The idea that the state may have an interest in lowering the quality of education is not new. Nevertheless, the "conspiracy theory" is always more difficult to believe than simple human stupidity. This article proposes to test the plausibility of the hypothesis of a controlled decline in the quality of education using the method invented by the Strugatsky brothers.
Once upon a time I was deeply moved by the book of the Strugatsky brothers "Waves extinguish the wind." On the Earth of the future described in the book, there was such a profession - progressor. Progressors infiltrated other civilizations less developed than Earth and gradually directed society towards progress in the right direction. And then one day a certain progressor was pierced by the thought: what if the conspiratorial progressors of more highly developed civilizations also operate on Earth? We must find them! But how? The author of the idea proposed a three-step method for identifying alien progressors. First, let's assume and assume that they do exist. Secondly, knowing their goals, let's try to predict what they should do (what we would do in their place). Thirdly,
I propose to use the Strugatskys' methodology in relation to the education system. Suppose a band of regressors is operating in the post-Soviet space, whose task is to destroy the education system that has developed under the USSR. Let's think about what would have to be done for this and we will look for coincidences in real life. In this case, I will act as a hypothetical regressor and develop a short sabotage plan-program for the collapse of the education system. And you, dear readers, yourself are looking for coincidences in real life and draw conclusions.
So, my program for the destruction of the education system (for example, higher education) turned out to be 7 points.
1. Decrease in the creative motivation of teachers
General idea. As Comrade Stalin taught, "cadres decide everything." The problem is that the teachers of higher education are still the same cadres. For the most part, self-motivated individuals work in universities who do their job well not for a salary and not out of fear of punishment, but because they are interested in it, and because they believe that it is important and necessary. How to reduce the work and creative motivation of these nails people? They need to be humiliated. To humiliate them in such a way that there is a strong resentment against the system they serve. The heightened sense of justice, which is usually inherent in self-motivated people, in this case will do their dirty deed - they will not be able to continue to serve the system that undeservedly humiliated them.
Specific actions. An indicator of a person's social status in society and an indicator of how society evaluates the value of labor and a person's merits is his salary (income). It is necessary for professors and associate professors to have salaries at the level of loaders, cashiers and cleaners. First, it will reduce the status of the teacher in the eyes of society. Secondly, it will humiliate educators and generate resentment against the system. At the same time, it is very important to bring the situation to the point of absurdity - so that the professors / doctors receive fewer cleaning ladies. Such an irrational situation introduces a person's mind into a state of passion. Additionally, universities should create irrational and humiliating deficits: paper, toilet paper, textbooks, printer powder, printers themselves, etc.
2. Undermining the authority of teachers
General idea. By implementing point 1, we kill several birds with one stone. Since wealth is an indicator of a person's social status, students in the bulk will contempt for rogue teachers, considering them losers. With this attitude, the process of transferring knowledge becomes nearly zero efficiency.
Specific actions. See point 1.
3. Bureaucratization of the educational process
General idea. Army wisdom says: so that a soldier does not have bad thoughts, he must be constantly busy; no matter what, the main thing is busy. So that good and smart washers do not penetrate into the heads of teachers, they, too, must be constantly busy with some empty and stupid work. Since it is somehow not accepted among teachers to paint the grass, it is necessary to invent an analogue of “painting the grass” for the professors.
Specific actions. An analogue of "painting the grass" in universities can be filling in countless and unnecessary papers and reports. Every year, the forms of the main documents need to be changed so that all the documentation has to be redone anew. But teachers (especially of the Soviet temper) are harmful, stubborn and persistent people. Even in a meaningless business, they can easily find a creative component. To exclude this possibility, it is necessary to introduce an element of emergency into the workflow: about 30% of all papers should be required to be provided urgently and from-today-to-tomorrow.
4. Liberalization of the educational process
General idea. Teaching a person to do something new in most cases causes resistance. Therefore, violence is an integral part of any effective educational process. The absence of violence dramatically reduces the effectiveness of training. Think of the old Bruce Lee and Van Damme films or the White Lotus teacher from the grotesque Kill Bill 2 movie. Remember how the teachers taught their students there? The result was - wow! To reduce the quality of education, it is necessary to liberalize the educational process as much as possible. A person will simply reject, for the most part, the most difficult, but rewarding knowledge, leaving the path of least resistance. A person is a lazy creature, therefore,
Specific actions. Free (albeit not de jure, but de facto) attendance at lectures, the choice of teachers by students, an unlimited number of retake exams and tests, minimal expulsion (ideally, to get rid of the expulsion phenomenon altogether) of students. More skits, KVNs, beauty contests, etc.
5. Destruction of the intellectual atmosphere
General idea. At the university, lectures and seminars are not the main thing. The main thing is to create an educational field. That is why Western universities are hunting for Nobel laureates and famous scientists and are ready to pay them kilobucks simply for the fact of their presence. Why do scientists like to go to conferences and symposia (which, in truth, are more "hanging out" and "drinking" than discussing scientific problems)? Because they are getting smarter there! Hundreds of bright heads in one place create a unique “field of mind”; people caught in this field get smarter before our eyes and give birth to good ideas. However, this intellectual field is easily destroyed by low-level vibrations. It is enough to enter a dozen idiots into this field and write "lost" - the field is no longer there.
Specific actions. It is necessary to remove the barriers that prevent the admission of idiots, cultureless, aggressive personalities to universities. This requires:
- to deprive university teachers of the right to select students on their own,
- make admission to universities impersonal (elementary face control easily identifies the above pathological types),
- to reduce the admission threshold to the level of a poor student (for this it is necessary to increase the enrollment of students).
To increase the number of students does not require additional budgetary funds, we do the following: surplus students must pay for their own tuition, the number of teachers must not be increased, and the workload for each teacher is increased (this will help the implementation of points 1 and 3 of the program). An increase in the number of students per teacher is also beneficial because it depersonalizes the educational process, turning it into a sweatshop.
6. Selection of management personnel
General idea. It is necessary to place people who do not correspond to these positions to the highest leadership positions in the education system. With the correct selection and placement of personnel, a quick collapse of the system is guaranteed.
Specific actions. Who should be appointed to the top management positions in the education system? First, people who do not enjoy authority and respect among their colleagues. Secondly, "strong business executives", but not thinkers who are able to form a holistic view of complex systems. Thirdly, gray people who do not have talents and achievements; in this case, they will understand that they are wholly and completely indebted to their patron and will ideally obey and keep a secret.
For the destabilization of the education system, the following psychological types are especially valuable: stupid, ambitious, hyperactive, aggressive, cowardly, compromising, greedy.
7. Disguise
General idea. To prevent the program of destruction of education from meeting public resistance, it must be disguised. You have to lie in a big way. Social psychology asserts: the more monstrous the deception, the easier it will be believed. People tend to think that they can be deceived by bad people (enemies) surreptitiously and in trifles, but few are ready to believe that they are being deceived by good people (their own), insolently and in a big way.
Specific actions. First, it is necessary to create a continuous information noise in the media about modernization, innovation, bolonization, etc. For this, the success of individuals (victories in olympiads, competitions, etc.) can be passed off as the success of the system as a whole. Secondly, it is necessary to divert public attention to secondary issues. To do this, periodically it is necessary to start meaningless reforms: change the 5-point grading system to 10 or 20 points, change the number of years of study from 4 to 5, then from 5 to 4; first introduce and then cancel the bachelor's degree, master's degree, specialized training, etc.; to propose to shorten or lengthen (in any case there will be dissatisfied) summer vacations, etc.
Notes to the program
This program is designed for 5-10 years. After this period, positive feedback mechanisms begin to operate (when university graduates themselves go to teach at schools and universities, write textbooks, etc.). After that, the degradation of the educational system becomes irreversible and self-sustaining. That, in fact, is all. As you can see, nothing complicated.
Once upon a time I was deeply moved by the book of the Strugatsky brothers "Waves extinguish the wind." On the Earth of the future described in the book, there was such a profession - progressor. Progressors infiltrated other civilizations less developed than Earth and gradually directed society towards progress in the right direction. And then one day a certain progressor was pierced by the thought: what if the conspiratorial progressors of more highly developed civilizations also operate on Earth? We must find them! But how? The author of the idea proposed a three-step method for identifying alien progressors. First, let's assume and assume that they do exist. Secondly, knowing their goals, let's try to predict what they should do (what we would do in their place). Thirdly,
I propose to use the Strugatskys' methodology in relation to the education system. Suppose a band of regressors is operating in the post-Soviet space, whose task is to destroy the education system that has developed under the USSR. Let's think about what would have to be done for this and we will look for coincidences in real life. In this case, I will act as a hypothetical regressor and develop a short sabotage plan-program for the collapse of the education system. And you, dear readers, yourself are looking for coincidences in real life and draw conclusions.
So, my program for the destruction of the education system (for example, higher education) turned out to be 7 points.
1. Decrease in the creative motivation of teachers
General idea. As Comrade Stalin taught, "cadres decide everything." The problem is that the teachers of higher education are still the same cadres. For the most part, self-motivated individuals work in universities who do their job well not for a salary and not out of fear of punishment, but because they are interested in it, and because they believe that it is important and necessary. How to reduce the work and creative motivation of these nails people? They need to be humiliated. To humiliate them in such a way that there is a strong resentment against the system they serve. The heightened sense of justice, which is usually inherent in self-motivated people, in this case will do their dirty deed - they will not be able to continue to serve the system that undeservedly humiliated them.
Specific actions. An indicator of a person's social status in society and an indicator of how society evaluates the value of labor and a person's merits is his salary (income). It is necessary for professors and associate professors to have salaries at the level of loaders, cashiers and cleaners. First, it will reduce the status of the teacher in the eyes of society. Secondly, it will humiliate educators and generate resentment against the system. At the same time, it is very important to bring the situation to the point of absurdity - so that the professors / doctors receive fewer cleaning ladies. Such an irrational situation introduces a person's mind into a state of passion. Additionally, universities should create irrational and humiliating deficits: paper, toilet paper, textbooks, printer powder, printers themselves, etc.
2. Undermining the authority of teachers
General idea. By implementing point 1, we kill several birds with one stone. Since wealth is an indicator of a person's social status, students in the bulk will contempt for rogue teachers, considering them losers. With this attitude, the process of transferring knowledge becomes nearly zero efficiency.
Specific actions. See point 1.
3. Bureaucratization of the educational process
General idea. Army wisdom says: so that a soldier does not have bad thoughts, he must be constantly busy; no matter what, the main thing is busy. So that good and smart washers do not penetrate into the heads of teachers, they, too, must be constantly busy with some empty and stupid work. Since it is somehow not accepted among teachers to paint the grass, it is necessary to invent an analogue of “painting the grass” for the professors.
Specific actions. An analogue of "painting the grass" in universities can be filling in countless and unnecessary papers and reports. Every year, the forms of the main documents need to be changed so that all the documentation has to be redone anew. But teachers (especially of the Soviet temper) are harmful, stubborn and persistent people. Even in a meaningless business, they can easily find a creative component. To exclude this possibility, it is necessary to introduce an element of emergency into the workflow: about 30% of all papers should be required to be provided urgently and from-today-to-tomorrow.
4. Liberalization of the educational process
General idea. Teaching a person to do something new in most cases causes resistance. Therefore, violence is an integral part of any effective educational process. The absence of violence dramatically reduces the effectiveness of training. Think of the old Bruce Lee and Van Damme films or the White Lotus teacher from the grotesque Kill Bill 2 movie. Remember how the teachers taught their students there? The result was - wow! To reduce the quality of education, it is necessary to liberalize the educational process as much as possible. A person will simply reject, for the most part, the most difficult, but rewarding knowledge, leaving the path of least resistance. A person is a lazy creature, therefore,
Specific actions. Free (albeit not de jure, but de facto) attendance at lectures, the choice of teachers by students, an unlimited number of retake exams and tests, minimal expulsion (ideally, to get rid of the expulsion phenomenon altogether) of students. More skits, KVNs, beauty contests, etc.
5. Destruction of the intellectual atmosphere
General idea. At the university, lectures and seminars are not the main thing. The main thing is to create an educational field. That is why Western universities are hunting for Nobel laureates and famous scientists and are ready to pay them kilobucks simply for the fact of their presence. Why do scientists like to go to conferences and symposia (which, in truth, are more "hanging out" and "drinking" than discussing scientific problems)? Because they are getting smarter there! Hundreds of bright heads in one place create a unique “field of mind”; people caught in this field get smarter before our eyes and give birth to good ideas. However, this intellectual field is easily destroyed by low-level vibrations. It is enough to enter a dozen idiots into this field and write "lost" - the field is no longer there.
Specific actions. It is necessary to remove the barriers that prevent the admission of idiots, cultureless, aggressive personalities to universities. This requires:
- to deprive university teachers of the right to select students on their own,
- make admission to universities impersonal (elementary face control easily identifies the above pathological types),
- to reduce the admission threshold to the level of a poor student (for this it is necessary to increase the enrollment of students).
To increase the number of students does not require additional budgetary funds, we do the following: surplus students must pay for their own tuition, the number of teachers must not be increased, and the workload for each teacher is increased (this will help the implementation of points 1 and 3 of the program). An increase in the number of students per teacher is also beneficial because it depersonalizes the educational process, turning it into a sweatshop.
6. Selection of management personnel
General idea. It is necessary to place people who do not correspond to these positions to the highest leadership positions in the education system. With the correct selection and placement of personnel, a quick collapse of the system is guaranteed.
Specific actions. Who should be appointed to the top management positions in the education system? First, people who do not enjoy authority and respect among their colleagues. Secondly, "strong business executives", but not thinkers who are able to form a holistic view of complex systems. Thirdly, gray people who do not have talents and achievements; in this case, they will understand that they are wholly and completely indebted to their patron and will ideally obey and keep a secret.
For the destabilization of the education system, the following psychological types are especially valuable: stupid, ambitious, hyperactive, aggressive, cowardly, compromising, greedy.
7. Disguise
General idea. To prevent the program of destruction of education from meeting public resistance, it must be disguised. You have to lie in a big way. Social psychology asserts: the more monstrous the deception, the easier it will be believed. People tend to think that they can be deceived by bad people (enemies) surreptitiously and in trifles, but few are ready to believe that they are being deceived by good people (their own), insolently and in a big way.
Specific actions. First, it is necessary to create a continuous information noise in the media about modernization, innovation, bolonization, etc. For this, the success of individuals (victories in olympiads, competitions, etc.) can be passed off as the success of the system as a whole. Secondly, it is necessary to divert public attention to secondary issues. To do this, periodically it is necessary to start meaningless reforms: change the 5-point grading system to 10 or 20 points, change the number of years of study from 4 to 5, then from 5 to 4; first introduce and then cancel the bachelor's degree, master's degree, specialized training, etc.; to propose to shorten or lengthen (in any case there will be dissatisfied) summer vacations, etc.
Notes to the program
This program is designed for 5-10 years. After this period, positive feedback mechanisms begin to operate (when university graduates themselves go to teach at schools and universities, write textbooks, etc.). After that, the degradation of the educational system becomes irreversible and self-sustaining. That, in fact, is all. As you can see, nothing complicated.
