think their lack of science knowledge (particularly their ignorance of biology) is some sort of badge of honour, or maybe indicates their membership of some secret elite class of people.
perhaps part of a good education should include some multi-disciplinary education in the higher grades, such as a class that examines the relationship between culture, history, geography and pandemics? (i mention this specifically because this was a class i designed, as part of my own requirements as a grad student, when i was in university.) such a class would help cement the knowledge that students have learned piecemeal in their earlier years, and help give them greater critical insights into how events actually play out in the real world, and why.
i find that a poor knowledge of science is coupled with a stunning inability to think critically about literally everything. what passes as critical thinking amongst nearly everyone whom i meet is actually an overwhelming lack of respect for expertise, so a person who has devoted their entire life to learning about a particular discipline is viewed as being less knowledgable than a random man (and it's always a random white man) on the street.
one white man's opinion is worth far more than the lifetime of expertise and knowledge generated by 10 women or ethnic or social minorities or immigrants or any non-white non-het group you care to name. for example, as most people know by now, the entire covid-19 disinformation campaign led to more than one million american deaths (the official death count is one million, but the estimated count is at least three times this). unfortunately, these deaths were not limited to those who ardently and openly professed utter bullshit, but included at least as many innocent lives -- people who had health issues (immunocompromised, needed surgery to address health issues, or what have you) that made it nearly impossible for them to avoid becoming a casualty in this war of pseudominds. thanks to this still-growing mountain of self-destructive conspiracy theories, the entire world is now confronted with long-haul covid, which is destroying bodies and lives and will further destroy the already compromised health care system.
and this one -- seemingly small -- thing occurred because people have no real knowledge of science, nor do they have any critical thinking skills.
perhaps one of the possible options for people to serve their country for 2 years (in your educational/citizenship scenario) is for 18-20 year olds to step up and help the medical establishment? they could receive training as nurse's aids, EMTs, lab technicians, physical therapists, cooks, and similar jobs, making it easier for doctors and nurses -- especially nurses, around which the entire medical system revolves -- to do their jobs, so fewer of them would burn out and end up fleeing the medical profession in guilt and despair.
so you are right: it's long past time to enact educational reforms, and your suggestions are excellent starting points.
There has been absolutely no accountability, repercussions or punishment for government officials who commit crimes - they work AGAINST the common good and are actually rewarded for it! So this is what children are learning - BEING SELFISH PAYS VERY WELL!! Members of Congress own multiple houses, enjoy six figure salaries, and do as they damn well please, being funded by corporations. Our "votes" are a joke, since it takes years to get somebody "fired." Maybe American citizens need to organize a week-long strike in which ALL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS are denied goods and services until they start listening to the people who pay their salaries!
Our current problems are due to poor education: science, biology of humans, civics, honest history, geography, etc. i went to school in Chicago during the late 40’s and 50’s and I had a decent education in elementary school and fair in high school. Still college at a Jesuit university was a shock. I learned critical thinking skills and to question everything. Two of the most important things you can learn.
I agree wholeheartedly with the need for civic education, and I would add on to that the need for early education in a foreign language and world geography. Children learn languages easily when they are very young, and in doing so, are able to expand their view of the world. I think world geography used to be a subject in school but we are woefully lacking in that area. Most Americans are very provincial and lack a basic knowledge of the world outside of the U.S. So yes, civic education to understand our own country, along with an education about the world outside would hopefully serve to enlighten and broaden minds.
Despotism, slavery, and authoritarianism all hold hands when it comes to education. We must start educating our young people to respect our constitution as it is intended and to learn that no one is above the law.
From your pen to God's ear. I completely agree. Currently our world is more about me, myself and I. 😢
I also think teachers should be better paid rather than being one of the lowest paid professions. These days, they should probably also get combat pay.
Better pay would, hopefully, entice the best and the brightest into the profession. Would-be teachers should not have a degree only in Education; they should also have a degree in a teaching subject as well--perhaps a 5-year combined BA or BSc or BMus / BEd or a 4 year Bachelor's degree and a 2 year after degree in Education. Entrance into Education programs should be highly competitive, requiring the highest marks in all university subjects. Students who qualify should be given a full scholarship to encourage them to take up the 5 or 6 year academic challenge without accruing crippling debt--subject, of course, to their keeping their grades up..
A two-year National Service requirement such as Dr. Reich proposes could allow would-teachers to have classroom experience as teacher's aides to find out if they enjoy teaching and are suited to it before committing themselves, and some of their classroom experience could be counted toward their Education degree.
The points you make are excellent, and I agree with the exception of requiring two years of service with a "modest stipend". I have helped run a number of programs for inner city and Native American youth, and I have learned that in many families in these communities the work that young people do helps to support their families. If they are not available to care for their younger siblings and older relatives, and if they cannot make a salary that helps pay the bills, you will unfairly burden their families. In our programs we have provided salaries equivalent to what they would otherwise make, and provided services to the families to help offset the loss of assistance from their students during the time they are busy with activities we provide like STEM education (including bioethics and a good helping of civics). You have to remember that young people from some communities are not able to engage in work that benefits either themselves or the larger public without compensating for what their families will be burdened with in their absence.
Republican political operative Karl Rove asserted that ignorant people are easier to control, years before Trump proclaimed, "I love the poorly educated."
Former late night host Jay Leno had a segment called Jaywalking, in which he would go out in the plaza outside his studio or on a public street and ask random people simple civics questions, sometimes taken from the citizenship test. Their ignorance was astonishing. For example, they could not identify the sitting vice president at the time, and did not know how many justices sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. More than half of Americans cannot name all five freedoms protected by the First Amendment. So, yes, we need civics education, along with education on why it is important.
Professor, this is a powerful and convincing essay. I can't see how anyone could say it better without writing a book. The only worry that arises from me is the way our education system works, with local school boards and State run departments of education, we don't seem to have the tools to deploy the things you have suggested? It seems, once again, what we need is more Democrats in positions of influence and power, including in education, who will work against narrow, parochial, culturally-defined education and who will work for the goals and objectives you have surveyed in this piece. I hope we can do that.
Right on the money, sir. Yes, absolutely. Back to learning basic core principles that I think you have most beautifully outlined here.
Also believe you have identified an important fissure in 1973 that may explain for me why I have felt a divide repeatedly in younger generations
All sound like excellent recommendations.
From childhood, thanks to my mom, I've traveled -- first by car to 48 states, then as an airline pilot to many countries, not for quick visits but returning frequently, getting to know the culture and people. My small-New-England-town, non-traveling friends still make race jokes and vote MAGA, but travel has brought me to see the world in a different way.
That didn't happen because I went to school with other types of students -- that helps -- but travel made the greatest difference. So I'd support traveling "corps" or other experiences for students. I'd make it mandatory for teachers.
Second, I'd reform education. I remember reading of a politician -- maybe Bush --whose brother corrupted the testing and textbook business. And deVos. And as a town meeting member, myself, seeing the education department flagrantly waste money because they had to "use it or lose it" for the next year's budget. I think education needs help with corruption as well as curriculum.
I'd reform teachers unions. I think they suffer some of the same problems as the pilots unions. Yes, unions are necessary to fight abuse by power, but a person would be naive to believe that power and ill-gotten gains corrupt only corporate and not union leaders.
I'd change teacher requirements to make room for people who have extensive travel, life, and/or professional experience rather than only the "right piece of paper." In my education, the teachers who made the biggest positive impact on me and my classmates were "doers" -- professionals taking time from their real-world experience to teach. They didn't teach "by the book." Given a classroom evaluation from a by-the-book supervisor, they's probably fail, but they taught useful reality and life skills, and they had credibility.
There's a saying, "Those who can't do, teach." In my education, that was largely true. Most of those who taught full time and didn't "do" out in the world were not the best teachers. In our current system, teaching below college level is generally a full-time job. Therein lies what might be a problem. Maybe a different system could help -- maybe a trimester in the workplace once per year might bring more practical viewpoints to the classroom.
Our current system is dismal. We should be the best. Therefore, perhaps we need to practice first-principle thought, toss out all status quo, and design a new system from the ground up.
The worst teachers I had were the small-minded, inexperienced people who had the certificate boxes checked but had no life experience, could teach only by the book, and possessed little creativity and no original-thinking skills. I had some very bad teachers, damaging influences, institutionalzed by tenure. Yet, barring political warring, one almost dares not admit that all teachers are not saints, but until we face reality, the problems can't be addressed.
Based on the state of our country and the fact that half of our voting public -- mostly products of our education system -- support a lunatic, lying, corrupt despot, maybe our education system needs overall rethinking.
This article is another reminder of how far we have fallen as a people. You and I are about the same age, and WE let this happen! Let us admit it; we chose MONEY over democracy. Our generation went to college to learn how to make more MONEY, not to learn how to sustain a democracy. The American vision of the ideal is no longer the sustaining of a democracy; the ideal is now about a vision of wealth. We live in a state of denial. The American caste is made of money not the ideals of a government. I am seventy-four years old, retired, and live in a home with a swimming pool and beautiful gardens. We have two grandchildren we spoil with time and gifts. We travel when and where we want. I'm vote Democrat. I'm a hypocrite. I have a lot of rich Democratic friends who scream about equality but live this lifestyle. We need to be about taking less from this earth and its economy. I am a hypocrite, and I don't like it. I've taken more than I deserve! Have you?
We can’t have a healthy democracy without an informed citizenry; one educated to understand how a healthy democracy should work, why ours is currently very sick, and wanting passionately to return it to good health. Perhaps two years of service to our people would be the antidote needed to show our young that there is more to life than “I” phones, fancy cars and continuous entertainment. I love the idea of a civilian conservation corps as one way of doing that service.
I’d love to see even a tenth of the military budget (preferably more) reallocated to the Peace Corps.
Dear Robert, I have followed you closely ever since you created "Inequality for All" and I'll keep my modest subscription here because of all the good work (brilliant, really, thank you) you do. However, I really wish you would consider pulling back from your partisan belief that there is a good party or at least a lesser-evil party.
I don't believe in Gods, Devils or evil. I believe in consequences. I don't believe there is a good party or a bad party, just good people and bad people. Democrats only ever talk the talk, but never walk the walk. Who is worse really, depraved oligarchs whose system deprives the many for the benefit of the few or the enabler oligarchs who "give back" paltry crumbs of their wealth to treat the symptoms of diseases they perpetuate because it pays them well to do so.
The billionaire psychopaths will wrap their little get-together in Davos today having done NOTHING to treat the disease, that is poverty, whether spiritual, intellectual or economic that is destroying our world and its people. Please start calling out Democrats for the craven enablers they really are. Your voice can really make a difference if you discontinue paying lip-service to a do-nothing Party.
The Enabler Party is as much to blame as The Perpetrator Party. How else can you read giving $40B to the military industrial complex to kill all the ordinary people in Ukraine while the gluttonous perps and their enablers are safe and well-fed in Davos?
i agree with you 110%. as a scientist, i am daily confronted by shockingly poor science knowledge amongst many of the people i deal with, and this is often accompanied by astoundingly high levels of pseudoscience retention. it's almost as though people think their lack of science knowledge (particularly their ignorance of biology) is some sort of badge of honour, or maybe indicates their membership of some secret elite class of people.
perhaps part of a good education should include some multi-disciplinary education in the higher grades, such as a class that examines the relationship between culture, history, geography and pandemics? (i mention this specifically because this was a class i designed, as part of my own requirements as a grad student, when i was in university.) such a class would help cement the knowledge that students have learned piecemeal in their earlier years, and help give them greater critical insights into how events actually play out in the real world, and why.
i find that a poor knowledge of science is coupled with a stunning inability to think critically about literally everything. what passes as critical thinking amongst nearly everyone whom i meet is actually an overwhelming lack of respect for expertise, so a person who has devoted their entire life to learning about a particular discipline is viewed as being less knowledgable than a random man (and it's always a random white man) on the street.
one white man's opinion is worth far more than the lifetime of expertise and knowledge generated by 10 women or ethnic or social minorities or immigrants or any non-white non-het group you care to name. for example, as most people know by now, the entire covid-19 disinformation campaign led to more than one million american deaths (the official death count is one million, but the estimated count is at least three times this). unfortunately, these deaths were not limited to those who ardently and openly professed utter bullshit, but included at least as many innocent lives -- people who had health issues (immunocompromised, needed surgery to address health issues, or what have you) that made it nearly impossible for them to avoid becoming a casualty in this war of pseudominds. thanks to this still-growing mountain of self-destructive conspiracy theories, the entire world is now confronted with long-haul covid, which is destroying bodies and lives and will further destroy the already compromised health care system.
and this one -- seemingly small -- thing occurred because people have no real knowledge of science, nor do they have any critical thinking skills.
perhaps one of the possible options for people to serve their country for 2 years (in your educational/citizenship scenario) is for 18-20 year olds to step up and help the medical establishment? they could receive training as nurse's aids, EMTs, lab technicians, physical therapists, cooks, and similar jobs, making it easier for doctors and nurses -- especially nurses, around which the entire medical system revolves -- to do their jobs, so fewer of them would burn out and end up fleeing the medical profession in guilt and despair.
so you are right: it's long past time to enact educational reforms, and your suggestions are excellent starting points.