so, there's this big push to get more people to go to college. and concommittant with that is the cry that college degrees are becoming worthless because too many people are getting them (i've already posted elsewhere about the push to outsource entry-level job training to educational insititutions, so i won't rehash my opinions on that).
and yet... it seems as though the conversation is a bit one-sided. or at least, those mostly partaking of the conversation are coming from a specific, possibly skewed context.
less than one-third of american adults over 25 have an undergraduate degree. and this is a high, recently passing the 30% mark, as the article notes.*
i dunno. maybe if we actually started thinking about education as education, and took a wider look at where we actually are, the conversation might change. with less than one third of the population having even undergraduate degrees, i don't think that increasing that number will have a huge economic effect any time soon. approaching 50%, then i could see the panic.
although, reflecting... apparently the majority of jobs out there don't require a degree since the majority of adults don't have one. i mean, unemployment isn't that high. on the other hand, assuming we get more people in the workforce with critical thinking skills, even those jobs can theoretically be done better.
on yet another hand, if the majority of the workforce is kept from getting a higher education, and especially an education specializing in teaching them how to think instead of just how to manipulate a widget, that keeps the power in the hands of those who already have it. hmm...
well. full disclosure. i also come from a context where i would never have guessed that the attainment rate is only about 30% for the country (i thought it was higher).
*i tried to find the actual data, but the link for the 2011 report only goes to an "about" page. since the article only says "more than 30%" i'm taking that as journalist-speak for "30.01%-32.99%" on the assumption that "one third!" would have made a better headline if they could have used it. the 2009 report says that 28% have completed undergraduate degrees.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
a little creepy.
i think i'm going to have to stop shopping at target.
on the other hand, what's interesting about this is that i hate shopping so much, everything is a conscious decision. what cereal do i want this week? what orange juice? which store is the least hassle to buy socks? i compulsively read labels.
i wonder what my shopping habit reward is.
on the other hand, what's interesting about this is that i hate shopping so much, everything is a conscious decision. what cereal do i want this week? what orange juice? which store is the least hassle to buy socks? i compulsively read labels.
i wonder what my shopping habit reward is.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
the deceit of fruit.
i just ate an orange.
i shouldn't have been able to eat that orange; i bought it 2 weeks ago. but it was actually still underripe. i washed it, peeled it, and then had to wash my hands again because they were covered with wax.
as far as i can tell, most apples and citrus fruit sold in u.s. supermarkets is waxed.
i remember the first time a british friend went shopping with me. he exclaimed at the size and shininess of the apples. i said, "oh, they're covered in wax."
the fruit gets waxed for 2 reasons. 1) to keep it looking nice. wax seals the pores in the skin and smooths it out, making the fruit look shiny, uniform, and therefore attractive. and 2) to keep it from spoiling (or as in the case of my orange, from even getting ripe). because fruit is picked so far away from its selling location, it gets waxed to prevent air from carrying molds and bacteria into the fruit and spoiling it.
1) is the one that bothers me more. i can understand needing to wax fruit because it needs to be shipped from florida or california or washington to the other side of the country. but waxing the fruit changes the perception of what fruit should look like. we only see huge, over-irrigated, underripe, shiny, gleaming fruit. i have no idea what a non-industrial-farmed orange looks like. i do know what real apples are supposed to look like because we had 2 apple trees in our backyard when i was a kid.
but our food is as carefully curated for appearance as works of art in a museum. not only is this weird, but it makes us even more ignorant of what we eat, what we put in our bodies. the huge, waxed orange moves me just a little further from one reality into another one where appearance is carefully controlled and manufactured.
hm.
oh, and happy new year.
i shouldn't have been able to eat that orange; i bought it 2 weeks ago. but it was actually still underripe. i washed it, peeled it, and then had to wash my hands again because they were covered with wax.
as far as i can tell, most apples and citrus fruit sold in u.s. supermarkets is waxed.
i remember the first time a british friend went shopping with me. he exclaimed at the size and shininess of the apples. i said, "oh, they're covered in wax."
the fruit gets waxed for 2 reasons. 1) to keep it looking nice. wax seals the pores in the skin and smooths it out, making the fruit look shiny, uniform, and therefore attractive. and 2) to keep it from spoiling (or as in the case of my orange, from even getting ripe). because fruit is picked so far away from its selling location, it gets waxed to prevent air from carrying molds and bacteria into the fruit and spoiling it.
1) is the one that bothers me more. i can understand needing to wax fruit because it needs to be shipped from florida or california or washington to the other side of the country. but waxing the fruit changes the perception of what fruit should look like. we only see huge, over-irrigated, underripe, shiny, gleaming fruit. i have no idea what a non-industrial-farmed orange looks like. i do know what real apples are supposed to look like because we had 2 apple trees in our backyard when i was a kid.
but our food is as carefully curated for appearance as works of art in a museum. not only is this weird, but it makes us even more ignorant of what we eat, what we put in our bodies. the huge, waxed orange moves me just a little further from one reality into another one where appearance is carefully controlled and manufactured.
hm.
oh, and happy new year.
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