Liberal Bias Starts Long Before College!

Is this another example of "Insulting Liberals"?

Liberals don't need help being insulted.

This is a case where I would love to have an intelligent discussion (rather than partisan mud slinging). I will engage if you are interested. I have some experience with education.



I think that most educators would agree that the role of education is to teach students "how to think". In education school we learn about Bloom's Taxonomy... the levels of learning. Remembering facts is at the bottom.

The question about the purpose of education is challenging. The Education system was designed during the industrial revolution to create skilled workers that could work in factories. We have alway had the need for 5% or so of people in the advanced professions. Our education system has done a good job through the years at producing the workforce our economy needs.

But then there is the question of citizenship. People don't quite agree on how the education system should teach what it means to be an American, and there are number of people who think the education system shouldn't teach this at all.

This is an interesting topic... if anyone would like to discuss it.

I taught Science in a public high school in a community with a large number of conservative Christians. It was my job to teach kids that the Universe is more than 10,000 year old... but more importantly I taught them how to look at evidence and to ask intelligent questions. I have some stories.

I would also love for you to have an intelligent discussion.

I just dont think it is going to happen.

OK, let me give you an opening for an intelligent discussion. I spoke a little of my thoughts on the topic.

If you were a teacher, how would develop a curriculum that was free of bias? Let's say you are teaching a class on Earth Science. There is a right answer about the age of the Earth based on scientific evidence... but one approach is to focus on the evidence, and the process of analysis that leads scientist to a conclusion.

How would you handle this?

Scientists always changing their minds. Scientists once thought that the Earth was flat. How stupid is that?

I'm still waiting!

Indeed.

The single greatest effect on people's lives in the western democracies is socio economic group at birth, for that will 99.999% define their entire life.

For all the blustering patriotism of the US masses regarding the 'American dream', social mobility in the USA is effectively trace. It is the same in the UK, the same in EU and Australia. Which is basically the 36 'developed' nations. Which in essence means that as you are born, so will you die ... Born wealthy you'll stay wealthy; born poor, you will stay poor.

Of course the only way to move upward in social terms is education .... Unfortunately by the age of 3yr old, those from lower socio economic groups are already so far behind in social/pre-school educational terms, that they will never catch up to their middle/upper class contemporaries in educational or social terms.

State education is there to create the 'worker ants' to feed the mill. It's function purely to make those who undergo it's machinations, compliant. Meaning:

* The person with the title must be listened to. Regardless of their ineptitude.
* Do not question the rules. One must comply.
* One must fit in with ones peer group.
* The individual has no value
* Those who stand out from the mass are ridiculed by the system. Whilst the other students are encouraged to ostracise those who do not fit in. The non conformist is a heinous thing in the view of the state at all levels, in all contexts.

Whereas in private education one is obviously not taught any of that. One is taught to question everything, think about everything, to be an individual.

However without doubt the most valuable lesson is learnt when one is sent to a private boarding school. Personally I went to the same private academy as my father, his father, his father and so forth ... as then did my son. What does that teach the individual? That if you want it, you have to get it for yourself. No one protects you, no one does it for you ... One relies on oneself.

The OP is of course risible. Not even worth addressing; too contemptibly dense.

99.999% of people who say 99.999% are 99.999% stupid and live their mom's basement.

You raise an interesting point Teufel.

The American public education system is very good at producing the workers our economy needs. Our history shows this; aviation, then nuclear age, the moon landing, the information revolution... all of these were built on the fact that when industry needed qualified workers, these workers were available.

We have been panicked about "falling behind Asia" for almost a century. And, yet we keep moving forward.

My personal belief is that the education system produces engineers and scientists who can understand the scientific process while being taught to innovate and think creatively. (Yes, I am an American exceptionalist when it comes to education).

However, The American Education system is horrible at addressing social inequality.

There is no argument that the quality of public education in the US depends very much on the social-economic level of parents. If your parents are rich, educated and White, you will very likely receive a top notch education. If your parents are poor, you will likely get an education that prepares you for a service job.

There is a big question about the purpose of our education system. I believe that the education system is there to meet the needs of our economy. Our education works remarkably well in that case.

I also believe that social equality should be addressed by our education system... and we are without question failing in this goal.

I have heard this. We discussed this in Education School. I don't completely buy it. It doesn't match my experience as a student, nor does it match what I saw. It should be said that I went to a wealthy, almost completely White public school, and my teaching experience was the same.

In my high school we were taught to take contradictory positions and we were encouraged to debate. We were taught to debate well, our points had to be fact-based and well reasoned. We weren't taught compliance.

I was teaching during 9/11... students were faced with a barrage of different impulses, from patriotism and anti-Muslim sentiment to anger at the attackers to anger at the US government to feelings of fairness.

The school had a patriotic pep-rally with a "United We Stand" banner. We then had discussions on whether "United We Stand" was appropriate along with teaching about Islam.

As the war with Iraq ramped up... there were students with strong opinions on both sides. The teachers were (in my humble opinion) excellent. Our job was to provide an environment were competing ideas could be expressed responsibly. We allowed kids (both pro-war and anti-war) to express their opinions responsibly.

In this case, the job of teachers is to teach communication and critical thinking. And we talked about how to do this responsibly. We pushed the students to express their opinions in an academic way (as we were an academic institution). They could express their ideas, but we asked them to base them on facts and to be able to explain the valid points on the other side.