A new poll finds most U.S. adults think personal choices are a major driver of poverty and homelessness, while fewer blame a lack of government support.
I can understand why teachers use that convenient lie, because the truth is far more nuanced.
In reality, we should value education because it has intrinsic benefits that exist regardless of whether that education leads directly to your financial success in life or not.
The truth is, education simply makes you a better person. It makes you more personally capable, and therefore less dependant on others. It makes you less easy to decieve, and therefore less easy to manipulate and control. It improves your ability to tell truth from lies and fact from fiction. It gives you a foundation to recognise your rights and stand up for yourself and reject abuse.
It does so much that is not about getting rich.
But try telling a room of 11-year olds “Work hard at school because your education is intrinsically valuable in a way that won’t be meaningful or tangible to you until much later in life, y’all”
I can understand why teachers use that convenient lie, because the truth is far more nuanced.
In reality, we should value education because it has intrinsic benefits that exist regardless of whether that education leads directly to your financial success in life or not.
The truth is, education simply makes you a better person. It makes you more personally capable, and therefore less dependant on others. It makes you less easy to decieve, and therefore less easy to manipulate and control. It improves your ability to tell truth from lies and fact from fiction. It gives you a foundation to recognise your rights and stand up for yourself and reject abuse.
It does so much that is not about getting rich.
But try telling a room of 11-year olds “Work hard at school because your education is intrinsically valuable in a way that won’t be meaningful or tangible to you until much later in life, y’all”