Live and let learn

I don’t generally watch much tv, let alone write about it, but I was excited recently to watch episode 4 of Decadence - the meaninglessness of modern life:

“In this episode, Pria considers the undervaluing of a broad ‘western’ education in modern Australia and the narrow emphasis on money and profit which has replaced it. He speaks to best-selling author John Marsden and Professor Paul Davies.”

The presenter, Pria Viswalingam (of SBS’s most successful series internationally A fork in the road), asserts that the rise of specialised study to suit commercial needs at Australian universities (and schools) is stripping the west of it’s greatest achievement - excellent education:

“Indeed, school these days is more about hothousing kids into university, to get a vocation that’ll earn a decent position at the salary trough.”

The half-hour foray into Australian education highlights many interesting perspectives from people like John Marsden (who, coincidentally, opened his own school called CandleBark in 2006)

“Education is really struggling. It’s a funny thing that in Australia we claim that we value young people, we talk very beautifully about that, but we show our contempt for them by the amount of money we allocate to education, for example, by the way we structure schools. There is evidence everywhere we look, at just how little we value children. And so we talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.”

After a brief eye-opening journey through Australian (and Western) education, Pria concludes: “The West’s greatest achievement is being priced to sell, like factory trinkets, to straight A students - with a loan.”

And the scary thing is, “the West” doesn’t seem to care, as long as we make a buck while we can.