Re: <nettime> New Media Education and Its Disconnects

[Ian Dickson <ian@iand.demon.co.uk>]

David Patterson writes:

>
>jonCates wrote:
>
>> part of the benefit of an emphasis on "critical thinking" is that
>> students can be taught to recognize that they will not be able (in
>> the current situation @ least) to secure any single job [+/or] avoid
>> being uninsured for periods of time [+/or] not experience various
>> degrees of institutionalized poverty. these are very clear realities
>> in the current situation as i experience it here in the us.
>
>And, why is that our reality? Because here in the good ol' USofA we must give
>great returns to those who DON'T WORK: investors. What are we teaching our
>children? "You must work for nothing so that some stockholder can retire
>early." What a truely bogus system!
>
If the system is bogus, how would you change it? It is not constructive 
to cry foul unless you have a better idea.

And remember - the reason that today's young people have these issues is 
several fold

1) Their parents and grandparents voted that their children pay for 
massive benefits, not very much caring how this might impact on the 
children.

2) The maligned Stockholder is probably an ordinary retired person.

3) American consumers, for some completely selfish reason, seem to like 
to buy cheap, high quality, goods made overseas.

Also observe that all this has made the US so unattractive a place to 
live that the rest of the world has closed it's borders to American 
economic migrants.

Cheers
-- 
ian dickson                                  www.commkit.com
phone +44 (0) 1452 862637                    fax +44 (0) 1452 862670
PO Box 240, Gloucester, GL3 4YE, England

           "for building communities that work"

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