iTOMB. Tala (Syria) 11.24.12 (not the girl described below)
"What do I get if I win?", the little girl asked as she sat down eagerly to paint her little square. "Well, nothing", I said laughing, "It's not a competition." - as her father looked reassuringly at me, smiling warmly as well at my answer.
Yet so goes the state of education in America and dare I say, much of the rest of the world as I have seen it ... see the whole story here.
And that's insane because there's another reason. Doesn't he understand that Asian students are filling up the classrooms in the US, England and Australia left by declining student populations in the West - and that the hallmarks of an ascriptive society are replacing those in America previously based on achievement? And students and parents are more more interested in buying a 'brand'? Most Asian students live in cloistered housing, only deal with their own culture, and many learn little or nothing of the actual subjects - but once that degree is on their CV, they come back to Asia and get hired like fish in an employment net that looks for letters and brand names over any real accomplishment. Could someone please tell me where Steve Jobs went to school? I don't want to go there!
For the record, Seth Godin graduated from Tufts University and received his MBA from Stanford (both strong educational brands). Steve Jobs attended but dropped out of Reed College in Portland Oregon. He has never received a formal degree in any subject.
I understood that Santa Claus was not real at a fairly early age, but not too early. Not so early to not have enjoyed the fantasy, joy and magic that that sort of parable creates. Fantasy is good, and suspension of disbelief is good, so long as those things are temporary and in pursuit of relaxation and a different view of reality. But when they are used to deceive and manipulate, that where I start to take issue.
And the past few years have given us all enough to take pause and ask, just how many magic bullet theories can their be? And now many can we believe? The film Zeitgeist and the whole unsolved 9/11 story is almost old news, but maybe getting louder again as we start to examine the real reasons behind the recent recession and financial crisis. That, and the fact that the Federal Reserve (FED) is a actually a privately held corporation yet few people know. Have we had enough? Well, not if Michael Moore hasn't made a film about it.
So enter Bill Gates. And just when you thought I was going all conspiracy theory on you I bring in the straightest guy in the room, talking about what? Not so much conspiracies, but more deception of the people amongst the 50 states in the US with their education budgets - and what's wrong with them.
This talk is courtesy of TED2011 and I hope it makes everyone think. The last few days, the Internet has been out at my house due to some construction issues and I've been sworn to HBO and Star TV. Films like the more recent The International and even Sneakers from the 90s have made me think that sometimes fiction has more truth than what is sold as fact on the television news. With Journalism currently, it seems we need most to suspend our belief instead of our disbelief - and there's something very, very wrong with that.
