Lindsay Tanner: Aussies are Anti-Learning

[Didaicos]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/labor-attack-on-antiintellectual-aussies/2006/11/21/1163871372514.html

Lindsay Tanner has made a very provocative speech recently about many Australian's attitude to learning as a "wasted event".
He goes further on to say that many view academics with suspicion, and see learning as something "real Aussies don't do".

I'll come out and say it, view his statement from the fundamental level and I think he's exactly right. I know many will deride his comments-but I think many have to understand his point.

As someone who has grown up with education as an important priority (parents are in the sector) and as someone going through uni, I at times really feel frustrated at times at people's flippancy towards education; the way many throw away a fantastic opportunity we really have in this country; A first class education.
The amount of comments I heard after getting into uni "I could have done that if I'd bothered" or "why would you want to do that"
Look I know not everyone is a genius (I'm not either!) but I feel sorry for many who fall into doing (in my opinion) relatively mundane work; people I went to High school with who I knew were smart who really just "couldn't be bothered".
It's not just attitude to university; I am envious of apprentices who can with ease create wonders with their hands- to me that is intelligence, just a different type. But yet many are not prepared to buckle down and face the few years of hard work and lower pay. I think at a base level it is that many don't accept the concept of "delayed gratification" in other words working hard for a time to achieve a greater goal later.
The other comment that gets to me is the "overseas students taking our kids spots"; that comment is rubbish-Overseas kids are earning the spots many "Australian" kids should be busting their arses to achieve. The sacrifices many of these overseas students take and the attitude towards learning these students have is I think a fundamental flaw in the attitudes of many Australians.
Look deride me all you will, but it is something that has been on my mind for a while and I think Tanner has hit the nail on the head.

[Hugor]

I think the value of a higher education has diminished in the new millenium in this country. Australia does not need (or more correctly) does not financially reward higher qualifications like it did when it was a developing country post WW2 etc.
Its main value is social in the present age.

We have the most educated unemployed people in the world, and we are importing blue collar workers from asia and the middle east to do the jobs our unemployed won't do.

If you take the health industry as an example it is failing from the bottom up with massive shortages of nurses and other supportive staff rather than the tops of the food chain. Nursing itself was a respectable profession for a women to get into but since its become a university degree, the graduates are above the core majority of their duties which are menial in nature.

It costs you $120 to get a plumber or electrician through your front door without doing anything but $60 to have a medical emergency treated in your house by a doctor.

When was the last time you took a ride from an Australian cab driver in Sydney or Melbourne?

I am hoping to complete studying in 4 years time and I am 35 and have not had any interruptions through. Though I enjoy what I do and that is my reward, the financial motivation is not there. It is the bottom line that money is what motivates most people to do things they wouldn't otherwise choose to do, and higher education is no longer the guarantee to financial success.

Furthermore I think we are the lifestyle generation generally more concerned with pleasure, than survival like most of our parents had to do.