Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is in the Chronicle of Higher Education, so I guess I can cover it, but it's a bit weird. Here was the challenge: ideas that would "drive $10,000 in annual wage increases for at least 100,000 low- and middle-income US workers by 2021." Here were the winners: "EMPath, which teaches clients how to keep from being overwhelmed by health or financial stresses," and "Cell-Ed Works, which provides low-tech training via cellphones in three-minute bites." I doubt either will create the desired effect. My solution would address the cause directly: low wages (amid record corporate profits). But I don't think the organizers were looking for things that would help low-income workers form unions and exercise political and economic power. But Friere was right: "To surmount the situation of oppression, people must first critically recognize its causes, so that through transforming action they can create a new situation, one which makes possible the pursuit of a fuller humanity."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2024 09:28 a.m.

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