JACK'S BLOG
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4/28/2012 8 Comments Did your education educate you?OpinionI HAVE NEVER found anyone who I could agree with all the time. Left. Right. Communist. Socialist. Capitalist. Republican. Democrat. Libertarian. They all exist because that have gotten at least one thing right, maybe even a few things, enough to attract a following. However, they also have gotten some things wrong, some more than others. Unfortunately, the ideologues that adhere to each attempt to apply their point of view to every situation regardless of its appropriateness. This point was reinforced for me the other day as I watched an episode of Trifecta on PJTV.com concerning the relative merits of educational systems. Generally, I find the commentary on PJTV more to my liking than any other media. However, this one left me cold on several counts. First of all, there are too many unidentified assumptions. Were the Japanese math wiz kids representative of the student population or a limited number of savants? Same for the Americans playing with kites. There is no attempt to clarify these points and the comparison that they attempt to make suffers for it.
Secondly, Mr. Whittle asserts that young children cannot learn successfully except by rote. Really? On what does he base that astonishing assertion. You're expected, I suppose, to accept it on your faith in his expertise. That sounds uncomfortably similar to the assertions made by the very educators he is denigrating. Indeed, teaching by rote has much the same effect as marching troops using the goose step. It tends to dull the senses and stifle independent thought. I never succeeded as a scholar because I had too much imagination to put up with learning by rote. One of America's greatest gifts to the world of education, Sesame Street, uses storytelling to teach preschoolers every imaginable subject. In fact, storytelling was used successfully for thousands of years to teach children the collective wisdom of most communities. It is second only to teaching by example. (Ironically, you'll just have to take my word for that assertion.) Once upon a time, when we were an agrarian society, children learned the skills they needed to survive and prosper by observing their family and helping from an early age. Suddenly, with the birth of the industrial age, adults disappeared each day and children were left to wonder at what mysterious functions they might be performing at their jobs. Schooling became important to provide that insight and most performed that function well until a class of professional educators arose, educators who had no practical knowledge of business and commerce. The quality of education steadily declined as these professional educators lost touch with the world they were ostensibly preparing children to engage in, and ideology began driving the educational system. Interestingly, as the Information Age is replacing the Industrial Age, more adults are working from home thereby once again exposing children to real life job functions. Indeed, their toys and games are not only similar to the tools that their parents use, they are in some ways superior. Compare your computer with that of a “gamer.” You'll see what I mean. Mr. Whittle goes on to recount his own education in physics and avers that it prepared him to vote. Really? I know that we once used “levers” to cast ballots. That's as close as I ever came to using physics to vote. I can't begin to address his assertion beyond that because there is no other obvious connection between physics and voting that I can see. He'll have to explain it to us. No, what this episode of Trifecta demonstrates is the ease with which three ordinarily sensible men can slip into a mindless diatribe when they allow their ideology to drive their discussion. I would have preferred it if they had remarked on the apparent stress the Japanese students appeared to exhibit as they were performing their mathematical gyrations. Seriously, didn't they appear stressed to you? And, what was the point of building kites? Maybe there was one even though it wasn't obvious from the brief clip they provided. I will continue watching PJTV despite this lapse on their part, and I will continue recommending it to others. Even when their commentary fails to provide cogent analysis of a subject, it inspires rational thought. Well, at least it does for me.
8 Comments
4/29/2012 12:39:53 am
Looking back, my education taught me how to get an education. I learned to read. I learned to research. I learned to listen. And I learned who told the best stories, especially in books, and I listened to them most.
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9/13/2012 04:39:57 am
Someone famously said that he learned everything he needed to know in the first grade. Well, that was true for those of us who learned the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic in those early years. (Some reach college today without any facility in them) Beyond that, I am self educated
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4/29/2012 08:59:32 pm
As Winston Churchill famously said "My education was interrupted only by my schooling" There's a place for ritualised education but actually living life (to the full) is essential
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9/13/2012 04:41:30 am
I never heard that quote from Churchill, though it is not surprising. Louis L'Amour said much the same when he announced that he quite school in the eighth grade because it was getting in the way of his education.
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4/30/2012 05:18:18 pm
There was once a British experimental school called Summerhill. The environment was stimulating and offered many different experiences, but the children learned only that which they asked to know. What educators found out was once a child wanted to know something, they learned it so quickly it would make your head swim. Very interesting...
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9/13/2012 04:43:48 am
I believe that something similar was tried in Santa Monica, California. I wish they had something like it when I was a child. Indeed, that's the way I learned most everything. My interest in photography led me to learn chemistry and physics. My interest in navigation honed my skills in math, geometry, and trigonometry. I could go on. I had so many interests
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9/12/2012 10:40:10 pm
This is the perfect blog for anyone who wants to know about this topic. The article is nice and it’s pleasant to read. I have known very
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9/13/2012 04:55:03 am
Thank you for the compliments. I hope that you return often and comment again.
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