Testing Education:An Open Conversation, Part 1

I wrote the following, today, in response to The Unknown Candidate's Testing Education post of November 26th. I include this herein as a partial, ongoing response to my What Is To Be Done? post of November 23rd. Please feel free to join in the discussion.

Thank you for this post, TUC. This is a pet peeve of mine as well.

But let us ask, Why would the US ruling elite want an educated citizenry?

What the politicians and their corporate backers require to maintain their hold on power is an ignorant populace which is technically adept at performing commodifed tasks amongst the laborers and in-the-corporate-box thinking amongst its "knowledge" (uncritically minded) workers.

So, before discussing educational strategy we must, first, ask all concerned what their educational objective is. Those of the ruling "economy-first" mindset -- meaning corporate-profit-driven economy, not a sustainable one which recognizes a higher ethos than maximization of shareholder value -- see technical training as most critical, ideally situated within a context devoid of unorthodox historical considerations, say of the Howard Zinn sort, which may trigger a reassessment of all we've been told.

From your and my points-of-view, we see a critical education as a prerequisite to this experiment we call democracy; but, if the last thing the corporate-political elite want is a true democracy, then they'll pursue different means to very different ends than you and I.

Sean (iNoodle.com)