How do priorities in American culture affect education and the coming crisis?

After watching the 2 Million Minutes documentary, which mirrors the themes of The World is Flat (if you haven't read it, you should; as should every American), I was struck by several things. I will only address one of them here, because it resonated with something that has been bothering me for a while.

There can be little question that there are problems with the American education system, to say the least. But what struck me while watching the film was the glaring deficiency not of the American education system per se; but of the culture of complacent entitlement that has infected the minds of young modern Americans. As broken as American education might be, it would be difficult for any educational system to deal with young people who believe they deserve whatever they want whenever they want it, and that they shouldn't have to do anything to get it. Obviously, not all American students have fully bought into such attitudes; and most of the students in my classes certainly haven't. But this is really the first whole generation of Americans who are going to have to seriously compete with peers from around the world who are better-educated, willing to work harder...and for smaller wages. What struck me as I watched the film was the difference in focus and priorities between the students from the US and the other countries. Albeit mere case studies and not full ones at that, the two American students in the video come off less than favorably (to be charitable) compared to their Indian and Chinese counterparts.

Our archetypal "best and brightest," as presented in the documentary, believe that going to college is about learning responsibility; and that responsibility means knowing "how to balance fun with studies and other activities." The young lady in the film is going pre-med; and one of her biggest priorities is to join a sorority. If and when she becomes a doctor one day, I hope she tells her patients that she will be very responsibly balancing her obligations to them with "fun." And then we have the young gentleman, who decides that computer graphics (to work on video games, I am guessing) is a better career choice than math, science, or engineering, even when he has obvious potential in those areas. I forget the young man's exact words; but the gist of it was that he wanted to do something that wasn't boring. (I think he was actually referring to a "desk job" as the boring thing there; but clearly he had not even considered science and math.)

Now, I'm not saying this to knock computer graphics as a career choice. I know that it takes bright, talented and creative people to do what some of those computer graphic artists and technicians can do. And I know next to nothing about it, so in addition to clarifying that my intent is not to denigrate those who choose that field, let me point out that I am speaking in near-total ignorance of what it actually takes to be successful in computer graphics. What I think this young man's choice does reflect, though, is what our modern American culture holds most dear: entertainment.

Think about the aspiring doctor who holds "fun" as such a high value that she has set actual responsibility alongside "fun" and redefined responsibility as a balancing act between the two. And the young gentleman's number one criterion for academic pursuit and future career choice? It isn't improving himself or the world around him; and it isn't even getting rich, necessarily. His lofty goal is to not be bored. I would argue that this is a result of growing up in a culture that is saturated with entertainment and places it on the highest of pedestals.

I will be happy to elaborate/expand/discuss/debate this claim in further posts; but for now I simply state my opinion: that the number one cultural priority of Americans today is to be entertained. Hence, our "best and brightest" believe that responsibility is balancing fun with other activities, since "fun" is such an obvious must; and designing video games is a better choice than...I don't know...anything of significance.

Now let me clarify that I have nothing against entertainment in and of itself. I have been known to play the occasional video game over the summer; and I am an admitted addict of LOST and The Office. As an avowed Trekker of the most refined taste, every summer (yes, this is really true) I watch the entire series Deep Space Nine. My performance as air band judge "Paul Abdul" no longer allows me to deny that I even watch that pillar of our modern culture, American Idol. (Ever notice that the "American Idol" is an entertainer?) For that matter, some of you may know that I do a little thing called Saxon Day every year, and that I run a little movie-making club on campus. Entertainment is a wonderful thing, in the right context; and I think that the human mind even needs some of it in order to remain healthy.

But when entertainment takes priority over anything, or everything, then said entertainment is in an inherently inappropriate context. I actually suspect that entertainment has been shoving things off center stage in America for a while now, though its usurpation of more important considerations has occasionally been slowed by such inconveniences as wars or civil unrest. But this current generation has not only grown up with entertainment as the number one priority; they have come to expect that they should always have lots of it, and it should always be as new and as immediate as possible. (A cell phone that only plays music? Where'd you get that...three years ago?) They feel entitled to be entertained; and that worse evils than boredom probably exist, but they are even less entertaining.

Is it any surprise that they view the ultimate career as designing video games? Or that they believe responsibility means balancing your personal fun with actual responsibility?

America is heading for a national crisis, and it seems that one of our biggest challenges as a nation is to open our eyes and realize that it is upon us. Our challenge as American educators has to be to figure out not only how to get the young Americans in our classrooms to understand the very anti-entertaining proposition that we are heading for a crisis, but how to prepare them to get themselves and the rest of our nation through this crisis.

I welcome your thoughts, opinions, discussion, and debate. This should be entertaining.