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Predicament: The Future Should Be Brighter 3/23/2012 9:23:12 PM
I remember my Papa Eriong saying that the next generation must be better than the preceding one. I supposed what he meant by it was that the next generation must be smarter and financially more advance than the preceding one. When I was younger, I don’t question his wisdom. Indeed, the younger generation must be smarter and richer. For the farmer father tries to make his sons and daughters engineers and doctors while those engineers and doctors try to make their sons and daughters artists. But knowing what I know, what my grandfather meant was making those engineers and doctors richer engineers and doctors; never more the artists that one should subscribe to.
Of course, now that the economy had plunged into a recession, the plight of those upward mobile had devolved into something not seen since the Great Depression. More of the middle class had now been classified into the working class. And the working class became the working poor. I don’t have the statistics but there are more who are now under welfare. Most of the middle class had lost their homes. Their savings wiped out. Most of the children live with one parent and the parent needs to make do of what they can to feed the family. The engineers and doctors were still engineers and doctors but they were now poorer engineers and doctors. So the hope of creating artists became farther than ever.
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But how would we reverse the descendance of this vast wealth the United State has, both the financial acumen and the quality of life? How would we turn around this demise so that the future we hope we create would be brighter? I saw on OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) the measured plea of Condoleezza Rice and Klein (I think that was his name) to treat education as that next step in alleviating the hardship that most of us experience. Education must be central in reversing this downward spiral. With greater emphasis on education, we hope that we can create once again a much stronger United States, one that will continually lead the world and not be a poor follower.
Indeed, there are hurdles we must overcome. What about the poor families that goes to poor school districts with even poorer educational curricula? Certainly money is the overriding factor. What must we teach our young ones so that they can learn what they must? How about discipline? How can we teach the kids to behave so that there would not be any interruption in the classes they take? Will the United States educate the better off of the world rather its own citizens only so its citizens would be second rate citizens in their own country?
A dilemma indeed. There are multitudes of question left unanswered.
Or, I must have misinterpreted what Papa Eriong said, that instead of the engineers and doctors becoming richer engineers and doctors, the quality of life must be alleviated so that they can create artists. Education is a key answer to the challenges that faces us. Smarter is far better than financially richer. Getting to be financially richer does not mean that you take advantage of your poorer brethren. It only means that that you are better off because you have competed and won in a level playing field.
Papa Eriong’s statement that the next generation must be brighter than the preceding one did not change. The future indeed is bright. The next generation will always be brighter. For the quality of our lives and the want of it will level the playing field. The farmer father will try his hardest to let his sons and daughters be engineers and doctors; and those engineers and doctors will try their hardest to let their sons and daughters be artists.
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