Today began a series of college presentations during 3rd period senior English. And when I say college presentations, I mean small community/ technical college presentations. Although I feel the presentation today merits serious criticism, it is not because I have anything against such schools; in fact, I attended a junior college for my sophomore year and had an excellent experience.
That said, the presentation this morning personified much of what I believe is wrong with the philosophy of modern society and education. First, all that was said encouraged the students, to borrow a popular military slogan, to "be an army of one"; students should do what ever they want to do as long as it makes plenty of money. I may be over simplifying the presenter's position, but I believe that is the essence of her message. Because this particular school touts its education as "cheap," "quick," and "easy," they hold that it will be the fastest and quickest way for one to start making money. And why should one want to make money? To get the stuff one wants. It's the quickest path to buying and selling.
From there, the well-intentioned lecturer went on to explain that the importance of language is communication. And the importance of communication is that it is useful in Business. And Business can only happen as the result of networking. The reason that networking is important is that it is how to get a job, find customers, and (ultimately) make money.
Furthermore, networking doesn't happen on its own. And the best (and probably only) tool that makes networking possible is technology. Technology, above all, is desirable and good. Technology, apparently, is the double-edged sword of networking: it costs money, but it also makes money. And it is impossible to buy or sell without technology.
An example given during the lecture of the indispensable good brought to society via networking and corresponding technology is (drum-roll)....Guitar Hero. The video game. And there is a litany of reasons that makes it a veritable Holy Grail: (1) it is technology, (2) because it is technology, it costs money, (3) as consumers gather together to play it, networking happens, (4) subsequent networking results in featured songs being downloaded from the Internet (more technology and more networking) by the millions.
This, apparently, is life's vital substance: the fulfilling of one's wildest materialistic dreams. Of course, access to the dream-come-true comes at a price (more money, and the cycle restarts).
During the presentation, I wrote down several statements that I found to be so disturbing that I wanted to remember them. Unfortunately, that paper mysteriously vanished. Still, I came away with several questions:
Is God's holy gift of language only important because of one way people use it?
Is human worth to be measured in terms of economic participation?
Is making money inherently, by its very nature, good?
Even assuming the product is legal to produce and sell, what if it is poorly made, unnecessary, conducive to forming addictions (and I'm not just talking about drugs and alcohol), or antagonistic to one's health or development in other ways?
Can anyone calculate the actual long-term cost of dependence upon technology?
For all the video games, computer programs, information, and perceived monetary liquidity we now have, what knowledge and wisdom has been (whether intentionally or not) sacrificed?
What, in the end, is good?
__________
I fear what education and society are becoming by either ignoring or being unable to consider such essential questions.
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