I think that one of the greatest accomplishments of the Soviet Union was its 99% literacy rate which to this day is unmatched in capitalist countries. In comparison, the literacy rate in the United States stands at 79% while 54% of the population read below the sixth-grade level.
Education is really important and my stance on the matter is that the proletariat should be as educated as they are willing to be and are possible of being. Universities should stop being only accessible to the privileged as they are in capitalist countries and instead be opened up to the masses. No longer should technical know-how and the classics be relegated to the rich. In my ideal world, if someone were interested in studying literature, mathematics, or the liberal arts… they should be no barriers (or at least minimal barriers) to doing so.
Education should also be stripped of its elite status to avoid the intellegensia from getting full of themselves (I’m a college graduate and have experienced this form of elitism first-hand). This education (primary, secondary, tertiary, trade…) should also help reinforce communist values in contrast to our current education system which reinforces capitalist values. We should also avoid elevating STEM over everything else.
That being said, there should obviously be some sort of censorship and commentary over certain kinds of subversive works. Some works are inherently reactionary and pose no benefits to the revolution and as such should be discarded. Works such as Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” should only be printed with commentary attached while others such Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” should be forgotten in history. The specifics of how expansive this censorship should be will best be left to someone smarter than me.
I think that one of the greatest accomplishments of the Soviet Union was its 99% literacy rate which to this day is unmatched in capitalist countries. In comparison, the literacy rate in the United States stands at 79% while 54% of the population read below the sixth-grade level.
Education is really important and my stance on the matter is that the proletariat should be as educated as they are willing to be and are possible of being. Universities should stop being only accessible to the privileged as they are in capitalist countries and instead be opened up to the masses. No longer should technical know-how and the classics be relegated to the rich. In my ideal world, if someone were interested in studying literature, mathematics, or the liberal arts… they should be no barriers (or at least minimal barriers) to doing so.
Education should also be stripped of its elite status to avoid the intellegensia from getting full of themselves (I’m a college graduate and have experienced this form of elitism first-hand). This education (primary, secondary, tertiary, trade…) should also help reinforce communist values in contrast to our current education system which reinforces capitalist values. We should also avoid elevating STEM over everything else.
That being said, there should obviously be some sort of censorship and commentary over certain kinds of subversive works. Some works are inherently reactionary and pose no benefits to the revolution and as such should be discarded. Works such as Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” should only be printed with commentary attached while others such Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” should be forgotten in history. The specifics of how expansive this censorship should be will best be left to someone smarter than me.