Are you rich enough for an education?

[Peter Lemkin]

I can only speak for the American education system, having been in it for a looooooong time. In my lifetime, I saw it change for the worse before my eyes. I went to an unusually great and progressive high school. Today, many of the teachers I had would today be fired [or never hired] for the progressive books they suggested and had us read [1984, Brave New World, Clockwork Orange, All Quiet on the Western Front, Of Mice and Men...and on and on and on. Not all were, but generally, they were progressive socially and politically; open to the students expressing their own ideas and questioning everything. Today, most high schools - all schools - want cloned yes boys and girls and not to question the system. I learned about unions, socialists, the true story of the Great Depression and even some of the horrible truth of those outside of the Axis Powers who were pro-Axis during WW2 in history classes....you'll not find much of that today - rare even at university level now. Also, when I went to University a broad liberal education was encouraged no matter what your area of concentration...so even someone taking e.g. chemistry for a major was expected and often had to take a language, several liberal arts classes each semester etc. Now, most universities discourage this and have the students concentrate only in their field and closely related fields. Again, turning out robots with no idea about the rest of the world and taught not to question the orthodoxy of the field they are in. Student activism was very much alive and well when I was an undergraduate!....it had even changed toward less activism by the time I was in graduate school and now is kept at a very low level and dealt with with a very heavy hand by the university police and authorities when it bubbles up again....the pepper spraying incident and what happened on other university campuses vis-a-vis Occupy good examples. The school system has changed from one of education to one of indoctrination and training only what is needed for worker bees, sadly. Now, that it is also so much more expensive to go to school is a way to keep the riff-raff out and also to control the students....as someone indebted is much less likely to protest, as they might loose their degree but still be stuck with the debt!