Not even being a pessimist! The idea that an education is a salve to terrible people doing terrible things is just an inactionable and inaccurate insight insofar that it strays from “we should have strong support for public education with strong civic investment in accessibility for all” - ThreadSky

utopia-defer.red • 60 days ago

Not even being a pessimist!

The idea that an education is a salve to terrible people doing terrible things is just an inactionable and inaccurate insight insofar that it strays from “we should have strong support for public education with strong civic investment in accessibility for all”

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paleopragmatist.bsky.social•60 days ago

it does, however, seem like intense attention at the university level in the humanities has made certain kinds of casual cruelty and sadism socially unacceptable in most institutional settings. there are of course instances where it seems to not have worked, but it's generally worked pretty well

lukas.blue•59 days ago

Yeah this is not "Shakespeare will fix them" this is about setting norms that the insights from humanities matter, and it is uncool to be ignorant and unable to draw from them.

utopia-defer.red•60 days ago

Yeah, i strongly believe the general argument along the lines of eg “a good literary education will inevitably require exposure to multiple different perspectives across life from people of various status, oppression, victimhood etc and this exposure tends to improve one’s capacity as a human”

utopia-defer.red•60 days ago

Same for history, theater, etc, education does, in fact, expand one’s horizons.

But this belief that if you shove a wannabe McDonald’s brand Caesar or ducal brown shirt car salesmen through enough literature classes… not so much.

That’s my emphasis on the averages for the exposure/effect control

paleopragmatist.bsky.social•59 days ago

Yeah I mean if people are already that type of person going in, it’s likely they’ll not be changed much - but the idea I think hinges on the correct perception that most students are mostly unformed as subjects before high school/uni

unfinishedlines.club•59 days ago

i will have you know, TAing intro to STS at a STEM uni i have made at least 3 students consider the implications of their degree is that they will undoubtedly be working for the war machine

they're probably still going to work for the war machine but at least they've thought about it 😌

goose.ski•59 days ago

think most of the opportunity for big wins via education lies between grades 1 and 12

utopia-defer.red•59 days ago

man i wonder how that’s going right no—

goose.ski•59 days ago

better educated kids absolutely means fewer terrible people if only by way of everyone else being better equipped to check them

utopia-defer.red•59 days ago

this is also another tragedy of the truth behind “orange man is bad, actually”

This guy/movement has completely re-normalized barbarism in environments, ie public education, that were previously *generally* net-positive on the ideas of liberation, democracy, inclusion, etc.

utopia-defer.red•59 days ago

Kids have now seen a decade of a strongman who tells them, and their shitbag parents, that being a strong, malicious, criminal, and rapist is… pretty based!!!!!!!!!!!!

utopia-defer.red•59 days ago

It makes every single possible chance at intervention against these beliefs that much harder and, increasingly, dangerous.

utopia-defer.red•59 days ago

If there was a ten thousand percent instead of a 💯 emoji

goose.ski•59 days ago

this also applies to childhood nutrition btw

goose.ski•59 days ago

hungry kids can’t learn effectively to begin with

utopia-defer.red•59 days ago

Nor can working ones 🤡

checkwithscience.com•59 days ago

early childhood is the critical period yeah. even middle school is kinda whateverish

sodzilla.bsky.social•59 days ago

See, this used to be my argument, but much of the "developed" world has had rather decent and affordable, if not free, education for decades, and the internet made, well, everything accessible. It did not help. In numerous ways, the latter appears to have made things worse.

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