One of the more nebulous, if portentous pronouncements to which one is consistently subjected at educator trainings/forums/meetings/conventions goes something like this: We must prepare our students to compete in the global marketplace of the twenty-first century. Very dramatic and compelling, that. But what exactly does it mean? Compete for what? For jobs? If so, how does that job competition work? Compete for whom? Compete with whom? Where is this global marketplace? What is it? Is there some gigantic Manpower headquarters under construction in the lobby of the U.N. that we're going to find out about someday soon? The whole global competition line has a very dashing and urgent quality to it, like something out of the Cold War (we must study our math lest the godless Commies beat us to the Moon), but ultimately it is unclear as to what, if anything, it really means. It is the frenzied pursuit of phantoms, ultimately collapsing in exhaustion and futility.
Anonymous on January 10, 2013 at 2:09 PM
It's hard to compete when you cannot see the starting line because you're looking at the walls of the box you're in