I’ve become a huge fan of RSA’s videos lately, and the latest one I’ve seen is no exception:
This is not really meant to counterpoint with Greg’s post from late last month so much as to underline it. Teachers are not the ones over-medicating kids or insisting that we don’t adapt the curriculum or focus instead on standardized testing. Indeed, this video’s highlights of problematic changes have gone hand-in-hand with a continual flogging of teachers for not making an outdated model of education magically work.
The problem, ultimately, is of course with capitalism. Until people can educate for the sake of it instead of for some utility value that ends in a dollar-sign, we’re not going to make much progress. Public education may have been the gift of a small window in the history of capitalism, but that window has been swiftly slammed shut now and we’re looking at broken glass all over the floor.