Balloons and the Pricks Who Burst Them
Posted: Saturday, June 19, 2010
by Randy Vaughan
Laying aside the bitter disappointments of youth, such as not getting that new BB gun, life is filled with balloons and the pricks who burst them. The first such bubble-bursting episode in my life was when my parents forced me to break up with my first girlfriend. I say "forced" only because I was seventeen at the time, still living at home, and the ultimatum given was simple: "Her or here. Pick one." I really wasn't the least bit prepared to go out on my own and so I caved, I broke up with my first true love. In their defense (contrary to what most people think about me, I can indeed be quite gracious and do, at every turn, go out of my way to try to see others' points-of-view), they had convinced themselves that she and I were just dying to run off and get married. Though we were indeed engaged, nothing else could have been further from the truth.
There's always irony and often one need not look very deep. In this case, it proved to be that I did indeed leave home just a couple of months later. My dad-again granting him good intentions-had decided it was time that I start paying "rent." You know, to get me ready for "the real world." I suggested that meant I was free to have anyone over at any time and he, naturally, went ballistic and relied upon the "my roof my rules" routine. It all ended with him telling me if I could find a place on my own for the same or less money, I should move out.
Within the week I did indeed find a nice little "room and board" place for one dollar more per week than he wanted. It was also only about a mile from where I was working and a half-a-mile from my where my new girlfriend lived.
So my mom and dad were the first pricks to burst a balloon in my life, and the lessons abound. A young man's broken heart mends quickly when in the back seat of a VW Beetle with a new girl. And though I wasn't ready to leave home for love, I did it in a minute over money. To this very moment, I've no doubt that's why, at the first hint of a choice between "love" or "job and money," I choose love. Selling my soul once was quite enough, thank you very much.
I've become convinced that there is one "collective balloon" that's been burst and has left most of us with really bad feelings and insights. We'll call that the balloon of public education. I'm no different in that I've long held to preconceived notions of what "education" meant. In the south, of course, it has traditionally been referred to as the three R's of reading, writing, and arithmetic. No one who doesn't have clabber for brains would argue that those are indeed the most fundamental of all skills required in our society, or anywhere else on this planet for that matter (except perhaps the federal government but I'm getting way ahead of myself).
Now I'm a product of public education and excluding fields of "specialized study," regardless of what those might be, I can damned well hold my own with just about anyone. And that's meant to be "all inclusive". In other words, whether we're talking academics or the stuff of daily life, I'm rather well-adjusted (except for my obvious cynicism about most all things American and certainly beyond the scope of this discussion). Two phrases rarely heard come to mind: Student of human nature and self-educated man.
And right here and right now is where the conflict arises, the debates about the purpose of education. Is it, should it be, limited to basic academic studies while leaving matters of human and social relationships to the parents, the home, or is there really a place for "liberal arts," the humanities, in public education?
Now I'm not the least bit bashful about expressing my clear disdain for the emphasis these days being placed upon college educations because of the exposure to "liberal arts". Employers, it seems, have thoroughly convinced themselves that a four-year degree in just about anything, relative to the occupation or not, all but guarantees that that person will be a "better" employee. And that's because of these "liberal arts" thingies about which I know nothing and to which I've never been exposed.
I do know this, however: I've yet to be around folks with these degrees who, because of this "liberal arts" education, were in fact "better" than the rest of us. More educated in the academic sense of the word, that's for sure, but in terms of the stuff of everyday life, interpersonal skills, and so forth, and based on my experience and my observations, I'd have to say that it was a wasted four years.
And here's where it gets all politicized. [Sidebar: I'm fed up with the ongoing trend of turning every damned noun into a verb. Folks used to shop for "accessories" to their wardrobes. Now they "accessorize." And so on. A pox on them all.]
One side is still screaming that public education should remain the province of the three R's and that the rest is "social engineering." The other side insists that parents are woefully inadequate to prepare their own kids for that so-called real world.
What they won't admit, damn it to bloody hell, is that public education as we know it these days serves only one purpose and that's to prepare us to become good little employees, to do our part to participate in the three C's of capitalism, commerce, and consumerism. Neither side nor the schools themselves gives a tinker's damn about anything else and if they say they do they're lying just to keep the federal funding coming in.
So what if Johnny can't read? Someone has to pick up the garbage, right?
So what if Johnny never learns to share or that punching people in the face never solves anything? He has a great future as a politician or in the military.
Few bother to ask the most fundamental of questions: What exactly is the purpose of a public education? Is it to produce better people, or better citizens? I hate the word "citizen". I think only of the Roman Empire when I hear that word. The reality, from where I sit, is that public education serves no other purpose than to instill in everyone the notion that we, in some perverted way, owe something to the state, as if by nothing more than the geographical location of our birth should determine our allegiance, our priorities, our virtues.
The problem isn't that "humanities" and "liberal arts" or even "social engineering" is or is not a part of public education. The problem is we've successfully "dumbed down" the very concept of what "humanity" really means. We expect so little from people these days. Listen: When "be all you can be" is an ad for the military and suggests that "all you can be" is relative to the art of war and killing, I'm not sure how much lower a society can sink.
Ah, but the side in favor of "social engineering" will continue to blame the parents for social misfits and the other side will continue to blame public education.
Politicians are the pricks who burst the balloon of public education. They did it to create, and now perpetuate, the status quo of a nation the god of which is green in color and the only measure of a man's success is the amount of money in his bank account. In short, we long ago threw out the very concept of "education" and replaced it with nothing more complicated, challenging, or rewarding than "vocational training".
Who needs virtue, or even true education, when you have money?
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)You're the kind of writer I always aspired to be... You're writing resonates with me- awesome- Always- EllaIt resonates only because we share the same passions. And for all of the '80's and most of the '90's I tried to write the way the "experts" and "conventional wisdom" insisted was the "right" way, that which would result in "good" writing. They lied. They meant it would be "popular" and therefore "acceptable". I can't do that. I have only my passions, my experiences, observations, and conclusions. I'm betting that when I get settled in and read your stuff, I'm going to find the exact some motivation in what you write: Passion. Again, thanks so much for your kind words....
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