CAleftist
17th October 2011, 17:45
A lot of educational "reformers" in the US (like those supportive of both the Bush and Obama Administrations) are heavily pushing Maths and Sciences so that American kids can "compete" with kids from countries that are supposedly "ahead" of America in education, particularly in Maths and Sciences.
Why this emphasis on a rather narrow range of subjects in education? Because these days,the best-paying jobs are, increasingly, highly specialized jobs in those fields that require a lot of increasingly expensive college education. And of course, in a capitalist system more hungry for profit than ever, "self-worth" and "how much money I make" are basically the same thing for a lot of people in society these days.
My question is: Why is this the case? Historically, you didn't necesarilly need a college education to get a comfortable job, particularly in the industrial sector. Perhaps that is the answer: it was no longer nearly as profitable to have an industrial workforce that was heavily unionized and paid higher wages year after year? In an increasingly "globalized" economy (dominated, of course, by American capitalist interests), movement of capital from one area to another at higher and higher velocity is what is needed for the captialists to make a profit. So therefore, the highest-paying and most-sought after jobs are now in finance, insurance, technology, and other sectors that a highly specialized higher education is a prerequisite (in most cases) for employment.
Why this emphasis on a rather narrow range of subjects in education? Because these days,the best-paying jobs are, increasingly, highly specialized jobs in those fields that require a lot of increasingly expensive college education. And of course, in a capitalist system more hungry for profit than ever, "self-worth" and "how much money I make" are basically the same thing for a lot of people in society these days.
My question is: Why is this the case? Historically, you didn't necesarilly need a college education to get a comfortable job, particularly in the industrial sector. Perhaps that is the answer: it was no longer nearly as profitable to have an industrial workforce that was heavily unionized and paid higher wages year after year? In an increasingly "globalized" economy (dominated, of course, by American capitalist interests), movement of capital from one area to another at higher and higher velocity is what is needed for the captialists to make a profit. So therefore, the highest-paying and most-sought after jobs are now in finance, insurance, technology, and other sectors that a highly specialized higher education is a prerequisite (in most cases) for employment.