Education As The Cure For What Ails

One of the few good professors that I met at the University of Alabama, was a Dr. Wheeler. (he was actually a visiting professor from Rutgers who was teaching during the summer term at UofA). He once said that the real purpose of education was to “extend adolescence and keep people out of the job market”. He also said that the secondary purpose of education is to “fund the teacher’s lifestyle”! Obviously, he was stretching slightly to make a point.

Historically, what he said is certainly true! Granddaddy and Grandmother Westmoreland both finished the 8th grade and then went to work in the cotton mills. In the early 20th century that was very common. Children competed with grown men and women for jobs. A part of the government’s solution was to pass compulsory education and child labour laws. Of course, there was a social justification of preventing unjust treatment of children, but there was also a hidden agenda of removing competition in the job market.

For centuries, adolescence was a relatively short period of a lifespan. Adulthood began much sooner than it does now. Benjamin Franklin left school at the age of 10 - a "fifth grader" by today’s standards. From then on he taught himself and apprenticed to learn a trade. By the age of 23, he was a successful businessman. Today we consider the age of 23 to be barely out of diapers!

When Granddaddy Ivy graduated from high school, his grandfather McDonald gave him a pair of overalls and a bale of cotton. He told my Grandfather to take that bale of cotton and go get yourself an education. That is what Granddaddy Ivy did. He went to a “teacher’s college” and then began to teach school. Eventually, he became the Superintendent of Schools for Madison County. Granddaddy Ivy said that he taught because he liked to teach, and he farmed to feed his family!

By my generation, a college education had become expected. Now we see that being extended to post-graduate degrees. Something is out of whack! As a culture, we have come to believe that when something is broken, “education” is the cure. This has gotten out of hand and as a result, our schools have become little more than a hammer in the political toolbox. We have attempted to manipulate physical and emotional character that we inherited from our ancestors to meet artificial concepts of today’s society. Is it any wonder that we see the signs of fatigue in our societal structure. Those fatigue cracks are signs that we have perverted nature’s plan that she worked out aeons before we came along.