Ralph Niebuhr echoed the concern of many that the educational systems does
not "awaken the minds" of our children, and expressed his dismay that the
prison population of California currently outnumbers higher education
enrollees. He suggests:
>Privatization might be a good first step. At the very least it would
>quickly flatten out the suffocating layers of administrative parasites
>that currently weigh down our public education system.
This overlooks the systemic loop, namely that these "administrative
parasites" - for whom there is little or no productive work available,
even for those who actually possess skills - once they are out of work
become the potential incarcerated of tomorrow.
Another way of looking at this is that the socioeconomic system, unwilling
to distribute wealth according to contribution, creates a huge population
which must be cared for, lest they rip the system apart. Some are
provided with "welfare" payments, some are provided with "social
security", some are provided with sinecures (e.g., useless administrative
positions within the educational system), and some are simply put away in
penal institutions.
Not too many people remember anymore that Social Security was created not
to provide a safety net in old age, but rather to remove older workers
from the job market in the midst of a gigantic depression.
--Jack Hirschfeld Do figures of authority just shoot you down? jack@his.com Is life in the business world a drag?
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>