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Comments on: Ignore the young https://www.didyoulearnanything.net/blog/2012/04/21/ignore-the-young/ An archived blog about education, language, peace, and other fine things Mon, 26 Jun 2023 19:09:17 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 By: Michael https://www.didyoulearnanything.net/blog/2012/04/21/ignore-the-young/#comment-1780 Sun, 22 Apr 2012 08:07:35 +0000 http://www.didyoulearnanything.net/?p=2141#comment-1780 In reply to Hagen.

Absolutely.

On some level, the justifications for schooling are merely a result of said schooling. If for no other reason, then simply because the vast majority of society has been through the system, suffered, and desperately needs to believe it was necessary.

From there, it’s a short step to provide yourself or the less-fortunate (if you went to a private school) with emotionally satisfying but logically unsound reasons to maintain the status quo. Those who suffer(ed) need to know it’s for a reason, those who profit need to know they can continue to count on it.

This makes it all the more important to point out the inconsistencies in the supposed reasoning behind the system. If more people start to see the system as cruel and absurd, there might conceivably be enough good will in the public to change the situation to some degree.

]]> By: Hagen https://www.didyoulearnanything.net/blog/2012/04/21/ignore-the-young/#comment-1777 Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:07:44 +0000 http://www.didyoulearnanything.net/?p=2141#comment-1777 Well, the justification given for a certain structure in society obviously is not necessarily the “real reason” behind it. I think it is much more likely to be the case that both the justification as well as the structure do have a similar origin.
I suppose you could start by suggesting that all social structures (be they institutional or ideological in nature) on some level serve the reproduction of the current relations of production, i.e. they keep the system running and stable.
What kind of people does our economy need? (Note: The elite obviously has their own private and expensive system in place.) Knowledgeable but uncritical people, as well as cheaper, less knowledgeable, also uncritical people. Of course that doesn’t work as a (system stabilizing) justification easily (although a lot of arguments go into that direction as well; naturally they do so even more and more often), so the justification necessarily has to differ from the system it justifies. Justification for example asserts the free individual (sounds great although it’s only an apparent freedom only, of course), using this broad concept to justify the (reproducing) selection that schooling does. After all.. all people are different individuals, right?

(I have work to do, otherwise I’d try making a longer, much more thorough argument here. ;) )

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