Karl Denninger: Our Educational System's Primary Failure

02-28-2010 • Market-ticker.denninger.net/

None of what has happened - our energy dependence, our abuse of the land by "big farming", the abusive and outrageous conduct of Wall Street and fraudulent promises made and spending by Local, State and Federal Governments - is an accident. Rather, all of it has been by design and intent and the consequences of that design and intent will fall on THEM. They would be pissed that "we the people" - their parents, their teachers, their school administrators, their governments - have intentionally and willfully screwed the world in which they must live for our own puerile fantasies, and that we've done so with both knowledge and malice aforethought as to what the inevitable consequences would be - consequences they will have to pay. They would raise hell, and in doing so would be both justified and appropriate in their actions. But for our youth to do so, they'd have to understand how the power function - the lowly exponent - rules almost literally everything in their daily life, in the life of this rock we call "Earth" and in their future, both economic and otherwise. To prevent that from happening so we can loot the future of our children and grandchildren, we intentionally refuse to teach them these fundamental mathematical relationships and in fact gloss over and obfuscate any such discussion, debate, or path toward understanding how this basic concept intertwines with and in fact controls virtually everything in our - and their - daily lives. Indeed, it is obvious on its face that so-called "education" is not the goal of our government schools - or the private educators either - at all. Those who claim that "private education is better" need to think long and hard about this. Parochial and other private school environments - how many taught this fundamental truth? The school I attended - a high-brow college-prep private academy (at the time) - didn't. A local religiously-oriented (and well-respected) private Christian school does not - I know this for a fact, as I know several students both past and present who attend there. Our local government school system does not. Let's cut the crap America.