Abstract:
Those of us in the Western World, most particularly in the English speaking countries, are currently experiencing the economic destruction of society. That is, as the crisis of the international economy deepens, the nation states through which our societies have been created come under attack. The achievement of a civilised society towards which our nation states have largely been directed is being displaced by an overiding goal: that of perpetuating an unsustainable economic order for as long as possible. In the pursuit of this goal the social purposes of nation states are being traduced, their public assets stripped, their public institutions gutted and their struggle towards democracy betrayed. Education, as one of the key institutions through which individual and social aspirations are constructed is a prime target and agency in this process of 'reform'. Educational reform is a crucial mechanism in the economic destruction of society, or, if you prefer, in the subordination of the universal interests of society to the partial interests of the economy.