Steve Wimer says:

“...let’s face it, many people are just too plain dumb to matriculate.

Oh man, give that a rest. Most people are not as dumb as you think. The problem is that because of the attack on labor the jobs that pay a good wage are for college educated people. People chase the money because of this. I say raise the wages of the labor/working class. Educate these people through trade schools and Unions. They are not dumb, they just have different talents which are in demand but our society just will not pay for these talents like they should pay and many of look down on the working labor class.

“It’s a waste of money to send people like this to college.”

Maybe, but college has been sold as the only way to have a middle class living standard. I don’t blame people for chasing the dream.

“It’s also dumb to let people using drugs enroll in classes supported with tax dollars.”

BS! I can’t number the people who are at the top and they used many drugs while in college. What would you do to enforce your view?? Piss Test them randomly?? Could I by chance direct you to Freak Republic?? They are with you on this measure. I don’t want a police society no matter why you think this would be good for Amerika.

But wait, that is a way to keep the working class kids OUT. Kool-right?

“Instead, many should be pointed towards trade schools in professions, in demand, paying a living wage.”

OK, sounds good. How about tax support for these schools. Tax the rich to support them.

BTW, FYI trades are not referred to as professions. That is the class bias that is causing the problem. Trades are trades and the next time you have a plumber fix your plumbing you need to think about what IF they didn’t know the trade and how much you really would pay to have that backed up plumbing fixed. Unions were formed to tackle class bias. Many don’t like that. You can’t have that working class scum making a good living and allowing freedom of class mobility and opportunity for their children. Keep the working class in their place and leave colleges uncrowded and open for the educated/privileged class. Competition from the Proles might mean Junior might not get in to that college.

Are you one of those people?

One of the things that scared the elite was the working class kids were offering stiff competition at the colleges. I saw it in the 60’s-70’s as more and more working class kids got to go to college. Can’t have that now.

We need classes in society and they should not mix. Unless they are hired help and they are fixing your plumbing. LOL!!!

“The ruling class did this to us because we got “uppity” in the 1960s and they decided they’d send us back into pre-New Deal America. Keep us underemployed and ignorant and they succeeded, because people are lazy, and our rulers are scum.”

Your analysis is spot on but I really think we are not lazy. We have been progandized to such an extent that most are confused and misdirected. This will pass. Trust me. More and more people will wake up to the scam and then?? I expect repression at some point. That is why armies of Mercenaries have been formed and are being used here and overseas. The elite knows it can’t trust The People to suppress The People reliably and for very long. Look for more gun control by the ruling elite. Tune out our leftist allies(?) who call for gun control. They may mean well or NOT but this is our last redoubt. Iraq is ungovernable by foriegners because of the guns in civilian hands. Do Not be persuaded otherwise. They will try. Who can war against the Beast. They would like you to think they are all powerful but they are not. Be Patient, this will get very bad before it gets better.

The price of education has risen faster than inflation because education is a semi-monopoly.  Its product is irrational—a credential rather than competence—which reflects its nature as a class filter.  Like the medical system, it has an impressive power to propagandize, and so many people confuse education with knowledge or competence.  The confusion is fact more extensive among liberals and leftists, supposedly critical thinkers, than among the right-wing and conservative.  Under these circumstances education’s practitioners have more power to raise their prices than, say, plumbers or purveyors of hot dogs, and so they do.

The cost of higher education has soared far beyond inflationary pressures. Administrators bleed the system dry, and professors resist salary cuts and leave the work to the underpaid T.A.s. Worse, though, are the cost for textbooks. A student can easily spend $1,000 per semester in texts, workbooks, CD-ROM/DVD, and laptops are mandatory. Add parking, tuition, fees, it is not affordable to the average person anymore.

The ruling class did this to us because we got “uppity” in the 1960s and they decided they’d send us back into pre-New Deal America. Keep us underemployed and ignorant and they succeeded, because people are lazy, and our rulers are scum.

I hope I live to see them fall from their abusive position of power. Unfortunately the people may not see what is in their interests and make a tragic decision; but what else is new?

Steve Wimer:
’... Today’s system is producing dysfunctional young adults, welfare leeches, and drug addicts. ...’

I hope you have some statistics or other hard evidence to back up the verbal abuse.

michaelsd - and then of course there’s Bill Gates who lobbied Congress to relax visa restrictions for ‘imported’ techies.  It worked, to the delight of Bill, because a ‘foreign’ techie is paid about $12,000/year less than a home-grown one.

We have a problem educating out young after high school?  Well!  Surprise, surprise…

I thought everybody was happy with the present arrangement:  we the sheeple pay outrageous amounts of money to give our children a substandard education so that when they graduate, still dumb but in debt up to their eyebrows and unable to find a job, the banks can come after us and own our asses till the day we die.  What exactly seems to be the problem with that?

President Obama gave a powerful speech, among others on education at the meeting of the NAACP.

During the years when I went to elementary and high schools I learned more about the world and culture outside school by playing and reading than I learned in school. Reading books has become a huge deficiency in our country. Instead our youngsters watch TV.

I believe that failing to address this deficiency was a major weakness of Obama’s speech. If you cannot afford to own books use the public library and skip homework. I had no homework in elementary school and only very little in high school. I have eventually become a professor at a good university.

There are several weaknesses in our educational system that were not addressed by Obama either. Consider what a toddler manages to “learn” by himself/herself between birth and kindergarten. Then, when the toddler enters kindergarten, it is decided that he/she is a moron that cannot learn/understand anything without the interference of the all-knowing teacher. This is a sure-fire way to kill curiosity. As long as we persist in this error our system will continue to fail except for the very intelligent/talented kids who will succeed in any system.

I am also concerned about the “early learning” method. Why overload the toddlers at a time when they need to master so many other things?

With regards to education after high school, Dionne has addressed a major issue, namely class discrimination. It has always existed to some degree in our post high school education. It is not new but is a growing and serious problem.

michaelsd:
‘I’m not sure if the author is ignorant or lying.  The problem isn’t a lack of education.  The problem is that there are few jobs for educated people. ...’

Capitalism as we know it is degenerating from consumer capitalism into finance capitalism.  It is probably not capable of creating the sort of jobs for which a formal education was once the sure entrée.

As people lose corporate jobs, or fail to find them in the first place, they will become disconnected from the system and thus from bourgeois control.  That might lead to a pre-revolutionary situation—not necessarily some violent upheaval, but a period in which consciousness and social relations change rapidly and profoundly, for better or worse.

While I appreciate your article, you only point to half of the problem.  Since the 1970’s when minorities started entering the “mainstream” public schools, slowly but surely funds have continued to be cut.  States will say it is because teacher unions have such wonderful contracts - that’s a lie - most teachers really aren’t paid what they are worth!  Not to mention that it takes dedication to ensure that other peoples children really learn!  When states have budget shortfalls the first thing to be cut is education funds, which translate to larger classes and smaller curriculum or teaching to the tests!  The truth is this is more about class in America.  White people of privilege not wanting to tax themselves to pay for the education of everyone - this includes poor white people also!  The truth is - many of our schools are using 19th century by rote teaching to students in a 21st century that is much more technically driven! 

The fact that most kids in elementary and high school are not able to recognize geographical boundaries, are not scoring well in reading and mathematics - as evidenced by the numbers of people in remedial classes when they enter college is proof of this!  Until and unless we as a society are honestly willing to face these issues - which are moral issues - we are only lying to ourselves and our children!

Hulk2008 beat me to it.  Right on!  (And, I’ve got to re-read the book “Dumbing Down of America.”)

A long time ago, Bill Mauldin laid out a prescription for Americans that is even more timely now than it was when he wrote it.

“We must peel back the veneer of hypocrisy and deception, stick pins in pompous windbags, puncture inflated egos, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, in a word carry on the fight for the little guy against greedy and vested interests, bigots and fakers, potential Caesars and mis-guided do-gooders.” 

It’s only by way of his prescription that the present ills afflicting everything from our health-care non-system to our failing college/university system can be cured.

Virginia777:
‘I think the main reason for the cuts to their education’s funding (public education has been a target of the Right for years and the MSM participates in this),

is because White power is being “threatened”... ‘

I would not say that White ruling-class power was being threatened.  In the 1970s, when Black and Hispanic people began to constitute a substantial portion of those entering tuition-free universities and colleges in New York and California, it suddenly turned out there wasn’t any money.  That is, the mostly White electorate did not want to tax itself to fund the educations of any large number of non-White students.  However, this was mostly an issue between different groups within the working and middle class; the ruling class wasn’t affected much and in fact many ruling-class types at least postured disapproval of the introduction of tuition charges in these schools.  This is not to say that they were going to use up any political capital to fight the tribal prejudices of middle- and lower-class Whites, however.

Now, of course, we are in a situation where the White people, or rather their descendants, are being eaten by the same class-war monster their forbears let loose.

Bottom-line:  Rank and file US citizens do NOT value education.  In fact, the Limbaugh-Hannity-Beck drones even put down highly educated people as “elites”.  By contrast, immigrants seem to bring along with them an innate respect for learning - something that the far right has beaten out of those who have been in the US for more than one generation.  Even the most destitute illegals want their kids to be well educated. Ironically the businesses and landowners who oppose spending on education have the MOST to lose in the long run.  How many generations will pass while corporations and big agriculture run on the backs of poorly-educated “proseros”? 
Conservatives seem to have a DNA-based lack of foresight.

““Her mother’s quest to better her own and her family’s lot through more schooling was also classic, and we’re falling behind when it comes to opportunities of that sort, too.”“

This is not true, from what I’ve witnessed in our public school systems today.

The new immigrants to this country ARE following the same path as Sotomayor, in large numbers (unheralded of course). They might not have as good of a funding path, but they are industrious and do find other ways to attend good colleges. In college, they chose careers that will lead to good jobs.

I think the main reason for the cuts to their education’s funding (public education has been a target of the Right for years and the MSM participates in this),

is because White power is being “threatened”,

it can’t stand to lose its top position/solo access to inner-circle resources/elitism.

But they are fighting a losing battle (good!!).

Our education system is yet another victim of unrestricted capitalism.  Institutions have become private sector worker farms, teaching only by rote those things needed by business to make a profit.  Research institutions have been turned into private sector R&D facilities (at least they want the research garnered from public expenditure) for the benefit of shareholders not of the public.

I doubt that many Business Colleges within higher education institutions have drastically altered there curricula since the Wall Street explosion of greed.  Every other building on my local University campus is named after a banker.  Same old thing - get your degree so you can make money doing as little as possible while taking from as many as possible.

Back in about 1979 my cousin Deiter came to visit from Germany. He was here for a year and spent his days taking Agriculture classes at CU-Boulder and his nights dodging STDs. At 32 he was in his 14th year of the German higher education experience. The dumbing down of the American people is an ongoing method for growing shackles one link at a time with the MSM providing the lock and talk radio/TV/cable hiding the key. Personally, I cherish my High School drop-out status and feel my hard and productive work gets me closer to my next level in the ladder of spiritual growth. Our 11 year old wants to be an artist. PEACE, Love and Hope

This is a fairly brief excerpt from Eduardo Galeano’s Trilogy; Memories of Fire; Second Vol.; Faces and Masks:

The ideas of Simon Rodrigues*:
Teaching How To Think

The author is considered mad. Let him transmit his ravings to the fathers yet to be born.
    Everyone must be educated without distinction of race or color. Let us not deceive ourselves: without popular education, there will be no true society.
    Instruction is not education. Teach, and you will have people who know; educate. and you will have people who do.
    To order recital from memory of what is not understood, is to make parrots. Do not in any case order a child to do anything that has no “why” at the foot of it. If you accustom the child always to see reason behind the orders he receives, he misses it when he does not see it, saying “Why?” Teach the children to be inquisitive, so that, asking the reasons for what they are told to do, they learn to obey reason, not authority like limited people, nor custom like stupid people.
    Boys and girls should study together in school. First, so that in this way men should learn from childhood to respect women; second, so that women should learn not to be afraid of men.
    The boys should learn the three principle trades: masonry, carpentry, and smithery, because the with earth, wood, and metal, the most essential things are made. Instruction and a trade should be given to women, so that they will not prostitute themselves out of necessity, nor make marriage a speculation to assure subsistence.
    He who knows nothing can be deceived by anyone. He who has nothing, anyone can buy.

*Simon Rodriguez was Simon Bolivar’s teacher. After 25 years in Europe, he returned to America. Bolivar made him director of education in the new country of Bolivia. He opened a model school in Chuquisaca in 1826. Neither he nor Bolivar remained in power long.

I strongly recommend this Trilogy of American History. Like this excerpt, it is collection of events in both North and South America and the Caribbean, starting in 1492 till the 20th Century [I’m still in Book 2].

The reason I posted this is out of curiosity. Would this work today? I believe teaching people to think is mandatory, and we are failing at every step. As we dumb down education our schools produce nothing but automatons. Sure, they do better in fast food joints and sweat shops, but the unemployed quickly fall into crime, drugs, and pandering, as they know nothing, and can do nothing.