Jerry Thorpe is one of two candidates running for Connie Rickman’s seat in the Tacoma School Board. With a history as a teacher and Port Commissioner, Jerry Thorpe wants to see Tacoma schools to start refocusing on serious education.
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Matt Miller’s latest book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas is an interesting and enveloping read. I finished it in just two short days. Miller, who writes for Forbes occasionally and has consulted for various companies lays out his ideas on why America is in trouble, and then, the opposite (or corresponding idea) that would solve the problems that these ideas have led us into.
TIMES BOOKS, New York: 2009
While Miller’s tale is eminently interesting, he sadly fails to convince me on the face that the ideas he claims are dead, are truly dead. I come away from the book more often remembering him simply repeating the same mantra over and over again, and not necessarily arguing that it was dead. The first of these “Dead Ideas” is that our children will earn more than we do, or that rephrased, incomes will continue to go up. Miller cites evidence that since the 1970s, the median income in America has actually gone down or stayed falt while the wealthy have grown at ridiculous and preposterous rates thus making the ‘average’ income in America increase. But that’s the whole extent of his evidence. Sadly, it left me unconvinced. I’m not sure I could argue the other way, that I see a path to ensure that I make more than my parents, that my kids will start off better than I did right out of college, but I sure as hell don’t buy his argument. I come away going “mehh” which really isn’t a good way to start your opening chapter.
Miller’s other Dead Ideas are:
“Free trade is ‘good’ (no matter how many people get hurt)”
“Your company should take care of you”
“Taxes hurt the economy (and they’re always too high)”
“Schools are a local matter”
“Money follows merit”
I come away after reading this book that I don’t really buy on face much of Miller’s
arguments. I understand his criticism of free trade, and it is a good criticism, but I don’t know of any economist who defends free trade absolutely, but that those who endorse as a general rule. Miller’s next straw man is ridiculous to anyone of my generation, and should be to anyone with any understanding of business.
In his chapter detailing how businesses are getting out of managing health care and pensions and how government will be forced to step in. I don’t know anyone who holds true to this idea besides ideologues who’s arguments we should be discounting. He acknowledges that its ideology mainly driving the debate, not reality based views. Conservatives on Capitol Hill are resistant to a national health care solutions because politically they must be, but they don’t offer other solutions, they can’t because they are stuck in this Dead Idea. (Okay, so i give in, this Dead Idea is still valued by a rapidly decreasing amount of the population.)
Miller’s focus on schools is particularly interesting. He discusses how the creation of independent school districts and how the recent government actions in education have created 50 state standards and even more ways to define who is meeting those standards. Miller’s final endorsement to solve the education crisis which he claims to be embroiling America is to create national standards but then give schools, teachers, and superintendents the ability and resources to meet them. He advises increasing federal dollars in school to make the education moneys equal across the nation, and perhaps even more money to the poorer more distressed districts (often inner-city) than the suburbs and rural districts. I don’t have issues with this at all. He also advises curtailing the power of teachers unions. I know I’m quite biased, as my father has long been the president or negotiator for his teacher’s union, but I see teacher’s unions as quite valuable. However, we must remember that teacher’s unions don’t always look out for the best of the students; they look out for the best of their members, often fighting to keep jobs for teachers who don’t deserve them.
If teachers (and their unions) really want to help their cause and stop being black-guarded by moderates and conservatives, they need to do more to turn bad teachers into good teachers, or simply get rid of them-and not defend them to the nth degree.
The weirdest part of Miller’s book is his section on meritocracy and his classification of the Upper Middle Class (bankers, doctors, well-paid lawyers) and their hatred and envy at the Ultras (the super rich, investment bankers, hedge funds, oil barons). Miller’s dead idea is that “that market capitalism is a meritocracy-that is, a system in which people basically end up, in economic terms, where they deserve to.” Another ridiculous straw-man. People have known for centuries that the railroad barons, or the oil barons, or other super rich weren’t significantly smarter, or faster, or better than the other very well off but not super rich. The super rich are lucky. They have been throughout history. Miller at times seems to be worried about some sort of super-rich vs. upper-middle-class class war. And its kind of weird.
Where Miller stridently excels is when he talks about the conservative (REAGAN!) argument that taxes are always bad and that they must always go down. Miller argues strongly and fluently that the middle class is demanded more services and that they will (and are) willing to tax themselves for those services. Miller calmly explains that right now, the US is spending about 20% to 21% of GDP, is bringing in revenues of about 19%, but to make future entitlements (Medicare, Social Security) sure, we need to bring in revenues of about 24%. He displays numerous reality-based conservatives (sadly few and far between in the tax debate) who endorse this view and have publicly argued for it.
Miller in the end argues for business leaders, who he sees as inherently practical, to change their viewpoint, advocate higher taxes, social spending by the state and thus move America back to a leader in the world. I think I agree with Miller, though I don’t know if he argues his point as well as he should have.
One area that I think Miller sadly misses is that how bigger government can actually create a more robust capitalist state. In this country, as millions of jobs are being lost the economy collapses, we have a major problem. Our government policy is actually discouraging people from attempting to start a new business, or leave failing companies to start out on their own. Because so many individuals depend on their employer for health care, they need to keep their jobs to keep their medicines, to keep their children healthy. They can’t leave and attempt to start a new business because they can’t get health care. At the same time, numerous companies are cutting health care to compete with rivals and with other countries that have health care managed by the state. Our capitalism would be more vibrant and would allow more people to pursue their dream to open a pizza parlor, to start a bicycle repair shop, to start up their own company if the government was there to help them with health care costs.
Miller doesn’t make the above argument, at least, if he does, it is quite subsumed in his text.
Overall, this book simply doesn’t delivery on its premise to demolish these dead ideas. As I said above, I read it quickly, and found some points interesting, but sadly, this book isn’t really worth the time. Read something more interesting.
Two out of Five Melons!
After learning a few weeks ago that the Tacoma School Board will finally start filming their meetings we were pleased to be able to set up a meeting with current School Board Member & Director for Resources for Education and Career Help (REACH) Kurt Miller.
Kurt was generous enough to sit down with us to discuss the decision to start filming, what that means, some of the current issues facing Tacoma Schools, as well as give us some information about the exciting new REACH center being built for Tacoma youth. (Length – 42:04)
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For the past four months, I have studied issues of development and culture in Viet Nam. I wish to share my observations with The Melon community in a three-part series. The issues included are education, gender, and the government.
The Educational System: A Hot Topic
Everyone agrees the educational system is seriously messed up and needs to be fixed if Viet Nam wants to become a leader in, well, anything in the near future. But giving truth to the phrase “the devil is in the details,” how exactly the problem should be addressed is making the debate arduous and the progress tortured.
Teachers
The first issue here, as everywhere, is low teacher pay. University professors with terminal degrees in their field (usually earned abroad) can expect to make no more than $10,000 a year, while most other professors earn between $3,000 and $4,000. For comparison’s sake, the average annual income in Viet Nam is over $5,000. Teachers at lower levels make less, forcing them to moonlight as tutors.
The ones most forced to find outside income – the youngest, least experienced teachers – also have the greatest workload. In public universities, each department is assigned a certain number of class hours to teach, which are divided up within that department. More experienced professors with more seniority are able to choose a reasonable number of hours to teach, and they also choose their own areas of interest and expertise. However, the younger professors must teach any additional hours left over once the department’s seniors have chosen theirs, which are usually too many to adequately prepare for. They do not necessarily get overtime pay for this. The departments are pressured to have a lot of classes because the demand for them is so high; currently Viet Nam’s higher education system particularly is struggling to meet demand. Every year more students want to go to university, and since the government intentionally keeps education on the cheap side, more students apply than the infrastructure can possibly support. As a result, teachers are flooded with huge classes at every level, distancing them from student outcomes.
In high school, teachers may feel superfluous. Grades in high schools do not necessarily matter for university admissions (though private universities have different admissions standards). Instead, at the end of the year there is a standardized National Examination which high schoolers take. This is the government’s one tool for lowering the number of university applicants. It is extremely difficult and stressful – newspapers report things such as the number of students who faint from the stress of taking them. However, cramming for this test, rather than longer-term learning throughout high school, seems common. Everyone hates the test, but no one knows how to replace it for university admissions. As a socialist state, Viet Nam is loath to deny education to anyone that wants it. In fact, Ho Chi Minh once declared that the two major problems of the country was occupation by the French and illiteracy. There are plans for each city to have its own public university so as to reduce the travel costs of students in the nation.
Even with those stresses, many people may choose to become teachers from a sense of altruism and the prestige being a teacher brings in Viet Nam. There is one major drawback that stops even these people: the societal attitude toward how teachers must conduct themselves. Teachers are thought of as serious and intellectual people. Education students must wear sober clothing – the women wear ao dais, the national clothing, which is hot and restrictive. Moreover teachers cannot act in ways that compromise this image. If they joked too much in class, students would not take them seriously. And if a student saw them drinking in public – well! Combined with low salary, an overwhelmed infrastructure, distance from student outcomes, and no fun in one’s personal life, it is no wonder that Viet Nam struggles with a teacher shortage.
The Melon’s Jack Faust meets with Aurora Jewell and Erin Ward from Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and discusses its missions, services and recent struggles during our current economic climate.
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Aurora was kind enough to hit us up with some clarifications and additional information about Planned Parenthood.
Websites:
Health Care for All March-Mothers Leading the Way! www.may30marech.org We will be mobilizing volunteers to go to the march. If people would like to go to the March with Planned Parenthood they can email us at ppactionwa@ppgnw.org
Regarding Plan B
Men can purchase Plan B without prescription at Planned Parenthood who meet the legal age requirement for purchasing Plan B. The age for purchasing Plan B over the counter, without prescription was 18 but has recently changed to 17 years of age. However, Plan B is not being dispensed over the counter to 17 year olds just yet because the marketing materials and new labels have to be approved by the FDA. This is a common practice when laws change around prescription medications and we do not know how long that process will take. Until then, Plan B can be purchased over the counter, without prescription by women 18 years and older.
Regarding Human Papiloma Virus (HPV) Treatment
HPV stands for human papilloma virus. There are more than 100 types of HPV. Some types produce warts – plantar warts on the feet and common hand warts. About 40 types of HPV can infect the genital area -the vulva, the vagina, cervix, rectum, anus, penis or scrotum. Genital HPV infections are very common. HPV is so common that about half of all men and more than 3 out of 4 women have HPV at some point in their lives. But most people who have HPV don’t know it. In fact-
· Most HPV infections have no harmful effect at all
· Some types of HPV may cause genital warts. These are called low-risk types of HPV
· Some types of HPV may cause cell changes that sometimes lead to cervical cancer and certain other genital and throat cancers. These are called high-risk types.
Genital warts can be removed with various genital warts treatments. A person should talk with their health care provider to decide which treatment might be best for them. There is currently no HPV treatment to cure HPV itself. Most HPV infections are harmless, do not require treatment, and go away by themselves. Treatment is available for the abnormal cell changes in the cervix that are caused by HPV. Common treatments include colposcopy, cryotherapy, and LEEP. For more information about HPV please visit our website at ppgnw.org
Regarding the Gardasil Vaccine and Minor Consent
There is no consent for minors when obtaining the Gardasil vaccination in Washington State because it is a vaccination that prevents a sexually transmitted infection. In Washington State, a person can access reproductive health care services without parental consent. However, for all other immunizations minors would need to obtain parental consent unless the minor met the criteria for the Mature Minor Doctrine. You can learn more about minor consent laws in Washington State by visiting http://www.lawhelp.org/documents/216941minors_health_care_rights.pdf?stateabbrev=/WA/
Regarding Planned Parenthood’s History
Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, opened the first birth control clinic in 1916; it was located in New York City. The first Planned Parenthood Health Center in Washington was opened in 1945 and was located in Seattle. For more than 90 years, Planned Parenthood has promoted commonsense approach to women’s health and well-being, based on respect for each individual’s right to make informed, independent decisions about sex, health, and family planning.
Regarding coming to Planned Parenthood
When a person is in of need medical care, birth control, education or information, Planned Parenthood is here to help. As the largest reproductive health care provider in the Northwest, Planned Parenthood has been providing services for men and women since 1935. We have 21 health centers throughout Western Washington. We provide services for anyone seeking birth control, STI testing and treatment, cancer screening and other preventative care. Our professional staff and experienced counselors give patients up-to-date information and the opportunity to discuss their personal needs. Everything is confidential. We provide services for all people regardless of income, whether they are insured or not insured.
Regarding the Take Charge Program
All Planned Parenthood Health Centers in Western Washington participate in the Take Charge program with free family planning services for women and men without current Medicaid or other insurance.
To qualify for Take Chare, a person must provide proof of:
· A gross (before taxes are taken out) income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty level.
· U.S. citizenship (such as a birth certificate or U.S. passport or be able to provide information about where and when you were born). You may also be eligible if you have a green card and have been a permanent resident for at least 5 years
· Washington State residency.
A person would need to bring all documentation with them to the Planned Parenthood Health Center on the day of their visit.
If a person were to qualify for Take Charge, Family Planning services at no cost to them would include:
· Annual exam and counseling
· Birth control pills, Depo-Provera, IUD, condoms, foam, contraceptive patch, vaginal ring, diaphragm
· Emergency Contraception
· Vasectomy or tubal ligation (sterilization)
Family Planning service coverage is good for one full year. A person may reapply each year for additional coverage. Fees may apply for visits that are not for Family Planning.
A Jack Handey Saturday Night Live quote puts it best: “I’d rather be rich than stupid.”
Sometimes, I wonder if being stupid wouldn’t also be helpful at this point in the game. Alas, I am neither rich nor stupid, just partly naive.
Last fall I lost my job, and since I was already feeling the pressure of jumping into a higher paying bracket but seeing no options opening up with a degree in History, the same day I was laid off I enrolled at Tacoma Community College, an ethnically diverse campus with mostly a single-degree focus: nursing.
Nursing is something I vowed to never get near nor even discuss as a career possibility, but as the field becomes more open, and the pay scale is jumping high, I cannot help but look as a real opportunity. My brother’s friend earns $56 an hour in Hawaii as a nurse. I lust after that kind of pay.
On the first day of my evolutionary ecology class, we formed a circle and practically held hands as a support group while listing off our majors. I was one of two that listed Doctor of Physical Therapy as an intended goal. The rest were either nursing or pharmacology. A few of the older students (yes, older than me) had lost their jobs as well, and figured that since billboards and job hiring ads around Tacoma are begging for nurses, they might as well bite the bullet and jump right into Microbiology and the Anatomy and Physiology sequence.
One of my best friends, Kenneth, lives in Portland and is going to be graduating as a certified “Murse” this coming June; one of the few Male Nurses that was attracted to the field before the economic bust of October, 2008. Since then, a growing population of males are enrolling at community colleges around the United States, such as my very own brother and 54-year-old father, who both have business degrees and were, at one time or anther, decently successful in the business world. My dad competes with 18-year-old kids, studying twice as hard to learn the same material, but is focused to get the next two years out of his life so he can obtain the Aztec City of Gold that a nursing degree promises. Heroism comes in varying packages, and while nursing might be my second choice, according to my brother “it takes a nurse hero to wipe ass” — and who doesn’t want to be a hero?
Dowling is a Long Island private college with small classes, dedicated professors, and a diverse student body. Apply today to discover the Dowling difference. Long Island Private CollegeI wonder, if everyone is going into nursing, will there be a glut of nurses within the next five years? Tacoma Community College’s enrollment office told me most laid-off people are enrolling here as nurses–what happens when there are too many of them? Kenneth already knows the answer, because in Portland, with the highest unemployment in the Union, nurses aren’t finding jobs in the metropolitan burbs.
I have only been out of college a few short years, but already I feel the “Sluggish Brain Syndrome” and early-onset of old age dementia flushing throughout my system. What was once an easy all-nighter of frantic working due to a high level of procrastination is now a methodical listing of “to-dos” in an organized calendar book and an early bedtime of 10 p.m. in order to get up for that 7:30 a.m. outdoor biology lab of identifying the flora and fauna of Tacoma. It hurts going back to school, but I also feel my brain being sharpened as I force her to recall, remember, and retain new scientific notations that have never previously stuck around for more than five minutes (remember, I was a history major, for gods’ sake!).
I glow with jealous fervor whenever I hear of other successful friends who still have jobs and are financially bringing in anything over the national poverty level. Even my boyfriend, who is trapped in a scholastic sweat shop of grading standardized tests of middle school children, has a paycheck for the next three weeks. Yesterday he told me some young boy gave a big middle finger to standardized testing by writing one short paragraph, stating his friends were honest lenient hearts, and he hoped the grader of that essay would be a lenient heart as well, and he had nothing more to say. My advice to this particular child? Good job on trying to stay in middle school for as long as possible! I admire you! I wish I could take afternoon naps and have mom’s snacks after school, and go to soccer practice with my girlfriends! Lucky!
By the time I am done with a DPT degree (assuming I get accepted into the program next fall) I will be 30 years old, and will have missed a historically established prime age of wage earnings from my 20s to my 30s. I question the future of my retirement funds, which as of now, has been halved since last year, leaving me nothing but a small pittance of saved Christmas and birthday money from by-gone years–perhaps I should have spent it on a new car instead of investing my hoarded goods. How many other young 20s are out there in a similar predicament, and what will our retirement futures be? Even if I wanted to settle down with the white picket fence and really get into the breast-suckling scene of kiddies, I don’t have the financial resources to do so. After Obama won the election, many people went on a procreating binge–I wonder how they feel now, five months later? “Oh, shit! We’re pregnant!” has got to be hitting their psyches right about now. This isn’t the booming 90s. This is the slumping of the twenty-first century, with Obama feeling smug on reminding us that he wasn’t the one who got us into the mess. Will the population growth slow-down in developed countries and see the rise of alcohol consumption peak at pre-prohibition era standards?
My parents’ phrase, “I told you so!” clangs in my ears. Yes, I should have gotten a more practical degree, or at the minimum, a teaching certificate to accompany my history degree. My impracticality kept my head in the clouds until my bank account screamed expletives at me, pulling me back to the reality of stereotypical brunt jokes that ring true: “What do you call a history major? A burger flipper.” I never smile anymore when someone says that to me. In my brain, I am giving them the middle finger.
All I know is, I feel grateful to be in school and not home banging my head against the wall. Something has to force me out of bed every day at 7 a.m. and if a solid steady paycheck is the golden ticket to lure me onwards, so be it. It is tough going back to school, but if my experiences have taught me anything, it’s that life itself is tough, but worth it. I’m too curious about what’s around the next corner to stay in bed forever. Now is the perfect opportunity to get an internship or volunteer for Parks Recreation Day on April 18th, or attend a noxious weed seminar at Snake Lake, or plant a garden with other community members and write for The Melon. Or, become a nurse.
One afternoon in 6th grade Social Studies, my teacher, whose name completely escapes me, asked us innocent childrens to write a brief page about what we’d like to be when we grew up. Having done nothing but watched television, movies and read science fiction as a child, my thoughts did not go to something easy like being a doctor, or biologist, or artist – nay. My mind was far more creative (insane) and far more exact. I wanted to invent a hoverboard. Yes, the hoverboard familiarized by the Back to the Future series.
As I scribbled my life goal on college ruled, I felt extremely confident that I was providing an astute answer to my assignment. When it came time to present to class, I found it odd that everyone else was so far-sighted. One classmate wanted to be a astronaut or, gasp, President. On my turn to present, my teacher insisted that perhaps what I wanted to be a scientist, or an inventor. “No,” I innocently replied, “I want to invent a hoverboard.” Well, my classmates had a good laugh and I shrugged into my seat, forever shunned to throw my plans of using high-powered magnets to push off underground pipes into dusty folders of my childhood. Another case of school crushing my dreams.
But BEHOLD! While my aspirations were destroyed, one diligent company has made strides towards the unthinkable. Enter the POWERBOARD.
While this is not a hoverboard, the Powerboard uses strange tract wheels to propel the board through all terrain. Though, this video doesn’t show the Powerboard moving at any absurd speeds (it supposedly goes 35 mph), the fact that this beast is gliding through the forest is pretty damn impressive. How does it work?
“An engine powers both tracks. The first release model is a 4 stroke . Brakes and acceleration are via a hand controller.”
Produced by the Austrialian company, Scarpar, the Powerboard is slated for a 2010 release at $2000-$3000 a pop (with investors I imagine the price could go down).
Yes, this isn’t my dream, but it’s damn close.
A friend of mine is taking a course on propaganda at The Evergreen State College, Tacoma campus. Students created propaganda posters for whatever cause or idea they wanted to for one of the projects. The posters are displayed in the hallway outside the classroom for other students and faculty to see.
I recently went to the Evergreen Tacoma campus for a community group meeting, Food Not Bombs. Afterward I perused the different posters students designed and drafted. Some of them are ironic, some are artsy, all of them are creative. I think the creativity which Evergreen campuses inspire students to develop is one of the school’s greatest successes. One of the posters, a very simply one, I wanted to blog on here because it made me laugh.
Look at the kid picking his nose!
The Evergreen State College, however, is in a perilous situation since Washington State began a massive budget cut that dipped severely into education funds. Evergreen, a public institution, will lose $3.5 billion in public school funding. Tacoma public schools are supposed to be hit harder than other cities in the state. Higher education will experience large budget cuts too. The administration at Evergreen has decided how it will spend its new budget, and the planners decided to eliminate the following programs, according to a budget leak which was emailed and sent to Evergreen students.
Among the programs are: the entire Evergreen Tacoma campus (which is a valuable resource to the mainly poor, inner-city African American community in Tacoma), the Olympia Labor Center (which is a center for unionization and labor justice in Olympia), some or all of the Reservation-Based Programs (which work with the indigenous populations), the NW Indian Research Center, The Longhouse (another native tribe project), and the Center for Community-Based Learning and Action. There is a larger list floating around.
There is no doubt in my mind that this school has been an incredible and valuable resource for justice movements and community-building, capacity-building, not to mention a school that provides resources and space for labor, native tribes and poor communities. Having visited the school plenty of times and attended functions, I say Evergreen is more broadly a place where students set their minds free, vigorously pursue their passions and interests, and take courses that always spark my interest. And if you want to pick your nose, it’s okay because social norms were meant to be deconstructed. To see these resources disappear would hurt the communities already most affected by financial imbalances.
To see Evergreen aiming the brunt of its budget cut at the poor and excluded would only serve to make matters worse. These groups obviously rank very low in the TESC administration’s priorities, which does not come as a surprise since the staff have increasingly adopted a more “business model” approach to education matters in recent years. Instead of hiring educators with degrees in political science or education, Evergreen increasingly hires business graduates to take care of things.
The Evergreen State College should take the advice of the propaganda poster, stop cutting community programs which are viewed as unnecessary accessories, and embrace real change: “Sustain your future – Invest in a child”. Build up the communities which will be crushed by the wobbly situation, instead of sweeping the rug out from under them.
Chris: It’s been almost ten years since The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager was first published. Back then you noted that the threshold of adulthood was rapidly retreating into a young person’s teens and tweens. Since we are practically in the year 2009, at what age today would you say someone becomes an adult?
Tom Hine: It is probably somewhere in the early 20s by now. How we define adulthood really has to do with the point at which people participate in the society as producers. When there are a lot of jobs available, we tend to define maturity as occurring at a younger age.
Chris: That’s very interesting. So that would suggest that the current economic downturn is going to have a more detrimental effect on young people than – say – adults who are on the verge of retirement. That is, if in fact we continue to see unemployment on the rise.
Tom Hine: The effects are obviously different. For those nearing retirement, the loss of the money they thought they had responsibly saved and invested is undeniably traumatic. For young people, the challenge is, as always, in getting started.
Young people have faced challenges in getting into the economy for quite a long time now. This economic situation will probably only make familiar difficulties somewhat worse. By comparison, the Great Depression profoundly changed the way in which youth and maturity are defined.
Chris: True, but the current situation is being compared – by both the Democrats and now the Republicans – to 1932. As you noted in Rise and Fall, it was the Great Depression that forced national passage and enforcement of child-labor laws to free-up jobs for more parents. What I’m not so sure you mentioned was that Social Security – a product of FDR’s New Deal – was concurrently designed to provide incentives for older people to leave the job market to make way for people in their twenties. Is it possible then that the long awaited retirement of the Baby Boomers might give people who are, say, 24 (like me) an opportunity to move into middle-management?
Tom Hine: Perhaps, if there is any middle management left.
I think, though that, a difficult economic time will encourage boomers to work longer, provided that they are allowed to do so. On the other hand, people of the younger generation are less expensive to employ — lower salaries, fewer health problems. I think that both the young and the old are being squeezed, and there is no value to make them adversaries.
Chris: A tough job market usually leads to a spike in young people pursuing advanced degrees such as MBAs and JDs. Has your research into the historical experience of young people led you to the conclusion that higher education is the fast-track to a high-paying salary?
Tom Hine: I probably haven’t done specific enough research to answer that question, but I suspect that the answer is no. People will need a great deal of knowledge and skill, but those two are not always the same as a lot of schooling. We use schooling as a delaying mechanism. We don’t know for sure that it will produce the products and the technology on which the economy of the 2020s will be based.
I am particularly skeptical that having more people with MBAs will get us anywhere, but that may just be a prejudice.
Chris: Since the end of the Great Depression, the most universal experience for American teenagers has been the classroom. You are of the opinion that this has been a waste?
Tom Hine: Obviously not. Indeed, for a majority of young people, high school works pretty well. For a significant minority it works less well. I just think that we ought to have some alternate routes to adulthood, some of which involve other kinds of schooling and others that involve work, entrepreneurship, or service.
Chris: What about giving students a freer hand in designing their education? Since the 1980s there’s been a steady decline of democracy in the classroom. The way the average 1st grader is instructed is roughly comparable to the average 12th grade high-school student. In this increasingly test-centered environment, how do we move toward a system where students do more than just receive an education, but are actually called upon to design it as well?
Tom Hine: I agree with your fundamental point, I think, but I would express it differently. I think that all education is self-education. People will learn very quickly and intensely if they understand how it gives them power and benefits.
Our school system is one of the last major parts of our society to be based on an industrial model — that we take the raw materials, our children, and process them into responsible adults. Working against that model, particularly in colleges, is another model — that the student is a consumer who must be satisfied with creature comforts and entertaining schooling. This seems better than the industrial model, but it still assumes that students are somewhat passive. I like the idea that education is about constructing yourself. You don’t necessarily design your education; you use education to become yourself.
Chris: You went to great lengths in your book to demonstrate how historically young people have had a tremendous influence on both the economy and politics. Arguably Barack Obama owes his current position to the successes won by young people in the early primary states. Would it be correct to say that young people today have more political influence in American affairs than at anytime before? Or are we just experiencing a generational cycle?
Tom Hine: I recall my mother talking about how exciting for her as a young person to canvas for FDR in the 1932 election. She felt the country was at a turning point and it was time for people like her to turn it around.
At the time of the American Revolution, young people played an extremely important role. Nathaniel Greene, one of the most successful generals was in his early 20s.
Chris: Yes, and during the Civil War 3/4ths of the Union Army was under 18.
Tom Hine: However, for most of our history, the voting age was 21. It was changed during Vietnam, largely because of the argument that those subject to being drafted as soldiers should have the rights of citizens. Yet, perhaps because of Vietnam, young people did not vote. Both parties seemed broken for a long time. In addition, our voting system is based on residency and young people have tended to be footloose and not registered to vote.
Chris: Final question – multipart: how is the average 24 year-old (say me) of today MOST DIFFERENT from the 24 year-olds of say: 1908, 1928, 1948, 1968 and 1988?
Tom Hine: You ask difficult questions. I suppose one difference between the first two periods you mention and the rest is that one can speak more or less meaningfully about an “average” 24 year-old in the latter periods.
There was much more of a demarcation between working class young people, middle class youth and rural youth in the earlier periods.
This would be particularly true in 1908, which comes right after the period when the idea that adolescents are unstable comes to the fore. The middle class youth would likely be the first of his or her family to graduate from — rather than just attend high school. As with today, they would be competing in an economy that included a lot of immigrant workers and had relatively weak unions or other worker protections.
The 1928 young person was in the midst of a boom, or bubble, similar to that of the 1990s. Mass culture of movies and music was emerging and young people were its subject and biggest market. Collegiate life had glamour. There were jobs.
Chris: Was more expected of them though?
Tom Hine: Going back to 1908, I would say that more probably was expected of the 24 year-old. By 1928, marriage was already starting to happen later.
The 24 year old of 1948 had very likely been to war. He was a grownup. The tone of college campuses changed from the frat house culture to something more serious. He was marrying younger than his counterparts before or after. Obviously he could afford to because there was a shortage of workers at America’s big corporations, and salaries were rising faster than skill levels, and much faster than inflation. This guy is probably the least like the current young person.
Chris: You’ve written a new book about the 1970s called The Great Funk. Is there anything you’d like to share about it before we go?
Tom Hine: Thanks for mentioning it. Actually, The Great Funk is relevant here because one of its subjects is what happened when the baby boom came to maturity. It was marked by an economic collapse, rather different from that of the present time, but also very traumatic. The earliest boomers were able to get good jobs, the later ones had to wait longer.
Chris: Well like today there was an energy crisis and we we’re already perceived as losing to foreign competition from Japan (whereas now we lose to third world countries)
Tom Hine: Yes, there were crises during that period from which we should have learned — or that we did learn about then forgot. The 1970s brought two decades of energy conservation; then came the SUV!
The size of the baby boom generation helped create the problem [unemployment]; our economy couldn’t adjust all at once. Moreover, the baby boom generation was the first in which women of childbearing age expected to keep their jobs.
Chris: That’s a good point. Though mothers in the workplace would hardly have been unusual to the 24 year-olds of 1908.
Tom Hine: Yes, actually it would have. Especially young mothers.
Chris: I just finished Reading The Jungle (1906) where all the female characters are working in the factories.
Tom Hine: That gets back to the class issue with which I prefaced the discussion. But even then, mothers of small children did not usually have jobs.
My larger point about the 1970s, however, is that the failure of so many of the institutions, and the assumptions about the nature of people’s life proved liberating. When nothing seems to work, you can free yourself from old ways of doing things and try something new.
Chris: That’s an interesting take, given how the 1970s are normally remembered as a depressing time marked by uninspiring leaders, economic decline, fake plastic disco mania and avocado-colored washing machines.
Tom Hine: Not everything that gets tried is good. The 1970s gave us women’s liberation as personal liberation. It liberated gays and fundamentalist Christians, and Southerners. It allowed women to think of themselves as athletes.
Chris: That’s all very true
Tom Hine: I like the word “funk” because it has a double meaning. It connotes both depression and joyousness, both of which were abundant during the 1970s. And if, as a geezer, I can give you advice about living through a difficult time, it is that you do live through it. You will survive, as Gloria Gaynor more or less sang. And it is more fun to invent a new world than to try to fit into an old one. Embrace the failure and do something new.
It seems like we’re apologizing a lot for this footage, and I’m afraid it’s going to happen again. We’re still working on our protocol for these meetings.
This week the School Board had discussions about the naming of a new school. We caught the last 20 minutes of the meeting.
Chris’ write up will be coming within a couple days.
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