SumBlog 7-Global Education

In class this week we discussed both global education and global health. In this blog I will be focusing on global education. I believe, like the video says, that access to education is a human right and every citizen should have the opportunity to be educated. This video shows the importance of education and how it is a key factor in eliminating inequality and poverty. Education is something that can never be taken away from a person. Knowledge is power and having a quality education can open so many more doors down the road.

I like the concept of global education in the aspect that everyone has access to it. However, I do not think education should become standardized from country to country. I understand that academic scores are very competitive through out countries. But I do not think that educators should be teaching to the tests just to improve scores. I do not think it is necessarily fair that schools are punished or rewarded on how well they do on tests. Some children do not do well taking tests, when in fact they know the material they just can not express it in this form. I feel like these days there is way to much pressure in how people do on tests especially the ACT. Yes, a better score can help you obtain scholarships and help ensure a spot at a prominent college. But the thing is there are so many other ways to show how smart you are instead of a silly test that people spend months stressing over. Some people do well on tests so something like the ACT is great for them but others who don’t just end up feeling inadequate to what they should be able to show they know. I think if schools moved away from putting so much pressure on standardized tests students would actually do better.  Most importantly I feel like students would see that one test does not determine how smart they are. 

SumBlog Six: Adam Smith and Karl Marx

In class this past week we talked about different economic theories from the views of Adam Smith who was born in 1723 and Karl Marx who was born in 1818. They were born in different periods and their opinions were definitely opposite from one another. These two men have very different ideas and views on how the economy should run. Smith would be described today as a republican where Marx would be looked at as a democrat most likely even farther left then the standard democrat. Smith is known as the “father of modern economics” he was a supporter of a capitalistic economy.  His idea of government would be lassiez-faire known as “hands off” he would ideally like very little government involvement and regulation in the economy. He wants people to have the ability to pursue personal gains. On the other hand Marx’s view is that we can do better than capitalism. He believed that capitalism represented inequality. Being very influential, Marx helped form the concept of socialist states and is the founder of the communist movement. Marxism greatly influenced labor unions in the workforce. In the book “Communist Manifesto” Mark talks about the terms bourgeoisie and proletariat to describe two classes of people. Bourgeoisie are the owners of company’s and wealthier where proletariats are the workers. Ne believed that the bourgeoisie continually exploited the proletariats. The foundation of capitalism exploited a group of workers in this case the proletariats. When I reflect on these different views I definitely find myself connecting to Karl Marx’s views. I wouldn’t necessarily go as far as socialism and communism but I think we need a combination of these ideologies along with capitalism. Capitalism is now seen as the global economy. I think it mat be beneficial if we consider changing to a new type of economy, however I think that would take quite some time and we would have to consider if we want to fix the problems with capitalism or if we want to completely get rid of it.

I picked out a short clip from YouTube that reenacts Adam Smith and Karl Marx. It illustrates the type of conversation they would have if they were both alive at the same point in time. It shows their views with a little bit of humor.