Interesting David, tellingly so, I agree with many of the points made, especially …. Now, I believe, you will be able to understand why I don’t really care about how to “engage the less engaged.” If books are to be commercialized, I would rather live in a world where they are very niche luxury goods. Let them watch Youtube. It’s not like every household in fourteenth century Florence had a copy of Divine Comedy.
I do commiserate with you the fact that in most Western and developed nations, the dumbing down of education, underscored the consistent metrics of Math, Reading, Science Scores sadly confirms what seems a contrived and orchestrated plan to dumb down the populace, we have been witnessing the decline in these 3 main metrics of educational function, endeavour and achievement as impacts especially in the formative years for so many of our children.
As a former educator yourself albeit at the tertiary level I am sure you and colleagues so engaged would undoubtedly have been exposed to the consequences of this malaise in education planning.. to this seeming dumbing down of our collective future, a scurrilous agenda that seemingly impacts as is so oft the case, the poorest amongst us, those unable to afford the benefit of a quality education… many by the time of graduating high school still ill prepared for the rigours of tertiary education, yet universities are inclined to adjust their own standards to accommodate this decline, themselves, the universities having recently transformed from centres of true higher learning to having been commoditised, sellers of a product or products, becoming in the process, profit centres, focussed on fee and income generation, as a measure of performance inverting the raison de etre of their very existence, educational excellence, themselves sadly in chasing the fees and numbers model, to as noted fulfilling the transformation from places of prestige, where only the very best would ever be expected to matriculate, to opening the doors and gates wide, allowing anyone in, including those unable to meet the costs, loans gleefully offered as they are sold the promise that generations who studied before, who by their efforts were able to and had ensured the prestige of higher education, instead it has been cheapened…
Little surprise then that as you opine we are less engaged across a range of metrics, of most strata that we need to manage with success our lives, our communities, our nations, especially it seems in the West, than it seems has been in decades past, certainly on the flip side, we know in nations where education is prized, not universally accessible, thus becomes prized, education, being informed, reading … anything, whatever they can lay hands upon, is truly prized, it reminds me of the times of the ancient Chinese emperors, how working for the emperor was a guarantee for success in life, a role coveted, meaning not just for the selected few, but for their entire family… this the exams emperors would run, competition style throughout their domain were highly contested, prepared for assiduously, the places available to the successful so limited that it was akin to winning a lottery ticket, indeed, the transformation of living standards the successful as
I rants family was like winning the lottery.
Thus started centuries ago in China the study ethos, the recognition that effort, sacrifice made translated to reward, many achievers in the examinations undertaken the emperor, after further study, being appointed to management roles within the kingdom… and in the West we wonder at why Asians prize education, learning, little surprise the disparity in the number of professionals and graduates each year in the major global economies… the number of Computer Engineers, Civil Engineers, Researchers in China dwarfing the rest of the World and yet the West berate China its success, forgetting that at it the very foundation and Epi centre of China’s success is education, learning a desire to learn, contrast your comment regarding the less engaged, especially with what your likely used to dealing with in your home nation the U.S as in my part of the World N.Z and Aust… there is an indifference that abounds to the very issues that remain central to ensuring we have informed societies able to contribute to the politik that impacts them…. I can tell you from firsthand experience that this malaise and lacksadaisacal indifference to such is not something I’ve experienced in other nations I’ve travelled to, more so the supposed emerging nations, in India, Sri Lanka, Russia, Mexico, South America then throughout South East Asia, China, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, the Pacific Islands you will find a hunger and a thirst by people from all strata of society to not only understand but to genuinely learn of that which impacts them, will impact them, in other words they are informed, well informed more so than their Western equivalent citizen…
After all of this what is the solution, I tend to agree, limiting the universal availability to be truly informed will in time rebound to the point hunger for the same will again come to be… the difference is that no one need do anything to so restrict access, or the desire to learn, we are doing it, have been doing it to ourselves, given the present trajectory across a range of measures, this decline will continue at a faster pace, it won’t die altogether, but will become severely restricted to a world of learning and understanding as we once were familiar with, future generations will reinvigorate the hunger needed to create a fully informed society, I guess what I’m saying is that it’s all part of the cycle, the natural order of things, just sad we are living and experiencing the consequences of the same… Kia Kaha from New Zealand
I appreciate the mention, David. 🙌🏼
Interesting David, tellingly so, I agree with many of the points made, especially …. Now, I believe, you will be able to understand why I don’t really care about how to “engage the less engaged.” If books are to be commercialized, I would rather live in a world where they are very niche luxury goods. Let them watch Youtube. It’s not like every household in fourteenth century Florence had a copy of Divine Comedy.
I do commiserate with you the fact that in most Western and developed nations, the dumbing down of education, underscored the consistent metrics of Math, Reading, Science Scores sadly confirms what seems a contrived and orchestrated plan to dumb down the populace, we have been witnessing the decline in these 3 main metrics of educational function, endeavour and achievement as impacts especially in the formative years for so many of our children.
As a former educator yourself albeit at the tertiary level I am sure you and colleagues so engaged would undoubtedly have been exposed to the consequences of this malaise in education planning.. to this seeming dumbing down of our collective future, a scurrilous agenda that seemingly impacts as is so oft the case, the poorest amongst us, those unable to afford the benefit of a quality education… many by the time of graduating high school still ill prepared for the rigours of tertiary education, yet universities are inclined to adjust their own standards to accommodate this decline, themselves, the universities having recently transformed from centres of true higher learning to having been commoditised, sellers of a product or products, becoming in the process, profit centres, focussed on fee and income generation, as a measure of performance inverting the raison de etre of their very existence, educational excellence, themselves sadly in chasing the fees and numbers model, to as noted fulfilling the transformation from places of prestige, where only the very best would ever be expected to matriculate, to opening the doors and gates wide, allowing anyone in, including those unable to meet the costs, loans gleefully offered as they are sold the promise that generations who studied before, who by their efforts were able to and had ensured the prestige of higher education, instead it has been cheapened…
Little surprise then that as you opine we are less engaged across a range of metrics, of most strata that we need to manage with success our lives, our communities, our nations, especially it seems in the West, than it seems has been in decades past, certainly on the flip side, we know in nations where education is prized, not universally accessible, thus becomes prized, education, being informed, reading … anything, whatever they can lay hands upon, is truly prized, it reminds me of the times of the ancient Chinese emperors, how working for the emperor was a guarantee for success in life, a role coveted, meaning not just for the selected few, but for their entire family… this the exams emperors would run, competition style throughout their domain were highly contested, prepared for assiduously, the places available to the successful so limited that it was akin to winning a lottery ticket, indeed, the transformation of living standards the successful as
I rants family was like winning the lottery.
Thus started centuries ago in China the study ethos, the recognition that effort, sacrifice made translated to reward, many achievers in the examinations undertaken the emperor, after further study, being appointed to management roles within the kingdom… and in the West we wonder at why Asians prize education, learning, little surprise the disparity in the number of professionals and graduates each year in the major global economies… the number of Computer Engineers, Civil Engineers, Researchers in China dwarfing the rest of the World and yet the West berate China its success, forgetting that at it the very foundation and Epi centre of China’s success is education, learning a desire to learn, contrast your comment regarding the less engaged, especially with what your likely used to dealing with in your home nation the U.S as in my part of the World N.Z and Aust… there is an indifference that abounds to the very issues that remain central to ensuring we have informed societies able to contribute to the politik that impacts them…. I can tell you from firsthand experience that this malaise and lacksadaisacal indifference to such is not something I’ve experienced in other nations I’ve travelled to, more so the supposed emerging nations, in India, Sri Lanka, Russia, Mexico, South America then throughout South East Asia, China, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, the Pacific Islands you will find a hunger and a thirst by people from all strata of society to not only understand but to genuinely learn of that which impacts them, will impact them, in other words they are informed, well informed more so than their Western equivalent citizen…
After all of this what is the solution, I tend to agree, limiting the universal availability to be truly informed will in time rebound to the point hunger for the same will again come to be… the difference is that no one need do anything to so restrict access, or the desire to learn, we are doing it, have been doing it to ourselves, given the present trajectory across a range of measures, this decline will continue at a faster pace, it won’t die altogether, but will become severely restricted to a world of learning and understanding as we once were familiar with, future generations will reinvigorate the hunger needed to create a fully informed society, I guess what I’m saying is that it’s all part of the cycle, the natural order of things, just sad we are living and experiencing the consequences of the same… Kia Kaha from New Zealand