Sumblog 7

They're Teaching Her. . . and Then They're Going to Teach Me! 

Our form of American mass public education is beginning to spread worldwide. Before we had public schools and classrooms where most of the educating took place, there were parents, master crafts-people, other more informal ways or learning. From there we began to educate children in a classroom setting and then we began to require education for everyone. That has become our form of education and it is becoming (if not, it already has become) the standard of education world wide.

For example, the NY Times Article, linked here, explains a push by the UN to provide classrooms and primary education for all children. The mass-education model is beginning to take the place of all other forms of education.

My internal feelings are that diversity is better for the world, meaning that nation-states should have their own forms of education, fitted to the needs of the nation-state. Some may need a larger focus on vocational training for factory and craftsman positions as opposed to learning about topic above the practical needs of the country. On the other side of the coin, my realistic feelings point towards conforming to the global standard of education. I think it's very important in today's global conditions to conform to what the world is considering "developed", if a nation-state does not, they might be left slowly developing while the rest of the world grows at a much faster rate.

A compromise between the two sides of the issue could be to slightly tailor the mass-education model to each nation-state's needs. Some nation-states could educate all of their youth on the secrets of the physical world, while others could focus on building and maintaining small engines or electronics.