“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
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Legend has it that American’s once appreciated quality, and built things that last. When things broke down, we didn’t rush out and buy a new one but rather repaired the existing model. Growing up, my father spent weekends fixing everything from vacuums to carburetors. Only purchasing new when all other options had been exhausted.
At an early age, I was taught the lesson that things cost what they cost. You can haggle over the price, a good deal was highly valued, but ultimately when you were making a large purchase, you were making an investment. You were buying something of quality, something that you planned on using for many years. The desired sweet spot was that place between price and quality.
Somewhere, over the last 50 years or so, there has been a switch. Manufacturers realized that there was more money in producing things with a shorter shelf life, forcing consumers to replace with an increased frequency. They convinced American’s that the newest shiny thing was always better than the previous offering, even if the difference between the two was only cosmetic. It’s a practice that is widely prevalent in education as well.
For decades now, those outside the classroom have been trotting out new and improved options of old ideas, touting them as the secret ingredient in the secret sauce. A look under the hood though, quickly reveals that what’s really being offered, is just more of the same. But with prettier colors THE CONTINUAL REPACKAGING AND RESELLING OF EDUCATION POLICY – Dad Gone Wild