DISAGREEMENTS AND PARADOXES OF EDUCATION
Journal Title: Problems of Education in the 21st Century - Year 2010, Vol 20, Issue 4
Abstract
Why the 21st century scholars start raising their voices while facing troubles and difficulties in the field of education. To identify the situation, it is worth having a closer look at the present schooling system. Post-modern life and education more and more frequently are coming into force. Superficiality becomes a common phenomenon. Only available regularly used and easily with no effort achieved attractive things are greatly appreciated. What is more, only minimal efforts are taken to gain a broader educational background. Quite a few countries display similar tendencies. On the other hand, education is frequently treated as a product or a kind of service. The laws of the wild market fail to get round this area of life. The chosen life style (including education) rather than the meaning of life and education itself often play a crucial role.� There is no need to be an expert perfectly knowing matters of education to find out not everything works in the system of education. Also, it seems to be clear that the evaluation of those working in the ‘fields’ of education cannot be rejected. I suppose the latter are not the majority as more and more frequently ‘strangers’ gain access to the education system. Discussions with the representatives of other countries have revealed that those currently studying educational subjects at universities usually fail to understand what the school is and what role they are going to play in this institution. The most important point is studying and receiving a diploma. Modern education encounters a large number of different problems the answers to which can be hardly found.� Disagreement between an objective need for a continuous improvement on educational content (is there anyone who will dare to say it is needless) and a traditional pedagogical requirement for ensuring the stability of educational content is another field of the initiated discussion. A try at improving things is closely related with the extensive development of education, for example, more and more alternative course books and information sources for learners are prepared which disintegrates the content of education. Disagreement between the increased abstractness of education influenced by growing theoretical knowledge and the necessity of improving practical learners’ training should be mentioned. An opinion that the process of learner/student training is too much theoretically supported can be frequently heard. In this case, a huge number of reasons could be suggested. Life and education with no problems is a hardly acceptable idea. However, a wish to stay at a distance in order not to face the existing problems is one of most awful disasters presently seen in the education system. It might be money can solve all problems as according to Marx, ‘They have by no means merely one mode of affirmation, but rather that the distinct character of their existence, of their life, is constituted by the distinct mode of their affirmation. In what manner the object exists for them, is the characteristic mode of their gratification. Wherever the sensuous affirmation is the direct annulment of the object in its independent form (as in eating, drinking, working up of the object, etc.), this is the affirmation of the object... By possessing the property of buying everything, by possessing the property of appropriating all objects, money is thus the object of eminent possession. The universality of its property is the omnipotence of its being. It is therefore regarded as an omnipotent being. Money is the procurer between man’s need and the object, between his life and his means of life...’ (The Power of Money, Marx, 1844) I strongly reject this idea. The problems of education cannot be solved only on financial grounds. Everyone figures out that vast and broad knowledge as well as full understanding are required to overcome the encountered problem. Education is not a stable system made of insecure and poorly defined components. To find it more reliable, it must contain excess supply, i.e. guided by the principle of redundancy. More investments in education are necessary so that to expect at least minimal results and it makes no account that this idea passes over the presently prevailing liberal economic logics.
Authors and Affiliations
Vincentas Lamanauskas
Keywords
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