Education is not just for the economy
The new Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd delivered a policy speech yesterday about education in Australia.
Today I am launching a New Directions Paper about the central role of education in our country’s long-term economic future. It is about preparing Australia for the economic challenges of the future through greater investment in our most important resource, human capital.I do want Kevin to help the ALP win the next election over the Howard conservative government, which has decimated public education at all levels for over a decade. But the ALP won't get my support with an education policy that is legitimised solely on economic grounds. (I suspect Stephen Smith had far too much influence in this matter.)
My children will not be going to school solely so they may be productively employed when they reach adulthood. I have not returned to university just to get a better job. I resolutely refuse to be lumped in to the gross domestic phrase that is "human capital". We are not resources, we are people. We live in dynamic and multi-faceted communities.
Public education that is valued and respected identifies a civil, confident society. That's the society I want to be part of and I want an education system that supports it. Such an education system is there to help people be participants and contributors to the community and beyond. Of course, we need productive workers. But some people should be encouraged to contribute to arts, academia, sport, social work and many other areas that just don't count on the economic scales.
C'mon Kevin, lift your gaze to a vision that is wider than the economic rationalism that promotes corporate ideals without regard to community life. People are ready to understand.
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