Minimum wage assumes neither party has free will. Government control of free will has been tried repeatedly since history begin. We are still suffering from government’s attempt to control free will that caused the extension of the Great Depression, price controls, production controls, wage controls and productivity controls. Our recent move towards government mandated healthcare insurance found its birth during the Great Depression. Minimum wage is New Deal idea that has yet to find a maximum. Production controls are still subsidizing agriculture nearly a century after the problem was solved.

How many students learn the regulations that will restrict their adventures into free enterprise while in school? How many will learn the history of those regulations so they can determine for themselves whether the regulation was intended to help or offer a competitive advantage to someone or some business?

Who doe minimum wage help? How? Who does minimum wage hurt? How?

If minimum wage is good for everyone why have we waited so long to raise it each time its been raise since the 1930s? Why not just make minimum wage a million an hour so everyone will be rich? Do we teach the basics of economics sufficient for students to understand the fallacies of minimum wage?

Do students know that the Federal Reserve Note has no redeemable value and what that means? Do students know that every civilization that has tried none redeemable currency has had huge financial problems including the two previous times the United States tried fiat money?

However, just because children can ‘naturally’ navigate the waters, doesn’t mean anything when it comes to managing the sea and the obstacles along the way? Their is a teachable moment for both sides to learn from one another here, which can instantly bridge the gap by producing an environment where everyone is actively learning. You cannot always, all the time, regardless of the circumstance have a captain that knows everything about all adventures; that eradicates adventure, in toto.

How do kids want to learn…doesn’t mean the instructor has to forfeit what types of learning and information they are exposing their students to; I think those separate ideas are too often made one variable. Extracting the bureaucracy quotient for a moment, I produce the inquiry that is: how many teachers themselves are willing to unlearn what they have learned?

Like many industries, perhaps education being one of the biggest of them all, the 21st-century is quickly re-calibrating the standards and the calculus. When every child has “all the knowledge”, vis-a-vis, Google, what’s the purpose of a traditional multi-guess test? It puts into question the notion of the value of static information? With automation systems springing up everyday, it puts continued stress on a system that continues to offer DOA skill-sets. Is there a conduit that offers the distinction between passive information and active information, and can each compliment one another – can they be collaborative?
Finally, a prescient question is born from this cluster: how truly large is the motivation deficit in this system?

The way to use technology successfully is to be in the mix. When I see Facebook or non-class related Twitter, I say simply, “We’re doing this now,” just like I did when they’d pass notes. They’re usually more engaged in tech-based assignments. That’s how their minds operate. I had kids pick dictionaries off my shelf and laugh, but many of us are forced to teach that way when tech is banned.

Great article.

John Harkness