Please light the candle for education
The Dot Com bubble. The Housing bubble. The Great Recession. What’s next? Inequality! You can make a difference.
Nobel Memorial prize winner Robert Shiller talks to Charlie Rose about inequality.
The growing gap between the rich and the poor is alarming. This does not necessarily mean that the rich are more productive than the poor. It simply means that the economic system favors capital. The rich have somehow amassed so much capital that it is sustaining itself. The capital in America may be functioning as a security blanket, but it is certainly not being used to bring about a happy and productive society.
In this extremely competitive America, a poor person gets blamed for being lazy and unproductive. But a rich person is not necessarily being productive either. He may be just as lazy and unproductive because the system is taking care of his capital. So, culturally and educationally, the rich seems to be as destitute as the poor. The education system has long failed in America, because, today, looking at the situation in Washington, the blind seem to be leading the blind.
There is nothing wrong with a system which makes capital grow; but there is everything wrong with a system that does not allow that capital to be used for increasing the potential and productivity of people in the society, but only as a security blanket for a few.
The people in America are struggling and giving up hope in increasing numbers for a productive and satisfying lifestyle. The current system in America is doing nothing to help people achieve their individual potential.
We need to educate people, help increase their potential, and make them more productive.
Let’s have a grass-roots education revolution!
Let’s just take our focus away from capital for a moment and put attention on increasing the human resources in America. The best method to increase security is to educate people around us into thinking more rationally. That was my reason for starting Free Math Tutoring.
Currently, when I go to Starbucks and Barnes & Nobles on weekends, I set up my laptop, and I have on the back of the laptop pasted in big letters, “PROJECT RECOVER AMERICA – ASK FOR FREE MATH TUTORING.” I am already tutoring three students free.
If it is education that is going to help this country recover from its current down trend, then let’s each one of us start offering help in that direction. Don’t worry about what to educate people on. Just educate them on what you do best.
We need a grass-roots movement to forward education. The best education is to help a person learn to think systematically on his own. That can be done through any subject. I do it through math. It is a lot of fun.
I always encourage those around me to get involved in education if only as a tutor. My wife does a great job educating her “little sister”.
Our country is facing a huge situation. When one is actively doing something about that situation, no matter how little it may seem, it makes one feel better.
By helping others learn, a person also learns himself or herself. It is a win-win situation. So, let’s start doing it. Do not wait for help to come from somewhere else.
So, let’s start an education revolution using a grass-roots effort. When we get going help will come.
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Comments
I am in total agreement with the idea that opening up education opportunities is an essential element in improving the culture.
Your idea of the free tutoring, even for 3 sessions, is a great idea. If it helps a kid see that he can actually understand that miserable stuff then maybe a willingness will emerge to take the next step.
For those who are most likely to need tutoring, the biggest barrier is likely going to be the cost of it.
I don’t dispute that the tutor should be paid for the service so I hope something can be worked out should that barrier present itself.
Thanks for your support to this idea. I am actually tutoring a person free for as many sessions as needed to give him or her a taste of real understanding, which I can see from their happiness.
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I think that if each of us can simply start tutoring a deserving person regardless of what we get paid for it monetarily, we will find that we are benefitting in many other ways. Over time the monetary factor will work itself out too, but that should not be part of our motivation.
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I think that is an excellent approach.
Your venue is also an excellent choice, both for exposure of the idea and for public confidence that altruism is the only agenda.
This is especially an excellent approach for baby boomers (like me) who are getting older and who can plan a gradual and productive retirement. They have a lot of experience to impart to others. They can tutor without having to charge a fee in order to survive.
This plan will also help develop wonderful relationships. I know it because I have.
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1% of the Americans own 40% of the country’s wealth. 50% of Americans own less than 1% of the country’s wealth. This is really skewed.
The biggest problem in America is inequality.
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