Education and Our Welfare State

We often hear that American is falling behind in education.  We want our kids to get, not just a good education, but  the very best education.  It almost as if we were climbing a mountain, and  always looking toward the top.

But a recent poster post on Face Book read:  I work hard because millions of people on WELFARE depend on me.  America’s burgeoning welfare state is cause for concern – it seems to be a monster stalking our nation and it’s out for blood.  I know I am a contrarian, but I would suggest the welfare state is an unintended consequence of our educational system.

Out of work, I once applied to a WalMart-like store and was lucky to actually get to see the manager.  I say lucky because he pointed to half-a -ream of applications on his desk.  I was applying for an “associate” job which most likely was a dead-end job.  When I said that I hoped he would not consider my education as a reason not to hire me (I desperately needed a job, any job) he broke off eye contact with me and said in an off-handed manner that he had three PhDs on the floor already.  The jobs being created now are low level, low pay jobs like these. But this truth seems lost on commentators writing about education.

Always trying to be the best in education is fraught with unintended consequences. 

I once taught high school in Bristol, NH.  The school had odd start and stop times.  When I asked why I was told it was to accommodate the town’s largest employer (200 souls).  It was so kids could be dropped off and picked up before and after work.  Schools use to work with local employers to produce local kids to join their workforce.  Now they kowtow to global job requirements – and I’m not sure why.  There are precious few coveted jobs out there that require the best post college, educated employees possible.  And if a company has candidates that are in all other way equal, the company will probably pick a candidate from Asia which he can hire much more cheaply because the applicant is not yet a US citizen.  And I think it is also likely nowadays that the company’s manufacturing plant is already in Asia, so having someone who can speak Mandarin or Hindi is a plus, too.  This education game is often rigged so why are we playing it?

Years before my stint in Bristol, I sat in on a new hire’s first interview with the technical manager I worked for.  The new hire was a chemist from a prestigious school and at the end of the interview asked if there was anything he could read to get ready for his new job.  The technical manager broke off eye contact and said simply, “We’ll teach you everything you need to know.”  There are two points to be made here.  First, no company with a proprietary product is ever going to let go of that information – it just ain’t going to be taught in schools.  Second, Human Resource departments use to train employees - now they just hire and fire them.   They hire the best man for the job, and not the best man.  Technology changes more rapidly than ever before and when you hear companies complain that they can’t find employees they can retrain, one might ask whose fault is that.  This is not a failure of our school system and I see no reason why we should be chasing our tail to fix it.

The transmission of culture to the next generation is still considered a function of our schools.  It’s true that culture is often overbearing in education – it certainly is in countries I’ve lived in – but now our schools seem devoid of the teaching of culture at all.  First, religion went in the 1960s and then the emphasis on math and science dominated the curricula.  And when English, the humanities, and arts programs waned, sub-cultures in America – the very groups we were trying to treat fairly – “agitated” to get their cultures honored in our school systems.  Twenty years ago I read that it was now possible to get a degree in, not a quasi-English program like business communication, but in English itself without ever having read Shakespeare.  The bard had been supplanted by African and feminist writers.  Right or wrong if our schools are communicating cultural values at all today, it is a very confused hodgepodge of values.

All of the above has contributed to the mind set of certain citizens (not all but some) of our current welfare state.  Free to assimilate into American culture or not, they choose to not assimilate.  They find support in music and celebrities who, if not openly un-American, are certainly anarchistic.  They are equally emboldened by our educational system that can’t seem to find a consensus or a center.  America has come to a point where “We have met the enemy and he is us,” has never been truer.

Our political system has sold us a bill or goods – goods once but not now made in America.  I’m no mind reader, but when President Obama touted for his speechifying extolled us to “Change America” I’m not sure what he wanted us to change into, but I’m pretty sure I know what he wanted us to change from.

Please keep working because you are not only supporting millions of Americans on Welfare, but you are also supporting retired people like me.  We love you very much, now get back to work.

FG  2/9/2015

I thought my last poem might have riled a few, but I don't think anyone looked at it.  So it goes.