@farmerman,
There are a lot of people who abuse history for political reasons, including academic "historians", who, in my experience, are the ones most likely to do it. Conflating political points of view with historical synthesis is the bane of good historiography, and explains to a large extent why people are so dismissive of history and its study.
My sister sent me this the other day...
Quote:
Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech
...Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I'm scared.
Full speech:
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212383-V...aduation-Speech
@sozobe,
When the economy falls apart public school enrollment is bound to increase.
This year Mo's school has more kids than ever with less teachers, staff, and services due to budget cuts.
@sozobe,
Yaya was playing with dolls last night, and was teaching a mermaid about school.
"School is where you learn and have fun."
I'm definitely a fan of the charter school program.
@Setanta,
Quote:There are a lot of people who abuse history for political reasons, including academic "historians", who, in my experience, are the ones most likely to do it. Conflating political points of view with historical synthesis is the bane of good historiography, and explains to a large extent why people are so dismissive of history and its study.
Coming from "selective memory" Setanta, this is a major laugh. He misdescribes history with the same fervor he used to misdescribe language and grammar.
Mon aéroglisseur est plein des anguilles.
@boomerang,
Smart kid, damn smart! She'll go far.
@maxdancona,
maxdancona wrote:
There has been quite a lot of work done understanding this in the education field. Most introductory education courses spends a good deal of time on
Blooms taxonomy.
Yes, most introductory education courses spend an inordinate amount of time on tripe like Bloom's Taxonomy. I cringe whenever I hear those words.
@DrewDad,
My airglider has the fullness of eels inside????? Am I close or do I feel that You must have had the same French teqchers I did.
This is a hell of big topic, man.
My inclination, quite apart from the zigzagging line of discussion thus far, is that most of my "learning" has come from experience, and especially from failures or near-failures. Which is distinct from any notion of formal education, really, though I've required formal education to be in the position to make the daily (near)failures that shape my livelihood. But I've been immersed lately in tangible actions and tangible outcomes, with the relationship between the former and the latter frequently frequently being far from clear.
But, of course, the question dredges up the formal education jive. As I see it, public education has two major important functions: 1) make students literate in language and numbers, so that they can function in and protect themselves from industrial society; and 2) acquaint students with the social rites and hierarchies of their culture. It is possible that the second function is actually more important than the first, which can be accomplished at home if there is a parent possessing of and capable of passing on the necessary information and skills.
Or something. Whatever. I don't regret the many, many adult years I have spent being formally "educated," but they almost surely could have been spent more productively and/or enjoyably than they were.
@patiodog,
school has often interfered with my education, thass a fact!!
When the French use the word education, they refer to what one learns at home, from one's family. I've always preferred that concept. The little library in the very small town in which i lived with my grandparents basically had a decent children's book section because of the books we contributed. We were encouraged to read from the earliest age, and our questions were taken seriously. My grandmother or grandfather might feel harrassed by circumstance, but the only difference that made was that we'd get an answer to our question later, rather than right away.
Schools can't do much if children don't learn at home, first. And the education in the home can be far better than in the school. When i was in high school, the adviser gave me a college reading list of books i'd be expected to have read by the time i left college . . .
"Already read that, read that, read that, don't like that guy's writing . . . hey, what is this, i've already read all this stuff?"
@farmerman,
"My hovercraft is full of eels."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Hungarian_Phrasebook
Quote:The phrase "my hovercraft is full of eels" is often mentioned [1] in relation to any translation system, in particular ones which translate poorly. In 1998, The Atlantic noted that two commercial translation programs could translate the phrase "into French and back and into Italian and back without a glitch."
(Computer translations are an example of something that is information, but not learning.)
