Pragmatism

The question becomes: when is it best to be a specialist and when is it best to be a generalist? And the ancillary to that question is: is the 21st century the marketplace for specialists or generalists? In my previous writings, I argued two things: 1) the 21st century marketplace is no longer the same as the 20th century, and 2) that education services the marketplace. There is a great amount of debate if education should be idealist or pragmatic? Should education be structured as that of Antiquity where the pursuit of learning was pure and for the betterment of intellectualism? Or should education work towards developing skills in people, helping them acquire employment? Like so many things in these white papers, I feel that education must find its balance. Learning is a pure pursuit, but it has a practical outcome. In the end, students need to become productive members of society.

They need secure employment, they need opportunities for success, and they need a chance to be civically involved. These things cannot take place without a background in the fundamentals (reading, writing, arithmetic, history, science etc.) and cannot take place without training for the workforce. Now, interestingly enough, the 21st century is perhaps uniquely suited for such a balance. Perhaps for the first time in American history, the marketplace needs learned, well-rounded individuals who have marketable skills. This is why allogamy is the ideal education system – it focuses on developing such intellectuals.

references

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