Scale dictates anonymity, and probably
mediocrity. Ignorance of literacy's role in centuries of
productive human life dictates that it is time to unload the
literacy-reflected experiences for which there is no reference
in the new pragmatic context.
Who are we kidding?
Scared that in giving up literacy training we commit treason to
our own condition, we maintain literacy and try to adapt it to
new circumstances of working, thinking, feeling, and exploring.
In view of the inefficiency built into our system of education,
we try to compromise by adding the dimension characteristic of
the current status of human experience of multiple partial
literacies. The result is the transformation of education into a
packaging industry of human beings: you choose the line along
which you want to be processed; we make sure that you get the
literacy alibi, and that we train you to be able to cope with
so-called entry-level jobs. Obviously, this evolves in a more
subtle way. The kind of college or university one attends, or
the tuition one pays, determines the amount of subtlety.
Students accept the function of education insofar as it mediates
between their goals and the rather scary reality of the
marketplace. This mediation differs according to the level of
education, and is influenced by political and social decision
making.
As an industry for processing the new generation, education acts
according to parameters resulting from its opportunistic search
for a place between academia and reality.
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