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Mon 24 Jul, 2006 03:45 am
Are you kidding Chuck?
We have a professional administrative class of thousands of "hand-picked" sons and daughters of people of influence who are constantly occupied with running the educational system.
Do you think that what I think is of the slightest importance or interest in view of that.
Double teachers wages is the first and most necessary step but that can't be done because taxpayers would revolt.
How can you expect kids to respect people who wear shoddy clothing and drive rust buckets and who only work to get money to buy junk with.
spendius wrote:Are you kidding Chuck?
We have a professional administrative class of thousands of "hand-picked" sons and daughters of people of influence who are constantly occupied with running the educational system.
Do you think that what I think is of the slightest importance or interest in view of that.
Double teachers wages is the first and most necessary step but that can't be done because taxpayers would revolt.
How can you expect kids to respect people who wear shoddy clothing and drive rust buckets and who only work to get money to buy junk with.
I think that we have two educational problems. We fail to educate our children well and our adults fail to educate themself throughout life. Both problems are symptoms of our anti-intellectual infection.
If only one of us in the nation speaks out against our two educational problems then that one person will have no affect. If, however, one percent of the population has maintained a comprehension of the problem then their combined voice will have an affect.
You are just being utopian.
Not one per cent of the any nation can be thought of as "intellectuals".They are a despised class of people.
The organisation of mass education is a bureaucratic process. You need to study the nature of bureaucracy itself before you can even begin to be serious about these matters. And the hiearchies of the bureaucracies within the total system.
Politics is the art of the possible. Your ivory tower overview is amateurish and versions of it can be heard in any public bar on every subject under the sun. The organisers have to be practical. Abstractions are a waste of time.
Stand for election Chuck. Get serious.
coberst wrote:If only one of us in the nation speaks out against our two educational problems then that one person will have no affect. If, however, one percent of the population has maintained a comprehension of the problem then their combined voice will have an affect.
What exactly are these "combined voices" saying? You're leaving it very vague. You seem to take it on faith that "maintaining a comprehension" will automatically lead to having "an affect [
sic]," but it ain't that easy. Armchair philosophizing is much as "self-induced narcotic" as anything else. It's a way of passing the time in the comfort of your home while the world passes you by.
I think that if a significant part of our adult population were to develope a hobby that I call an intellectual life then that group of adults could act to counter balance those who presently control public policy.
My message to all adults is 'become an intellectual' so that together those of who do so can influence the rest to overcome the forces who control our life without our conscious assent.
The message is sent forth to whomever will listen with the hope that one in every five hundred were to take the matter seriously.
Chuck wrote-
Quote:I think that if a significant part of our adult population were to develope a hobby that I call an intellectual life then that group of adults could act to counter balance those who presently control public policy.
Come off it old boy!
In order to do what you suggest they would have to become a bureaucracy themselves with the usual pecking orders, cliques and sex and power and money opportunities. If they ever got near being strong enough to influence anything at all they would descend into the same stuff all bureaucracies do do as a fact. They would discover that there are many matters which cannot be addressed by a pile of high sounding platitudes no matter how obvious and wise they might sound to those with a limited understanding of the complexities involved.
Spendius says--"In order to do what you suggest they would have to become a bureaucracy themselves with the usual pecking orders, cliques and sex and power and money opportunities. If they ever got near being strong enough to influence anything at all they would descend into the same stuff all bureaucracies do do as a fact. They would discover that there are many matters which cannot be addressed by a pile of high sounding platitudes no matter how obvious and wise they might sound to those with a limited understanding of the complexities involved."
That is simply an excuse to remain apathetic. One can always find a reason to hit the snooze button.
It is you who is on the snooze button Chuck as Shapeless pointed out.
I only described the simple facts. I didn't say anything about what I do.
Your homilies about "understanding" might be more useful if you looked into the mirror as you deliver them.
Re: Dropout Nation
coberst wrote:In the recent copy of "Time" the special report is "Dropout Nation", where "30% of America's high school students will leave without graduating." This is a story about the sorry state of education in America and that these facts have remained hidden from the public by our leaders; responding, no doubt, to the desire of the population to remain narcotized in la-la-land.
The stats on drop-out rates are only "hidden" to those that choose to hide from them. Every single state in the U.S. has published their high school drop out rates for decades. That data is also collected and reported annualy as a part of the OECD data collection process for other countries as well.
Education is just an immense subject, and a lot of people get riled up talking about how it should be done.
Students aren't being taught enough practical things, and they're all made to come out the same, as if the system is one big cookie cutter, trying to create each one as the one before and after it.
They take the same core classes; math, social studies, science, english.
Yet, there's never even any mention of things like morality, or emotional topics. Barely any life skills classes, the home econmoics classes of the past are slipping away gradually, and have been.
Students should have more chosen electives than they do required classes.
The problem in schools is motivation, always has been, always will be, which leads to the overall topic of this thread.
He who lacks motivation is most likely going to lack knowledge, is that agreed?
Just some random thoughts on 'education' as we know it.
Maybe that 30% are the ones that require no education.
Their just here to have babies while the other 70% go and find the cure for cancer, work 80 hours a week and generally keep the world ticking over.
Sure .5% of that 30% will end up living under your local bridge, but hey who cares, the other 29.5% end up working in Mcdonalds for $10 an hour while bringing up a family of broken condoms and failed contraceptive's.
Hell, from what I can tell (which is pretty much nothing considering i'm in that 29.5% cage of de-motivation and pessimism) the world isn't quite as awesome as many of us would like.
My two cents, not that I can even afford that.
Don't take me seriously, I know I Don't.
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