In Stark Contrast
It is interesting this searching, it has proven to me how badly we can pigeon hole ourselves. In fact this whole process of a creative generation and search for information has shown me how much creativity I was lacking in my previous searching/ researching. Last week I found an interesting link between the Goddess of memory and her posterity the 9 Muses of creativity. I would have never made the connection otherwise. After seeing this very idealized side of learning, memory, creativity and the educational institution this weeks search has left me confronted and aware of my own naivety. Leaving me to once again reflect upon my position as a student and Art educator.
There is a large amount of history in this week's search, but to get to the point, there was a common thread among all the searching, the Powell Memorandum.
The memo can be deducted to the question I have written below:
How do you destroy and privatize a social service?
1. Defund it- take all of the governmental funding, divert private funding to the point that it no longer works and the public is so frustrated in trying to get the service they rely that they become desperate.
2. By defunding the vital service and creating a desperation the public will then easily pay for a private service to end the frustration or get what they need.
3. Rarely is the new private service comparable to the original social service.
*These social service include but are not limited to pensions, retirement, social welfare, health care, penitentiary and education at all levels.
This topic easily tumbled out of control as I continued my search. But the source of the trickle down ideology of privatization always came back to the Powell Memorandum- The Attack on American Free Enterprise System (1971). Powell was a lawyer for Phillip Morris and was later appointed a Supreme Court Justice. He wrote a paranoid memo alerting American corporations and the Chamber of Commerce of the excesses of democracy incurred due to Roosevelt's New Deal that was used to pull the country out of the Great Depression. Powell's Memo occurred at a time when the United States was at war with Vietnam, communism was spreading, protests for human rights, equal rights and pay for women, the elderly, the sick, Black Americans and the disenfranchised were rising to fight against the wrong they saw in their country. As Powell says, the communists and the hippies are the outliers to worry about... it was the entire population that didn't fit into the top tier of society. Powell believed it was necessary to safe guard the American corporation. In order to do so the general public would need to become obedient, apathetic citizens.
Powell suggested and later implemented the defunding of the public schools and universities which has continued to the present day in the United States. It has resulted in the demonisation and humiliation of teachers while forcing them to teach to test. Education is but the bare bones of what it should be.
Noam Chomsky spoke the subject of the state of education today. In one talk, The Corporation of University, he discusses that since honeymoon phase of Roosevelt's New Deal wore off, the rhetoric surrounding education (but isn't limited to) has changed dramatically. When Roosevelt stepped in to bring the country out of the Great Depression, he provided many services and incentives to citizens into to relieve stagnation. There was at the time an understanding that the government would take care of its people and protect them from the malpractice of large corporations. With the empowerment of the disenfranchised, the 1960's were tumultuous and Powell believed tat the excesses of democracy need to be cut or face communist and socialist reform. The American corporation would then become responsible to the public and the profits would be controlled.
The shift came like this:
"I don't have children in school, why should I have to pay taxes for the kids across the street to go to school?"
"The widow down the street is very sick and poor, but I am not, why should I have to pay taxes for health care?"
Since defunding universities the government is saying. "We as a society don't benefit from the education of the individual, the individual benefits so the cost should be past onto them."
The current education system is in shambles if we consider the idea that it isn't conducive to learning, discovery, creation etc. But it is completely in line with an efficient company that doesn't take the human factor into account and allows only crumbs to students and teachers. This is to keep their loyalty to apathetic obedience.
Art Education is in a position of constantly defending itself as it is the subject in public schools and universities that encourages free thought, exploration, creation and true learning outcomes. The defunding of education is a direct assault on human nature's want to connect learn, discover and grow. We have moved from being citizens to consumers.
There is a large amount of history in this week's search, but to get to the point, there was a common thread among all the searching, the Powell Memorandum.
The memo can be deducted to the question I have written below:
How do you destroy and privatize a social service?
1. Defund it- take all of the governmental funding, divert private funding to the point that it no longer works and the public is so frustrated in trying to get the service they rely that they become desperate.
2. By defunding the vital service and creating a desperation the public will then easily pay for a private service to end the frustration or get what they need.
3. Rarely is the new private service comparable to the original social service.
*These social service include but are not limited to pensions, retirement, social welfare, health care, penitentiary and education at all levels.
This topic easily tumbled out of control as I continued my search. But the source of the trickle down ideology of privatization always came back to the Powell Memorandum- The Attack on American Free Enterprise System (1971). Powell was a lawyer for Phillip Morris and was later appointed a Supreme Court Justice. He wrote a paranoid memo alerting American corporations and the Chamber of Commerce of the excesses of democracy incurred due to Roosevelt's New Deal that was used to pull the country out of the Great Depression. Powell's Memo occurred at a time when the United States was at war with Vietnam, communism was spreading, protests for human rights, equal rights and pay for women, the elderly, the sick, Black Americans and the disenfranchised were rising to fight against the wrong they saw in their country. As Powell says, the communists and the hippies are the outliers to worry about... it was the entire population that didn't fit into the top tier of society. Powell believed it was necessary to safe guard the American corporation. In order to do so the general public would need to become obedient, apathetic citizens.
Powell suggested and later implemented the defunding of the public schools and universities which has continued to the present day in the United States. It has resulted in the demonisation and humiliation of teachers while forcing them to teach to test. Education is but the bare bones of what it should be.
Noam Chomsky spoke the subject of the state of education today. In one talk, The Corporation of University, he discusses that since honeymoon phase of Roosevelt's New Deal wore off, the rhetoric surrounding education (but isn't limited to) has changed dramatically. When Roosevelt stepped in to bring the country out of the Great Depression, he provided many services and incentives to citizens into to relieve stagnation. There was at the time an understanding that the government would take care of its people and protect them from the malpractice of large corporations. With the empowerment of the disenfranchised, the 1960's were tumultuous and Powell believed tat the excesses of democracy need to be cut or face communist and socialist reform. The American corporation would then become responsible to the public and the profits would be controlled.
The shift came like this:
"I don't have children in school, why should I have to pay taxes for the kids across the street to go to school?"
"The widow down the street is very sick and poor, but I am not, why should I have to pay taxes for health care?"
Since defunding universities the government is saying. "We as a society don't benefit from the education of the individual, the individual benefits so the cost should be past onto them."
The current education system is in shambles if we consider the idea that it isn't conducive to learning, discovery, creation etc. But it is completely in line with an efficient company that doesn't take the human factor into account and allows only crumbs to students and teachers. This is to keep their loyalty to apathetic obedience.
Art Education is in a position of constantly defending itself as it is the subject in public schools and universities that encourages free thought, exploration, creation and true learning outcomes. The defunding of education is a direct assault on human nature's want to connect learn, discover and grow. We have moved from being citizens to consumers.
Comments
Post a Comment