Part II. How Distrust Spreads and Solidifies (Chapters 6-10)

⑥ The Media: Mediators Who Failed to Explain Distrust

⑦ Politics: Politics of Words Without Choice

⑧ Economics: Numbers Increased, But Trust Disappeared

⑨ Education: The Collapse of a System That Should Foster Judgment Skills

⑩ Labor: A System That Became a Risk, Not Protection

Education has long functioned as a system of trust.

There was a promise that following certain standards would open up opportunities for mobility, and that effort would lead to predictable rewards. As long as this promise was maintained, education was an investment, not a risk, for individuals.

However, in today's society, education is perceived with increasingly different meanings.

It remains important, but it is no longer safe. This is because it is impossible to know which choices are advantageous or which standards will be maintained.

Education has transitioned from a gateway to the future to an area where the possibility of failure must be managed.

At the heart of this change lies the frequent revision of the system. Entrance examination systems, evaluation methods, and selection criteria have been repeatedly adjusted. The changes themselves are not the problem.

The problem is that the philosophy and criteria behind these changes have not been consistently explained.

Each time the standards changed, the cost of failure was borne by individuals.

The education system failed to absorb failure.

When the system changed, choices prepared according to the previous standards were treated as the individual's error in judgment.

All that remained was the phrase "times have changed," and it was not properly recorded why the change was necessary or which choices became structurally disadvantageous.

Distrust in education naturally forms within this structure.

Parents pass on their experiences to their children, but those experiences may no longer be valid.

When new standards are not clearly presented, educational choices are made based on anxiety, not conviction.

Another characteristic of distrust in education is its intergenerational transmission. The failures experienced by one generation do not end as individual incidents. The memory of those failures seeps into the choices of the next generation.

 "This path is dangerous" warnings accumulate in the form of personal anecdotes, and education is increasingly perceived not as an area for challenge, but as a list of risks to be avoided.

In this process, the original purpose of education is also shaken.

Education, which should foster judgment skills and enable diverse choices, converges into a competition for credentials that substitutes for judgment. What remains becomes more important than what is learned.

The more the system fails to provide trust, the more individuals demand additional safety nets.

Private education expands, and pathways are simplified. In a structure where failure is difficult to bear, diversity of choices is considered a risk factor, not a possibility.

Distrust in education is not a matter of achievement.

Achievement still exists. The problem is that the predictability of the standards on which that achievement was possible and whether those standards will be maintained in the future has disappeared.

A ladder that cannot be predicted becomes a structure to be avoided, not a tool to climb.

At this point, education is no longer a social trust infrastructure.

It becomes subordinate to individual calculations and family-level defense strategies. The system exists, but expectations are dismantled. When education devolves into a device for managing anxiety rather than fostering judgment skills, societal distrust deepens.

Distrust in education stems not from a lack of performance, but from unstable standards.

A system that has failed to absorb failure ultimately cannot foster judgment skills.

The next chapter (⑩ Labor: A System That Became a Risk, Not Protection) moves beyond education to examine how the labor system has begun to be perceived as a risk factor rather than a protective measure.