(EsPCEx - 2015)
We’re so well educated – but we’re useless
Record numbers of students have entered higher education in the past 10 years, but despite being the most educated generation in history, it seems that we’ve grown increasingly ignorant when it comes to basic life skills.
Looking back on my first weeks living in student halls, I consider myself lucky to still be alive. I have survived a couple of serious boiling egg incidents and numerous cases of food-poisoning, probably from dirty kitchen counters. Although some of my clothes have fallen victim to ironing experimentation, I think I have now finally acquired all the domestic skills I missed out in my modern education.
Educationist Sir Ken Robinson says that our current education system dislocates people from their natural talents and deprives us of what used to be passed from generation to generation – a working knowledge of basic life skills. Today’s graduates may have earned themselves distinctions in history, law or economics, but when it comes to simple things like putting up a shelf to hold all their academic books, or fixing a hole in their on-trend clothes, they have to call for help from a professional handyman or tailor.
Besides what we need to know for our own jobs, we must have practical skills. We don’t grow our own crops, build our own houses, or make our own clothes anymore; we simply buy these things. Unable to create anything ourselves, what we have mastered instead is consumption.
Sociologist Saskia Sassen argues that the modern liberal state has created a middle class that isn’t able to “make” anymore. I suggest that we start with the immediate reintroduction of some of the most vital aspects of “domestic science” education. Instead of only maths, language and history, we should create an interactive learning environment in schools where craftsmanship and problem-solving are valued as highly as the ability to absorb and regurgitate information. We need to develop children into people that not only think for themselves, but are also able to act for themselves.
Adapted from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2013/feb/25/well-educated-but-useless
What is the main topic of the text?
Consumption is the biggest problem of young students.
The most educated generation in history has earned distinctions.
Basic life skills are passed from generation to generation.
Young students attend domestic science education.
Students don’t have the ability to do practical tasks.
Gabarito:
Students don’t have the ability to do practical tasks.
a) INCORRETA, o texto aborda o consumismo, mas não é o tópico principal. Para o texto, o consumismo é um reflexo do fato de que não conseguimos fabricar, fazer, num sentido mais prático, nada, então somente compramos mais.
b) INCORRETA, pois o texto não fala sobre o fato de a geração atual ser a mais educada, ele menciona isso, mas para dizer que apesar disso, ainda assim não conseguimos fazer coisas práticas.
c) INCORRETA, esse não é o assunto principal do texto, ele diz, pelo contrário, que o sistema educacional moderno priva os estudantes de aprender habilidades práticas para a vida.
d) INCORRETA, o texto diz que os estudantes não têm aulas de educação para o lar e isso é prejudicial.
e) CORRETA, o texto inteiro é sobre esse assunto, sendo desenvolvidos argumentos e apresentados pontos de vista sobre o motivo de os estudantes, apesar de serem os mais capacitados intelectualmente, são incapazes de fazer coisas práticas sozinhos.