Re: RE OT Search terms

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Harry Binswanger  on Fri, 05 Dec 2003
22:21:04 -0500

Harry:

> Yes. Sputnik was, of course October 1957, but the "challenge" came a little
> later.

I remember immediate "we've fallen behind" panic, from government officials to
newspapers to PTAs. Instant revival of the "who stole our secrets" stuff of
'48-'53. I was in high school -- the breathless announcement over the P.A.
system -- and math and science requirements to graduate upped the next year
(what a bore).

> It runs through the whole educational system, from grammar school to grad
> school. The high-school grads of 1920 knew more than the MBAs of today
> know. Personally, I think I learned a lot of what I know in the way of
> general culture from high-school (1958-1961). My wife is (permit me to
> brag)

sure

> 19 years younger than I, and I see the difference between my
> high-school education and hers.

Uh huh. But it's a mixed bag, I think. On balance, my kids got a better high
school education than I did -- or at any rate, at age 18 they were much savvier
and grown-up than I was. Part of that is New York City. I grew up in a
stifling midwestern suburb and despised it (ran away twice to NYC -- I thought
the 50s were incredibly boring -- what is life about finally, being dull and
productive, or being happy? I had a fabulous time in the 60s, until Nixon
arrived and we lapsed back into our national coma). I remember when my wife
and I went to college (different schools), we both were stunned by the New York
kids: their sophistication, their utter self-confidence, their ease with
themselves, the way they walked and dressed and talked. They were adults, and
we weren't; you felt that they could be thrust in any situation, anywhere in
the world, and they'd thrive. It was humbling. But re: education narrowly, my
kids' language, science, math, and art knowledge, and their general
analytical/dialectical skill, is at a much higher level; whereas my sense of
history and general literacy was deeper, more classical. I don't think you can
generalize that *everything* has gone downhill in education.

Sanford, incidentally, is now Maine's drug abuse capital, by reputation. Maine
kids supposedly score very high in national secondary education test
comparisons, one of the top two or three states, IIRC. But I don't see that
excellence reflected in the two-legged product (I live in Maine half the time,
e.g. right now -- a tiny offshore island community of 300). It remains
overwhelmingly poor, blue collar, natural resource extractive rather than
brainpower intensive. Pockets of affluence are few and small. High tech won't
come here because the labor pool is unprepared. So Maine just keeps
clearcutting, fishing out the waters, and scraping the seabed bare. Really
depressing to think about -- but withal a breathtakingly beautiful place.

We've really indulged ourselves in OT, haven't we? Genug maybe.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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