Is it possible to still say that Mann argument about education being a capital investment is very much true in today’s society? And, if education look upon as a capital investment, why is there many individuals who have never acquire much education become millionaires upon there ideas, investment and so on and not there educational background/status?
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Chapter 4
The ideology shift during the 1830’s and 1840’s was more a reflection of what the people wanted in an education system rather than the government. By creating a “good society” through education, teachers taught ethics and right behavior, I assume. Solving social problems, poverty, and crime through education was a revolutionary idea at the time. One that had never been seen before.
The real question I think these decision makers in the government should have been asking themselves is: what is the purpose of our education system?
– Is it to create a safe and moral environment free of class struggles and poverty?
– Is it to create a place to unify our young Americans and teach them American values so they feel emotionally engaged in society?
– Or is it to teach our kids scholastic subjects like math, history, science and English.
The latter, I believe to be the most important. There can be many different purposes of a school system but I think that at the core, American citizens need to be educated and from that, they will learn all about America in History or all about the struggles of Americans in their English books. The focus needs to be on our place in the world and the intellectual level of our children to make our free society that much more prosperous. In doing so, the power over the school system needs to be given to those in the day to day endeavors of the educators, not those so far above that they can’t see the bottom.
We must step back and ask ourselves: What is education? It is definitely not the indoctrination of our children with defined cultural values in a free society. Yes, this idea did not come up until 100 years later when freethinking became more common to American. And the separation between Church and State had not begun. But, the purpose of education should be more simple and straightforward – to educate or young Americans academically and give them the tools to think freely and democratically rather than a single-mind system of prejudices and Anglo-American culture.