Paul Krugman: Ignorance Is Strength

Students holding placards try to attract other students to their cause during a protest at the California State University of Los Angeles campus on March 6, 2012 in California. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

One way in which Americans have always been exceptional has been in our support for education. First we took the lead in universal primary education; then the "high school movement" made us the first nation to embrace widespread secondary education. And after World War II, public support, including the G.I. Bill and a huge expansion of public universities, helped large numbers of Americans to get college degrees.

But now one of our two major political parties has taken a hard right turn against education, or at least against education that working Americans can afford.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

Comments

[elblanc0]

01:38 AM on 03/13/2012

"Mr. Santorum made headlines by declaring that President Obama wants to expand college enrollment because colleges are “indoctrination mills” that destroy religious faith."

If the only thing college offers is throwing off the yolk of religion, I say it's well worth the price of admission.

[RIghtGuy101]

11:50 PM on 03/12/2012

Mitt Romney's comment, “Don’t just go to one that has the highest price. Go to one that has a little lower price where you can get a good education. And, hopefully, you’ll find that. And don’t expect the government to forgive the debt that you take on," is dead on. The government is subsidizing education so much that you have a bunch of people with college educations working at Starbucks. While I was job searching, even some big name companies for example don't give a crap about a Masters Degree. The fact is that education is over subsidized and has created a college-educated supply glut. Because the supply of educated labor is too high, the price of that labor is way too low. People with degrees can't find good work! Companies are getting people with degrees on the cheap. Its not like the Federal Government is forgiving these student loans. Schools are turning into this machine that squeezes students dry in both time and money with no return. If education were a business, people would cut their losses. People should look for the best quality for the lowest price. Krugman is an idiot if he thinks that everyone should just go to highest price school and get screwed by their debt for 30 + years.

[Student Commodities]

07:52 PM on 03/12/2012

They have taken "a hard right turn against education, or at least against education that working Americans can afford" because they are afraid of what students are learning. They're learning how to critical think about the world and their government's policies -- the inequitable policies that Republicans are often behind. Students who have the ability to critically think and question those motives are a grave threat to the power structure and status quo Republicans have worked so hard to maintain. Oops, a huge portion of those same students of voting age also elected our current president. Since that's just too radical for many on the far right to accept, there must therefore be something wrong with our schools...our teachers...public education in general.

[onasphere]

07:30 PM on 03/12/2012

Religion and science have always been in flux. Neither can be on top for long. Science was doing really well until 9/11, then religion started climbing back on top. Churches and families teach religion, and schools teach science.

[freeSpeakr]

04:52 PM on 03/12/2012

Post WW II, the US needed a highly educated population to compete with the Soviet Union. Hence the push for education. The economy was growing like a weed and there was plenty of room in the job market. If you couldn't find something exactly in the field you prepped for you could probably land something that paid decent wages in a closely related field.

Fast forward to the 80's and the simultaneous fall of communism and the rise of neo-liberalism. Well, now that those commies are in hell there's no need for such a highly educated populus. After all, why spend the money when plenty of other countries are producing highly educated people for their economies that are now employed by the same corporations that used to hire American grads. Soon we'll get back to a Paretsa-esque equilibrium of 20% of the population enjoying some for of fiscal/social security and 80% wage-slaves.

Why? Because "it is the nature of priveliged position that it develops its own political justification and often the economic and social doctrine that serves it best". John Kenneth Galbraith, 1996

[Ayla87]

02:30 PM on 03/12/2012

I'm not against higher education, I just don't know why educators push it on everyone. Forget the fact that only a fraction of high school graduates in this country are prepared to handle college coursework (look up the literacy statistics one day, you'll be disgusted). There are thousands of students in college right now who have no desire, motivation, or idea of what they want to accomplish with their lives.

I mean, I'm 24. I dropped out of college three years ago and was lucky enough to find a job that allowed me enormous opportunity to explore an industry and come up with an idea of what I want to do with my life. But that doesn't change the fact that I spent three years screwing around in community college with no plan, no motivation and a very exaggerated sense of my academic abilities.

I even told my guidance counselor that I didn't want to go, and refused to fill out applications to four year schools. Her response? "Do you want to work at McDonald's your whole life?" Really? Instead of throwing scare tactics at me I would've been much better served if she had told me to lose 30 pounds and join the Navy. I would be in the exact same place I am today, only with job training, money saved up, discipline, and I would be in better physical condition.

[Thanks4Watching]

01:09 PM on 03/12/2012

Education is what can literally make or break a successful nation. In a world where China - CHINA - is educating circles around us, we can't afford to dumb our nation down over little more than political ideology.

And if education is really all it takes to turn someone liberal, then that is the most damning indictment of modern American conservatism I've ever heard... and it came from a conservative.

[Ayla87]

02:12 PM on 03/12/2012

As critical as I am of public education in this country it isn't fair to compare the US to China. China pushes out underachieving students, either to vocational tracks or out of school altogether, to the point where their reported dropout rate is around 40%. The actual dropout rate is probably higher.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/2004/Jun/99362.htm

Only a fraction of thier students go on to the college prep programs.

[psandysdad]

06:52 AM on 03/12/2012

"Ignorance is Strength" is from Orwell's '1984'.

The other two slogans adopted by Ingsoc (same novel): "War is Peace", and "Freedom is Slavery".

[TheBlueCoyote]

07:30 PM on 03/12/2012

I've been thinking a lot of those quotes every time a GOP candidate makes a statement. F&F

[Your name here]

11:16 PM on 03/11/2012

Google Manuel Valenzuela's essay, The Dumbing Down of America

[lrobb]

06:08 PM on 03/10/2012

What will a Bachelor of Arts/Sciences degree from a university get you a two year Associates degree at the local Community College won't? The answer is very simple: A core curriculum spanning the American cultural experience.

I received a BA from a University of California campus as a double major in History and Dramatic Arts 1968. How did it serve me? Today this would be considered a gratuitous education leading to no possible well paying job.

However, my education which included required courses in science and math--in which I had less than no interest at the time and the relevance of which was totally obscure---gave me the ability to talk to almost anyone about almost everything and not come off as a complete idjuit.

My diffuse education over two extra years more than was required for me to learn the basics of a profession is what prompted me to start my own company. A University education is the only thing which allowed me to be the captain of my own ship and the master of my own fate.

Yes, we need well educated workers. However we also need well educated entrepreneurs and those are born, not made, but require a core curriculum to be able to communicate their vision.

[bascombe]

12:51 AM on 03/12/2012

good story and well put.

[Muslimhumanist]

03:23 PM on 03/10/2012

I am a college professor and, surprise, a liberal democrat. But as my students quickly discover even in classes like Voices in Contemporary Islam not much of human knowledge can be easily classified as left or right. Unfortunately a significant wing of the Republican party has decided to run against knowledge challenging the science of global warming, the theory of evolution as well as basic facts of human history. They fear that students may develop new opinions if they go to college-- just imagine going to college for 4 years and having not one opinion challenged. The sad thing is there are really bright political conservatives--both teachers and students. In this new world where you can't run for office in the Republican party unless you deny climate change and believe homosexuality is a choice many of my conservative students and colleagues are deeply embarrassed by what has happened to their Republican party. It may have been the inevitable result of the Southern Strategy and relying on a fundamentalist base but it is nevertheless a real tragedy for truly bright and insightful conservative intellectuals.

Peace/salaams/shalom

[lrobb]

06:22 PM on 03/10/2012

That you identify yourself as a Liberal in the first sentence is incredibly telling. It says that even though you are professor (supposedly dedicated to impartial knowledge/research) you will bring your ideological bias to bear when you impart said knowledge to young minds like sponges.

It would have meant a great deal more to me if you has said "I require all my students to research every side of a problem and report back same." And then your grading would have been based on the quality of the research, not the ideology of the result.

[Muslimhumanist]

06:35 AM on 03/11/2012

Respectfully, you miss my point. As I said in my original post most knowledge does not break down on a left right axis. I certainly "require all my students to research every side of a problem and report back the same." And I never grade according to ideology. I may be a liberal democrat but active Republicans have earned "A"s in my classes and liberal Democrats have done poorly. In terms of research and examinations they never come up. The best learning environment, in my opinion is one in which students do not have to fear that they will be punished or rewarded for their political leanings not one in which we all pretend that politics doesn't exist. I am in fact pleased that although I am a known political liberal openly conservative students take multiple classes precisely because I am not ideologically judgmental. And despite the stereotype I find that to be the case for almost all faculty--left, right and center.

Peace/Salaams/Shalom

[starchildjg24]

04:19 PM on 03/13/2012

You have absolutely nothing upon which to base the accusations in your post! "supposedly dedicated" - how in the world do you know enough to accuse him/her of lying? The poster didn't mention research or grading at all, you just used your own stereotype to post nonsense.
All of which goes to prove the original poster's point. Do you want student research proving that the earth is only 6000 years old? Reputable, scientific sources for such a position would be impossible to find!

[lrobb]

07:46 PM on 03/10/2012

Follow on corollary. I graduated from a University of California campus in 1969. There is no way I would have paid one cent for my daughter to attend the same institution in 1994 because it was a bastion of liberal ideology.

By the time she was ready for college we had moved to South Carolina, and she graduated from the local branch of the state U. There was little ideology and tons of inquiry. The classes were small, and the tuition low. She got a BA in Business and attended more seminar classes than a graduate student at UC.

Not to mention the tuition was incredibly affordable and the local electric co-operative had a wonderful scholarship for local students which meant she graduated with no student loan debt This is a Southern Strategy everyone should get behind.

[Nm123]

02:27 PM on 03/10/2012

It is called Charterizing the public schools. The Republicans are the real winners as the students are further dumbed down by the radical changes in the curriculum.

[TeacherAnnie]

04:16 PM on 03/10/2012

http://dumpduncan.org/

[CaptainVideo]

01:37 PM on 03/10/2012

THERE IS A CLASS WAR GOING ON AND THE PLUTOCRACY IS WINNING!

The election this Fall may be the last chance for the commoners to prevent the plutocracy from fully and totally entrenching itself.

[CaptainVideo]

01:20 PM on 03/10/2012

"“Don’t just go to one that has the highest price. Go to one that has a little lower price where you can get a good education. And, hopefully, you’ll find that."

Reserving the top tier schools for their chilren is one of the main techniques of the plutocracy for maintaining control of the country. And Romny is one of their chief advocates.

The Plutocrats do not want their priviledged and often spoiled children to have to compete for grades with talented and more ambitious and hard working children of the commoners.

And more importantly, when highly talented children of the commoners can get into these schools, like Obama succeeded in doing, they will be in a position to challenge their control of the country.

[yappnmutt]

10:18 PM on 03/09/2012

when your base are descendants from the plantation mentality the plantation mentality prevails.

having said that the problem with education in the usa is not unaffordable college but malinvestment in education. only the top 15% of a class is college material and the bottom third of that group don't belong in the top colleges. the rest need to get some other technical, trade, ancillary(office work) or semiskilled manual labor training(truck driving). this needs to established in high school by the sophomore year. .gov should support .gov schools with federal grant and guaranteed loans and let private schools take advantage of the free market unencumbered by .gov interference.

[CaptainVideo]

01:29 PM on 03/10/2012

"only the top 15% of a class is college material"

WHAT A SNOB!

[GreatGrand mama]

12:38 AM on 03/12/2012

I wish I knew what cross country truck driving paid... because I would be in the same pay scale as my younger brother... $$$$$$$$$ in the bank and he and his wife are doing what they want to do .. without the struggle.. because my brother can drive a semi on turn around 600 miles a night trips.. he is still working and driving.. but his wife has cut your hours. and it sure pays more than most college jobs.