Education…Heavy Sigh

Education is a topic that neither major U.S. party comes anywhere close to getting right. Long before Donald Trump, whenever I watched the presidential debates I had to shut my ears if an education question was asked, because I couldn't stand the answers from either candidate and it would make me not want to vote for the one I had no choice but to vote for.

The current Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, gave a great example of this dilemma the other day when he tweeted this:

Every student should have access to an education that aligns with industry demands and evolves to meet the demands of tomorrow’s global workforce.

Admittedly, Cardona is no Betsy DeVos, but that quote is dreadful. As many people put it to him in their Twitter replies, and the education blog Curmudgication summarized,

...it is important that children be able to support themselves when they grow up, and that they have a set of skills that can be marketed. We would do a huge disservice to students to send them into the world unemployable.

But to imagine that education is simply a means of providing employers with a full supply of useful meat widgets is such a sad, narrow, meager vision of education. It is certainly not what wealthy parents send their children off to school to learn.

Education should align with student needs, not industry demands (and why is it that industry gets to make demands).

Then the next day, Cardonas shared another thought:

Teaching isn’t a job you hold. It’s an extension of your life’s purpose.

Which seemed like a strange follow-up after the previous tweet. Education exists to create worker drones, and teachers are dedicated to that purpose without even being paid for it!

Commenters, once again, were having none of it. A few examples:

Buddy, no. It is a job. It is a HARD and IMPORTANT job; a lot of people love it, and a lot of people are clearly communicating that it’s more than they can take on. This vocational awe is not as good as complete funding and full social supports would be. Maybe get on that.

and

This mindset is what has led to the exploitation of teachers, especially since the majority of teachers are women. It’s disappointing to hear the Secretary of Education parrot empty platitudes instead of championing actionable change.

and

And that purpose is what? To enable fulfilling, healthy lives as independent members of society? Or to squeeze the hopes and dreams of generations until they're a perfectly docile workforce with no other function or value in life? Judging by your own words, it's the latter.

There are education theorists who study and discuss the purpose of education and practitioners who take the question seriously. There are able administrators doing something close to the right thing. 

I don't know why none of them are ever the ones who get hired to run our educational system.