Re: Why not let kids be kids?

[QCao009@aol.com]

In a message  dated 3/18/2008 12:07:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
campbellp@mail.montclair.edu writes:
 
Look at  the speech of every major U.S.  
politician in the last 5 years --  with the exception of Kucinich and  
Nader -- and you'll see the meme  "to compete in the global economy"  
or some version of "preparing our  children for the 21st century  
economy" in every proclamation on the  purpose of education.

But what if there were no global capitalist  economy to compete in?

Peter:
 
How we frame the discussion usually gives away how we think, especially  when 
there is an intent to lie and deceive.  The BRT's framing of ed reform  
basically ignores the imbalance of trade even in a national context because they  
stand to profit from manufacturing their products in another country and then  
shipping it back here for sale.  So, they are indeed preparing SOME  children, 
not all of them.  Most of them will be pushed out and dumbed down  because 
they will need to continue to shop, to vote against their interest and  to be 
taught to fear anything that's different from them.
 
Your question frames it differently and we need to further explore it so it  
can encompass as many differing viewpoints as possible.  The capitalist  
economy which allowed us to have 2.00 gas is dead, but if China, India and  others 
in the producing world want more cars and more of a consumer  lifestyle, then 
that will continue to feed the greed that funds a) the  concentration of 
capital in the hands of a few and b) the meritocratic emphasis  of education.  We 
here in the US have lost, thanks to the current  administration any ability to 
dictate any terms to other countries.  The  party which touts itself on a 
strong foreign policy sold the house in pushing  fear to concentrate wealth in the 
hands of a few.  So may be, we need to  ask what the economy of the future 
will look like and what education system will  support it.  The one proposed by 
NCLB based on test scores has not, and  politicians who are not so stupidly 
stuck in their own profit making schemes are  just as stupidly backtracking from 
any accountability function it may be able to  deliver.  
 
Deb's and your notion about letting kids be kids has always been a key to  
the American system in comparison to others.  American kids spend  comparatively 
less time in school, less time doing homework, less time in  "academic" 
on-task ventures; and yet, Americans tend to be more creative, more  risk-taking, 
more open-minded.  This has ceased to be as we make them do  more busy work and 
take more tests and become more obsessed with goal  orientation.  In calling 
for more quantitative measures of accountability,  we have ignored the 
importance of childhood and of play.  We have touted  ourselves in these reform 
efforts as more focused on preparing our children for  jobs...low-paying manual 
jobs which are leaving the country, and at the same  time bringing in students in 
other countries which are more prepared to take  over the middle class 
engineering and science-based jobs we once were qualified  and suited for.
 
I am sure the lies will not stop, but as an electorate, will we become  
somewhat more intelligent through the last eight years of stupidity drooling to  
realize we have been had ?  Or are we going to continue to be fearful and  
unimaginative ?  Structured in a different and more meaningful way, can  early 
pre-K be a good thing ?  Just having them there so someone can count  the beans is 
another waste and further deepen the gap within the family system  as time as 
a commodity is more and more deprived from their parents.
 
Quan




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