I think people are putting a lot of faith in education here. I've spent the last forty years in an education system which has boasted that it's all about critical thinking but has become more and more about right thinking pitched at classes in which a few gobble it up like meat and drink, another few become increasingly resentful, and the majority say tell me what I have to do to wade through this bullshit so I can get my piece of paper and get on with my life. I don't think education's made things worse -would that students listened to us that much- but I don't think it's helped.
Unreservedly, I 100% bow to your understanding of education systems, Jokerman. But with respect, if we can`t put increased faith in educating society to change for the better, where can we put it ? Of the many suggestions doing the rounds, like dismantling police departments etc, putting faith in education to deliver a more fundamental take on equality - right through the schooling process does, at least, to a lay person like me, sound viable and doable.
I don`t like the sound of the "do as we say, and no-one gets hurt" solution - wherever it`s coming from, but without viable long-term alternatives that direction of travel could yet find itself on more and more signposts.
OK, so the quest to get all students to buy into all messaging has uphill sections, but when you stack that challenge against expectation, or hope, that people from older generations (ie typically post-school ages) will naturally change their thinking following exposure to positive discrimination, I wonder where investment in people is better placed ? Young, generally receptively pliable thinkers or generally set-in-their-ways older folk who resent change.
As you`ve implied before, answers to the current issue of equality are not going to be easy to come by. No overnight solution to this mess, but learning from gifted professional tutors sounds more of a meaningful and lasting solution than towing a line born of mandate and "street persuasion".
