Comments | political_phil: Sending the Disadvantaged to College

polystyrenehart in political_phil

Sending the Disadvantaged to College

May 30, 2006 08:05

Today's New York Times had an article on the front page about how many colleges are enabling students who have not even finished high school or received an equivelent degree to attend their institutions. The students receive financial aid, including state and federal tax money, in many cases ( Read more... )

Comments 5

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polystyrenehart May 31 2006, 00:02:51 UTC

Unfortunately, I believe I miss-spoke, the trend I was attempting to expose was one of an intention to increase profits THROUGH lowering the bar. That altruistic reason for the trend, although state schools are built as institutions to help ANYONE who chooses to work for it get into college and enjoy the opportunity of a higher education, Colorado has PROVEN this not to be the case ( ... )

Commodification and commercialization of education system anonymous May 30 2006, 17:49:27 UTC

"...The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. ...Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind.A certain heretical but prescient figure wrote this in 1848. Capitalism turns everything on its head. All facets of life are becoming commodified and commercialized. Education, public and private, has become a product too. Students are consuming a product called education. University and school administrators the ( ... )

Re: Commodification and commercialization of education system polystyrenehart May 30 2006, 23:39:53 UTC

*ah, a breath of fresh air*

Thank you so much for your insight. I have been working on Tocqueville and was hoping to finish that before graduate school this fall. But I have full intention on looking up these two texts! So, again thank you.

Everything you write and everything that the quote says (I can only assume it was Marx or Engles since 1848 would be their time frame. Besides, who knew capitalism better) makes perfect sense. You managed to say everything I wanted to say and didn't say much more elequently than I could have possibly done.

I must say though, I am disappointed I can not know who you are sir/madame Anonymous

Re: Commodification and commercialization of education system benkilpatrick May 31 2006, 08:30:44 UTC

You do know that Marx thought that this upheaval was an improvement over feudalism, right?

benkilpatrick May 31 2006, 06:30:11 UTC

Private colleges recieve a large proportion of their funds from the govt, so there's not as much difference as you seem to think.