When I listened to Barack Obama's latest speech on education and then later read Peter Espeut's column of March 13, I found two obviously 'pandering to the popular' demonstrations of educational nonsense.

To illustrate my position, I ask you to read again carefully, or read for the first time, the definition of 'elitism' in any ordinary dictionary. Or, if you have access to an online one, look it up, or even have someone read it to you if you aren't fortunate enough to have access to the information. Then read or listen carefully.

My dictionary suggests that elitism is: "The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favoured treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources." (American Heritage Dictionary)

We all need to remember that how the world gets into its worst messes is that misguided and misinformed people, despite their appa-rently good intentions, have a habit of listening to other misguided and misinformed people and then doing misguided and misinformed things about it.

Ignorant masses

Apparently, both Obama and Espeut believe that all we have to do to, in the United States or Jamaica, for example, in order to solve all our problems, is to give enough people the 'right' education, obviously, so that they can say to hell with unskilled labour and the ignorant masses who will always be forced to do it.

Simply put, this is elitist thinking at its very worst. It is not change as it was promised. It is in fact another version of what we have and have had for a long, long time, and to promote it is to continue the status quo. To really change, we have to stop and realise what we have and what got us that way. And when we do, more important than anything else, we can't simply continue to be wrong about it while we simply pretend to know what we're talking about and what we're doing about it.

I am, etc.,

ED MCCOY

mmhobo48@juno.com

Bokeelia, Florida