This format is a work in progress. I am open to suggestions. More than anything, I would just like to maintain an ongoing conversation about the topics in the book as well as how they relate to education. One need not read the book (though I wish you would) but simply think about the excerpts and discuss them. I hope this is just another way for us to evaluate education and future steps in education reform while maintaining an eye on the “bigger picture”.
From the beginning, Shapiro’s book has been a wealth of information on globalization as well as the effects that the next ten years will have on the world itself. I found a lot of his information really interesting to follow. Below is an excerpt from one of the passages that intrigued me the most during the chapter:
The Dimming Prospects For Equality
Wherever globalization and its technologies take hold, the return on investment rises and makes the rich richer while more intense domestic and international competition holds down most workers’ wage gains even when their productivity increases. That doesn’t even count the economic shock and sorrow of millions of workers in advanced countries who will lose their jobs and, in the current technology-driven competitive environment, eventually settle for lower-paying ones.
IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION
This type of rhetoric has been thrown around in education for the last decade or so, and my hope is that educators are listening. It’s unfortunate, but I feel as though American society is at a crossroads. We need to work with kids to develop a skill set that opens up jobs domestically. This means more of an emphasis on design and innovation with less efforts to promote conformity and factory work.
I have heard a number of people make the claim that “we don’t know how connected we all really are”, but the reality is that many of the factory-based jobs that were started in the United States are being moved to countries where people can be paid less and work longer. I advocate that we begin pushing for more students to consider nursing school to provide services for the elderly and adopt trades, such as electricians, to ensure domestic job availability for some. These are the type of occupations that will exist regardless of advancements in technology. Even these jobs won’t be enough to suffice though.
The government, and private enterprise, needs to find reasons to make “staying local” valuable. I am still waiting for the first state to completely revamp its technological infrastructure to lure companies in and away from places like Silicon Valley. In an age of inter-connectivity, we need to strongly consider what advantages comes with being local and play to those strengths.
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