education – Dull Razor

The education problem

With all the political news and events lately, one of the things I keep hearing about is education – specifically, funding. I don’t know that I’ve weighed in on the issue before, but here are some of my thoughts on the matter, in no particular order.

If we assume the problem with education is that the end result of the system’s efforts – that is, whether or not people are educated – is less than ideal, then we must approach the problem from a certain direction. Not all people see it that way, but for the sake of my own sanity, that’s where I’ll be addressing it from.

If the issue is that children are not getting a proper education, then we must first seek to answer the question: what is a proper education? Most agree it includes some math, some history, some basic grammar and language skills. Many would add other knowledge subjects – geography, civics, or literature. Some would add practical skills like critical thinking or logic. Others would insist that subjects like art and music be added. Establishing a baseline expectation is, I think, nearly impossible when addressed in specifics, but becomes manageable when addressed as general goals. My proposed goals would break down into four basic groups:

Knowledge – Having a basic understanding of mathematics, history, geography, civics, language, literature, science, etc.
Reasoning – Critical thinking skills, deductive reasoning, logic.
Character – Knowing the difference between right and wrong, the value of honor and honesty.
Skills – Specific to the individual. Could encompass trade skills, art, music, writing, or general skills needed to hold a job.

This list does not seem to align very well with the results of public education, or even the stated goals – and that is not surprising, for I am no fan of public education. Education is a much bigger issue than just what is taught in the classroom, which I think gives us a fundamental problem when talking about public education as a concept – one that is deal-breaking, in my eyes, but we’ll return to that subject a bit later. Continue reading The education problem

The Closed Mind of America

I found this great post shared via Prester Scott, and rather than trying to summarize it will just post the opening bit and then tell you to go read it:

Someone posted this article in my comments. You should read it. It’s on how the green academy is characterizing skepticism of global warming as a neurological disorder. My evidence is anecdotal, but I do believe that academia has become by and large thin-skinned and insecure. I say it’s anecdotal, because I’m going only on my personal experience and other reports of academics generally dividing the world into “people who agree with me” and “the ignorant hordes.” I have noticed this in several areas.

1. Climatology. Now, the fact is that when you measure by any standard, climate modeling and forecasting is an infant science. The predictive ability of GCM’s (global climate models) is not well-tested or well-established. That would normally mean that there is still lots of room for debate and skepticism. A scientific theory is only “settled” after everyone’s tried their best to poke holes in it and failed. But in the case of global warming, engaging in this basic element of the scientific progress is characterized as a pathology and actually “anti-science.”

The other examples are excellent, and insightful. I suggest you take the time to go read this one – and then reflect on how sad it is that our culture, as a whole, refuses to engage in critical thinking anymore.

More school insanity

Via Ace –

This is that story you’ve heard: a student was silently reading a book called Notre Dame vs. the Klan, a book about Notre Dame’s efforts, um, versus the Klan. You know, the Klan being defeated.

A black student saw him reading it during their Spanish CLEP test practice class, and told him she didn’t like the Klan. The student agreed — the Klan is bad. She reported him anyway. And, incredibly, the university took action against the student for racial harassment.

Video here, but it makes a couple of notable mistakes – it seems to think that the fact that the student was reading a “good” book is what makes this such a tragedy. Last I checked, this is America. The student could be reading Mein Kampf or the Little Red Book for all the university should care, as there is no harm done to anyone by reading the book. To the contrary – this student might actually learn something! At a university, of all places! On the other hand, maybe that’s why they have such a problem with it. We can’t have the student learning anything that is outside of the standard doctrine, can we?

It’s an all-too-typical example of the decline and fall of American education into insanity and closed-mindedness. Some of you who frequent the geekier blogs may recall the incident reported by the HeliOS project, in which a teacher confiscated Linux discs from a student who was showing people his Linux install on his personal computer and then threatened the person who gave the student the Linux discs with legal action because “no software is free” and “Microsoft is the only legal software.” That case was another case of schools overstepping their boundaries and forcing a narrow – and decidedly incorrect – view onto students for no other reason than that The School Says So.

Now it may seem that this case is radically different than the one above because it’s talking about software instead of books, and about Linux instead of the Klan – but again, I remind you that in both cases the school was not addressing anything that was directly affecting the school, nor was it addressing something that was covered by any sort of law or institutional rule, but rather it was enforcing some sort of arbitrary standard onto these students who broke the mold that the teachers had set. It’s a nasty sight to see, coming from these places lauded as bastions of education and free-thinking.