Response #5

Education and Money

After reading your article “Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital”, I have to agree with you that education has become a capitalist business. Education, public or private, should have no part in capitalism. No one should get rich off of a child’s education. Education in the United States does need some major reconstruction. We need to focus more on the child and less on the profit. Children need to gain knowledge and learn all they can in school. It is the right of every person in America to have the chance to better their future.

In your article you state that “the giant corporations that dominate today’s economic world are compelled to search for new markets for investment, outside their traditional fields of operation, leading to the takeover and privatization of key elements of the state economy”. I believe that you are meaning schools when you say new markets. I think that is terrible. Where do big wigs get off making a profit on something that should be provided free to every person? Making education capitalist will lead to education being competitive based on income. The more money a family has the better education the child will receive. That leaves low and middle class children behind, with less of a chance to make a good income later in life.

Another point you make in the article is that students from working class families that eventually will work in working class occupations, are taught “rule following behaviors”. If a child is from an upper class family they are taught to “internalize the values of the society”. Kids’ education should not be based on the amount of money a family has. Every child deserves the opportunity to learn the same things, including rules and behaviors. You also talked about the fact that schools teach mostly behavior modification, instead of knowledge and skills. I never really thought about it until I read your article, but that statement is so true. I have a brother in the sixth grade that is learning things that I learned in fourth and fifth grade. A lot of emphasis is placed on behavior. If a child acts out they can lose their rewards card and not get to participate in school activities. When I was in elementary and middle school we didn’t have rewards cards. If we acted up we got in trouble, not just keep from enjoying a dance or field trip.

Education should not be based on how much money a family has. Rich children should not have a better education. Every child deserves the right to have a good paying job when they graduate. After reading your article I really feel that education has become a capitalist business. Education should be free to everyone. Curriculum in private and public schools should be the same so that every child learns the same information. Children need to be taught how to behave, but they also need to learn skills and information. In order to better education we need to focus less on money and more in the child.