And as the Republican’s (especially here in NV) work hard to cut funding for education, this will all only get worse.
A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.
[...]
“Imagine,” said a public school teacher in New York City, who asked that I not use his name, “going to work each day knowing a great deal of what you are doing is fraudulent, knowing in no way are you preparing your students for life in an ever more brutal world, knowing that if you don’t continue along your scripted test prep course and indeed get better at it you will be out of a job. Up until very recently, the principal of a school was something like the conductor of an orchestra: a person who had deep experience and knowledge of the part and place of every member and every instrument. In the past 10 years we’ve had the emergence of both [Mayor] Mike Bloomberg’s Leadership Academy and Eli Broad’s Superintendents Academy, both created exclusively to produce instant principals and superintendents who model themselves after CEOs. How is this kind of thing even legal? How are such ‘academies’ accredited? What quality of leader needs a ‘leadership academy’? What kind of society would allow such people to run their children’s schools? The high-stakes tests may be worthless as pedagogy but they are a brilliant mechanism for undermining the school systems, instilling fear and creating a rationale for corporate takeover. There is something grotesque about the fact the education reform is being led not by educators but by financers and speculators and billionaires.”
Not firing unqualified teachers isn’t going to make things better. Dump the teachers unions and education will get better.
As for teaching kids to think, I can tell you this: The emphasis in career tech education is on incorporating math and science into the curricula. The big move in tech classes, even HS IT classes, is to try and put as much 3R’s as possible into the program. The subject may be bending fenders or adding a network printer, they want 3R’s (and some assessment) in that program somewhere.
Critical thinking is something most publishers build into courseware automatically, but I know some bigger publishers are lazy about it. The job of developing thinking skills usually falls to the teachers, and at that point the ability varies widely. Very widely.
“Remember When Education Was About Teaching Kids To Think?” //// No, I don’t and thats probably the problem right there. Podcast’s 3-4 sentences are on the right track, then he jumps to his own private rail.
You have to “know” something before you can think. Before that, its actually just emoting.
And a lot of education in the early years really is about socialization and perhaps even more about baby sitting and keeping kiddies off the street==ie socialization.
I still recall fondly ((trying to)) complain to Dear Old Dad that school was boring and the teachers crap and the kids assholes and his constant response, if any at all, was: “Your job is to learn in spite of the teachers, not because of them. Go read a book.” A lesson that serves me well in all other aspects of life.
A few High School college prep creative writing classes were my first exposure to being “taught” to think on my own. College was indeed much more of that. Graduate level was all that. So, a progression until the job market and back to square one. Thank god for training camp or I never would have made it.
Public Education: after keeping America “free” the most important thing society provides to its members. And yes—the Pukes want to take it away. The code language here is “returning education to local jurisdiction.” That is a plan to KILL education. LOOK MAH–JUST LOOK. The Federal Programs main good is to provide funding when local property taxes just don’t cut it.
As in all things USA–the process is corrupt and we spend more and get less than any other country, but thats a different issue. We can and should be doing much more in education.
We won’t though because it requires too many to care/think about more than themselves.
Stupid Hoomans.
Bobbo: Bloom’s Taxonomy.
There are better links, but that’s the first one I saw that looked interesting.
The assumption is that todays “teachers” can actually teach. As a former school employee, many of the “teachers” I encountered were attendance takers and room monitors and rarely anything more.
Teacher unions and administrator unions spend so much time fighting over power and money.
Teachers want to be administrators because it raises their final retirement rate, and administrators putting in their time until retirement, and the kids get lost in the shuffle.
Although there are some good and dedicated teachers out there, the school “system” soon beats it out of them.
Thanks Olo–I had not seen that before and do agree with the Modern Version. Interesting that “Regurgitating Dogma” is fully consumed at the very first stage?
While I studied Piaget, that line of inquiry stopped short of education—or at least I did.
Like everything else in america, education is not one thing and across this great land there are examples of everything/anything one can imagine or hypothesize or conclude upon. Just as “One size does not fit all” one description does not fit all yet that is our political speak: as subtle as a brick. Or bumpersticker to switch similies.
I think “mainstreaming” the disadvantaged has done great damage to the education of all the rest. As a result, the gifted get less attention than they would benefit from and once again, all of the rest of us suffer as a result. Same with disruptive types. Sad because “the right touch” at the right moment doesn’t require a lot of money or resources, just an expertise that isn’t much in evidence.
Reality isn’t fair. Do we deal with reality, or do we deal with fairness? Can we deal with both if we don’t recognize the conflict?
Basic education.
“Remember When Education Was About Teaching Kids To Think?”
I am still laughing from that title.
No way to take this post seriously.
Cursor_
I’m so excited to see academic elitism show its low opinion of vocational training and education. A large share of the economic success of the United States during the 20th century is owed to the American “invention” of the modern public research universities which focused on practical subjects like agricultural and industrial progress; which were a contrast to the older methodology of higher education found in Europe. But now over the past several decades, the trend has been to encourage pushing every single last kid off to gain a university education from schools that have been more than happy to cater to their every whim by creating frivolous degree programs that have no practical use at all. So the kids pile on more and more debt in the rat race to be more competitive than their peers for jobs that have no requirement for the “education” they’ve received in the first place; resulting in discriminatory effects on the poor and minorities, and more importantly creating a gross misallocation of resources that could have gone to more productive uses.
Well Sea Lawyer==what kind of education is really required to work at McDonalds? You post as if there was a manufacturing base in america? Even what is left will be gone in only a few more short years.
We are rapidly becoming what a lot of the world in revolt is, like Egypt: college graduates driving taxi’s.
Yes, time for REAL social engineering to counter/adapt to what is taking place according to the dictates of the Iron Discipline. What would you advise your kiddie to “study” when the reality is at age 21 there will be no jobs?
Ha, ha. Our poor kiddies. But the SuperRich are doing fine, stock market is up, who are we to complain?
Eliminate the Department of Education and make kids education a priority over protecting incompetent teachers represented by the teachers union.
Problem MOSTLY solved.
Guyver–yes and no. Back to the variability of the issue. I’m sure some areas would thrive and others would crash. Rich school districts would be world class, the South would be teaching from the WOTAN Bible.
So, which is better? Uniform mediocrity or a mishmash of everything? I’m thinking the latter. Let everyone from the South flip burgers while the Liberal Coasts continue scientific/tech advancement?
Freedom can be a bitch but let the geographic terms of opportunity play forth.
29, Bobbo,
Well if we stopped doubly taxing U.S. corporations we’d see a lot less moving of jobs overseas. In fact, if we did corporate tax reform we’d also entice foreign corporations to move many of their operations here and thus provide more jobs and preserve certain sectors. Instead we have too many politicians buying votes with class warfare.
29, Bobbo,
Well if we stopped doubly taxing U.S. corporations we’d see a lot less moving of jobs overseas. In fact, if we did corporate tax reform we’d also entice foreign corporations to move many of their operations here and thus provide more jobs and preserve certain sectors. Instead we have too many politicians buying votes with class warfare.
You can’t social engineer businesses reacting to our government’s tax policies. Most businesses factor in tax liabilities before committing to a decision / path rather than doing what would otherwise be a straightforward business decision.
I would advise kids to look at science, engineering, math, or computer science degrees. Last I heard, our country graduates more fitness-related degrees than anything else. Go figure.
Guyver==your lies and projectile dogma spewing are tiresome. I know, I really just know, you are capable of more……….hmmmm…….why do I think that? Ha, ha.
1. Every idiot knows its labor cost and environmental issues and tax breaks that drive American jobs overseas. Its lying dogma to say anything else. When GE pays zero US income tax, how much lower do you think it should go?
2. “You can’t social engineer businesses reacting to our government’s tax policies. /// Ummmm–”I” certainly can. Its you that “can’t” or rather won’t……. …hmmmm…….why do I think that? Ha, ha.
3. “I would advise kids to look at science, engineering, math, or computer science degree” /// No, I said study, not look at. Let’s see: World’s Richest Man and Greatest Eleemosynary Luminary: Bill Gates. Employs more science, engineering, math, or computer science degrees than any other person: FROM INDIA ON b-1 (whatever) Visas because he can get them $20K/year cheaper than white boys.
I’d tell my kiddie to become a janitor or plumber: can’t export that and hopefully can out compete the upwardly mobile immigrants.
I wish I liked candy more, but I don’t.
I challenge YOU McGuyver and anyone else to stop vomiting DOGMA and to set forth the argument that the Super Rich need more tax cuts while the poor, working, and middle classes need service cuts. Go ahead: make that argument.
Wake Up McGuyver. The Republicans want to Kill America but they can’t do it without your vote.
Stay in school.
Study hard.
So you can get a good job.
Work hard.
Get better pay.
So you can pay more taxes to pay for all the deadbeats who didn’t.
chuck==you are exactly right.
Zoooooommmmm!!
Ha. ha.
SeaLawyer, I agree with you 100%. Bush’s DoE ignored decades of evidence and studies and had his lackeys out saying “everyone goes to college because there’s no evidence career ed works”.
I sat in a meeting where a top-ranking DoE official said this to a panel that included GM and Toyota recruiters at a career-tech conference, in 2002. She’s lucky she got out alive after saying that obvious crap to people who hired and trained hundreds of thousands of career-tech students, every year.
And career tech ed has taken a bath ever since.
Sorry but money does not teach kids. Teachers do. My wife will tell you as a teacher that funding is not the issue. Lack of interest in Parents making their kids do homework and taking a interest in their kids education. That is a big problem in America. Keep throwing money at it like Obama says we should do. Will not make our kids smarter.
34, Bobbo,
BS. The driving issue is taxes. Environmental issues? Is that why AMD & Intel fabricate chips overseas? Oh, I see… but IBM makes them domestically.
Why does someone like Sony only get taxed by its home country for revenue it generates inside its own country, but not taxed on revenue it generates outside of Japan? You think our government does the same? Nope.
What do you suppose is the biggest reason for the huge growth of online commerce? Do you suppose taxing online commerce is going to kill this growth? Online commerce proves you can have very successful businesses that challenge the “for tax” counterparts. So when government starts to mandate taxes and the growth withers away, I suppose you’ll blame the evil corporations for reacting to tax polices AGAIN.
MOST businesses have to account for the tax liabilities of their decisions.
I realize you probably swing that way, but quit being so anal.
Correction, he’s hiring Indians, Chinese, and Russians on H1B visas.
Regardless of Gates’ tactics, people would collectively be better off in one of those fields rather than being Gate’s personal trainer or janitor.
Stop stunting growth with social engineering or incremental tax policies. If you want to maximize growth, then stop stifling it.
I’m voting for the guy who is most fiscally conservative and intends to cut entitlement programs in tough times. I don’t care what party they’re from. Half the people in this country don’t pay taxes. It’s time the burden is spread out more fairly.
Another thing killing our education. Just once I would like to see Parents as pationate about their kids doing good in school as they are about school closings, sports, and Politics.