I enjoyed the article, and its focus on the big picture of
what the education system is supposed to be doing.
The building block of modern society is an autonomous
citizen, who is free to discover and develop in the
direction s/he thinks best to contribute. And, who can
dispatch the responsibilities of Jeffersonian democracy --
to be informed and participate in decisionmaking in the
rationalist tradition upon which so much depends.
If we were to vocationalize education starting at age 14,
the question arises, why would businesses bear the
considerable cost to "train" someone up through adulthood,
without some "ownership" of this individual? I see a
Faustian bargain which takes us back in the direction of
feudalism in the notion that skilled workers are viewed by
their employer-educator as somehow indentured (stripped of
freedom of association), reasonable terms for the hundred
thousand hours of training received.
However, it is possible that thru a system of voluntary,
time-limited commitments, students would enter paid
traineeships with private business entities, and remain
loyal for a limited payback period, after which the
individual would be a free agent. Actors, professional
athletes and corporate managers routinely give up free
agency for a period of time, and are well paid for doing
so, so these types of contract terms are well established.
The "at will" employment contract really ill serves both
the employer and employee by keeping each other is a state
of uncertainty, undermining confidence.
Another aspect of "traineeships" that would have to be
rigorously enforced is preventing coercive thought-shaping.
Ultimately, it is the freedom of individuals to "walk" that
prevents organizations from undue intimidation. The
antidote would be visibility, perhaps, conflict resolution
via neutral arbitration. Would businesses accept an escape
clause allowing a free-willed actor to buck the system?
This is where the rubber hits the road.
We should be thinking along the lines suggested by Swilley,
looking for opportunities to for young people to learn the
ways of the real world, and the skills it demands, and this
certainly must involve the science-tech-business
perspective. But while doing so, we shouldn't forget that
the world struggled for millenia under a system of feudal
fealty (pockets of resistance continue). The modern world,
invented starting around 1450, is based on the individual
as a free actor and thinker who cannot be owned. The shape
of our current educational system is a result of this world
view, and it must remain central in the process of
reshaping and perfecting the way young people are prepared
for adult roles.
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