Education Is Key

Over the course of this quarter, something I personally struggled with a lot was disillusionment. After learning about what human development can be and should be, I often got caught up in wishing that Americans would educate themselves more before deciding to become parents. After discussing everything from fetal development to death and dying, I find myself wishing that everyone could take a course like this. There were so many times in class where we would come to the conclusion that, "If everyone would just do x, y, or z, then people would be better and the world would be a better place!" Many of my blog posts reflected this same script, in so many words.

For example, back in January, I wrote about my frustrations that oftentimes American cultural practices override scientific facts. After reading many studies that provide ample evidence that breastfeeding is better than formula feeding and that co-sleeping is better than isolated crib sleeping, I find it incredibly disappointing that most people don't give much credence to scientifically supported facts like these. We are so dependent on our culture to set the standard for child rearing that we may ignore helpful information if it deviates from cultural norms.

Instead of focusing too much on my disillusionment though, I want to emphasize instead the importance of education. Even though the United States is a first world nation by most standards, we are falling behind in education. Americans are starting to come to terms with this, but part of the problem may be that we are too financially miserly to allow ourselves to be properly taxed when it comes to schools. Most Americans, if asked, would probably openly claim to value education, but the evidence to back that up is hard to find. We don't pay our teachers enough, we don't pay childcare providers enough, and a college education is becoming more and more expensive every year. So while we may claim to value education, we really aren't putting our money where our mouths are and making that education accessible to everyone. If the government subsidized schooling like they subsidized corn maybe our children's brains would be bursting with new ideas and information instead of their clothes bursting from drinking all of those high-fructose corn syrup filled soda drinks. If we truly valued education, it would be reflected in how our children are cared for, taught in school, and ultimately in how American adults make decisions on a daily basis. If we don't value education, we don't value teachers, and if we don't value teachers, then eventually no one will want to take it upon themselves to teach. We need to break the unfortunate cycle that devalues education and find a way to make it a top priority. Maybe then, people will listen to scientific reason and just breastfeed their infants already!