Education vs. Entertainment

By Brian Taylor, The Penny Institute

In 1990 I was a freshman in high school and one of my favorite albums was “Edutainment” by Boogie Down Productions.  It was raw, honest, and fresh commentary on the contrast between the importance of education in America and the importance of entertainment in America.  During this era, education was still seen as an avenue for success in this country; not just with adults but children alike. It provided more balance in entertainment i.e. The Cosby Show/Simpsons, NWA/Public Enemy, and GoodFellas/Malcolm X.  There was a belief that being smart was a good thing. There was an understanding by children that you had to learn some kind of skill, trade, or obtain higher education to find financial success in America.

Yet, these ideas have been steadily deteriorating for the last 30 years.

I grew up in the era of Michael Jordon; where you had to win championships before you were considered a mega superstar. The era of RUN-DMC and LL Cool J; where a recording artist had to make a couple of really good albums before they were labeled a star. The era of parents going to PTA meetings, children getting paddled in schools, and parents actually getting involved and encouraging the youth to be educated.

Today’s era is built around high school athletes getting praised by adults before they can legally drive. This era is built around Lebron James going from high school to the NBA and becoming an overnight multi-millionaire and super star before winning a single game.  This is the era where an artist can go platinum by ring tones.  This is the era of excepted cultural, racial, economic disparity in education.  One of my favorite movies is “Mobsters,” staring Christian Slater.  There is a very powerful line in the movie when Arnold Rothstein, played by F. Murray Abraham, asked Lucky Luciano, played by Christian Slater: “What’s America about?  MONEY!!! Everything in America is about money, Charlie.”

Rothstein’s reasoning is the exact reason why education is one of the first budgets to get cut: because it doesn’t bring in revenue. That’s why high school music programs get cut and the football teams don’t.  That’s why the nightly news covers the start high school athlete not the soon-to-be valedictorian. America is about money, NOT education.

Now this is clearly not ground breaking news and has been widely known and embraced for several decades.  We have embraced the lack of family support in education in America. The lack of community support from non parents and the lack of understanding regarding our inability to produce large numbers of well educated citizens will destroy America’s ability to not only compete on the national scale but to sustain America as a super power.  Our education system fuels everything from our military to our economy and, ultimately, our ability to build wealth.

Unfortunately, embracing ignorance in American culture has been slowly destroying the American dream.  I characterize it as the embrace of ignorance because children are bombarded with instant success stories, overnight millionaires, rappers, drug dealers, reality shows, singers, athletes.  All the above rather than hardworking academics, legitimate businessmen/women, or those middle-of-the-road students who find success doing a trade.  Sure there are stories of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Oprah Winfrey – who have all worked very hard for their success and where all very smart.  But, for a number of reasons, it’s not enough.

Regrettably, this ignorance has boiled over into our politics.  The polarizing aspects of the Republican electorate have pushed the Republican primary politicians so far to the right that they have embraced ignorance.  Whether it’s Michelle Bachmann saying “The very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States” or her saying in a speech in New Hampshire that she was in the “state where the shot was heard round the world at Lexington and Concord.”  As well as Herman Cain being completely stumped about questions regarding President Obama’s position on the Libyan uprising – which was on the front page of every creditable news paper in America for months.  Last, but definitely not least, Governor Rick Perry and his mental lapse in understanding that he’s actually running for the highest office in the land and should know what the legal voting age is in America.

When these candidates talk about the American dream they speak about children having the opportunity to do better than their parents.  But, no one talks about the American dream being centered on education.  When an industry looks into building a plant or opening a large office in a city/state, one of the first things they look into is the education level of the graduating student.  If the area has poor education, they are unlikely to commit to the area. That limits growth, jobs, and the American dream for those students.

America has to put more emphasis on education and less on money.  American teachers get paid basement salaries, but are asked to create the next Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerburg, or Colin Powell.  There is so much emphasis on money that school administrators are cheating on students test scores to get bonuses and more money for their school. Just recently in Atlanta, Georgia 178 teachers and 44 principles have been caught cheating on test scores … and, sadly, they aren’t the first.

In America, you have inalienable rights and one of those rights should be the right to fail. It’s a tragic reality of who we are as a nation. Imagine this: the United States Department of Education states that there are 26,407 public secondary schools: if 100 students drop out of school in every public school in America that’s 2,640.7 students a year. These students theoretically only have two choices: become a part of the welfare system or the penile system.  Americans have to focus on America’s future, not the future of the Republican or Democratic Party.  The only way America has a brighter future is if we put more importance on Education than Entertainment.  That’s Edutainment.

Brian Taylor is Founder and President of The Penny Institute

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