Geography GCSE, wilfull ignorance and of course rats

What I've learnt in my Geography GCSE (aside from a head-full of statistics that are wholly outdated and likely incorrect) is how we are taught about the huge wealth disparity and suffering in the world - from a carefully unbiased perspective - and how people come out of the exam with no better empathy or understanding at all.

Indeed, the course dryly confronts floods, earthquakes, migration, rivers (and yes, the infamously boring Ox Box lake), birth control and a whole wealth of information which, credit due to the exam board, was actually pretty interesting and useful.

However.

Never once in a lesson have I heard even the slightest tone of outrage or upset when reading aloud how mx + c people die when badly built factories collapse because we wanted our trainers cheaper and so the MNC (look, I'm learning and repeating!) cut down on the building structure.

It is remarkable that people nowadays need things to be presented to them with an obvious slant and bias for people to actually think about and/or/perhaps/ifyou'relucky have an opinion about any of it. In fact, it is an indicator of the dangerous level of reliance and ineptitude that our generation possesses.

The "West" (we also learnt that there is more to development than what side of the map you live on) has bloody hands. We 20% produce 60% of the pollution, stirring up Global Warming, leading to worsening tropical storms killing 1,100 in Bangladesh. We consumers cause the deforestation of the rainforests and extinction of the creatures we have cheaply printed onto canvases for our living rooms. We self-proclaimed humanitarian charity-donors are stirring up civil war across the world due to the wealth disparity, corruption and suffering we create across the world.

Furthermore, our fuse is burning down.

I saw the film "Interstellar" a while back, and one scene really stuck with me. We're talking a few generations into the future. Land is infertile. Most people have died. Humanity has only a few years, winds of dust and corn, left. The protagonist (a father) has a meeting with the headmistress in a "careers guidance"-like meeting. He talks of his daughter wanting to be an engineer. The headmistress replies that the world doesn't need any more engineers. It needs farmers.

And indeed, how many more bankers/marketers/programmers/yoga teachers/film directors does the world need. And how many can it support? "Education" is held up as the redeeming path of all evils of humanity. I want to finish by questioning this.

In my History GCSE (the best one. Seriously.), I read a letter by a Holocaust survivor, addressing the UN. Begging. Begging for education to be given a moral compass. For the engineers made bombs, the chemists made extermination gas, the politicians condemned millions to death and the people allowed it all.
The survivor asked what the point of education is if it doesn't make the world a better place.