If I was a kid I'd be so royally pissed off at adults right now. If I was a kid, and I was shown what was happening on the planet they are to inherit, I'd be outraged. "You made me take multiple-choice tests while trashing my planet? You dithered and delayed about how and what to teach me, and in the meantime you were creating problems that my education left me unable to solve? How could you do that?"
We argue endlessly over the dangers of nuclear power, global warming, trashing oceans, lack of fresh water, wasting resources on weapons of war, and so on, and so on, while our kids' educations come down to the filling in of little circles.
If I was a kid, I'd be furious, but luckily we aren't educating them well enough to have a clear sense of the mess we are leaving to them, and their children. We may not be held accountable after all.
But...couldn't any generation make that argument? (You make me work in a shirt factory while you drive the Industrial Revolution? Bastards!) Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteIt's true, we neglect to regard the planet's future in many generations, not just this one. This generation needs to be better educated than previous ones though -- an entrepreneurial, innovative spirit is what's needed now for survival, let alone success.
ReplyDeleteI think the post, above, was written when the nuke plant in Japan started coming apart.
Sorry I haven't responded here sooner! I have been totally neglecting the blog!