Last Exploration from Chris Phillips

"The Idea of a Local Economy" was an essay unlike any other that I can remember reading. Wendell Berry takes a somewhat unique stance on what needs to be done in order for the consumer to take charge of the economy they participate in. As it stands, he says, "[the] economy is in conflict at almost every point with the household." Basically, what Berry tries to argue is that the average consumer should put emphasis on providing all of their own needs, so that they do not need to depend on a global economy in order to survive. He says that communities need to develop what he calls a "local economy," in which citizens focus on stabilizing the needs of the local area. The idea behind this is that it will ensure that the local economy is not entirely dependent on importing their goods and exporting commodities. There are many issues that arise when a global economy arises that is dependent on imports and exports, namely environmental damage. When one area has only the export of logging trees for lumber, they tend to do so irresponsibly. While I agree that local economies could be a decent solution in order to secure the needs of many communities and decrease environmental damage, the whole idea is just too abstract when compared to the way the world works today. The term "world economy" doesn't come from nowhere- every country in the world is involved, sometimes heavily, in worldwide trade. It just isn't feasible that every community or even the majority of communities halt the product of years in trade revolution.

An issue that I think needs to be talked about is the current system set in place for youth education. In the years before college, students are taught that grades are the single most important thing that they can focus on. They are ranked on their ability to follow directions from the moment that they enter gradeschool. In my opinion, the school system in many first world countries could use an entire overhaul. Education should focus on teaching kids how to think critically and analytically. It is these skills that will be most applicable, not only in college, but in the work world as well as every day life. For instance, when you think about middle school biology, what do you remember? What I remember is learning the structure of a cell, and being forced to memorize each piece of the structure. This "memorize-regurgitate-forget" style of schooling is by no means the best use of a student's time. Some might argue that introducing a range of subjects and making students follow the lesson plans can lead students to know what they are interested in, and will help them choose a career path. There are a few easy counter arguments to this point, however. First of all, I know that I don't speak for myself when I say that, by my senior year of highschool, I had absolutely no clue where I would fit in to the working world. The style of schooling I grew up with essentially taught me only how to be good at school, and not that the topics I was being taught were actually interesting. To expand on that, I think that it's very likely that there have been students who lost potential interest in a field they would have excelled in due to the unintuitive method in which it was presented to them.