Views On Education


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Views on education.

By popular request

First: Children are people who have not gotten to full body size.

What happens when a person is too often told to “don’t do that” or “You can’t have that” or “Pay attention” and the telling is backed by force? The person begins to reject the teller but they still don’t have the resources to survive without them so they have a catch 22 where they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. What is the result? Often it is waking the adult from a nap. Making noise, getting the floors muddy, “accidently” breaking things, being a pest in general.

Children want to help and when prevented they feel unwanted and unworthy. This brings rebellion from the child even into adulthood. When children are allowed to help from the youngest age, they will love their family and want to contribute to the betterment of their families. As early as they can understand children should be given the facts about the family, its purpose and goals as well as how it gets done.

Children ( and adults) want to make their own choices, this applies from the earliest possible choices of what to eat, what to wear, when to play and what to learn. Adults need to communicate with their children, not force them to be models of the adults wishes.

Each person is an individual; each wants to make our own choices. This is as true of children as it is adults.

Children in public (and a great many private ) schools are made to run when the bell rings, no matter if they are in the middle of something they enjoy. Children are prevented from continuing the things they want to understand or make. In schools it is rarely corporal punishment but the force is just as strong because they get “disciplined” for not doing as the administration demands. Just as with children above, the resentment builds. Children are taught to not pursue their dreams because they will not get to finish them or bring them to actuality.

Adults are taught that they are constantly being watched. Watched by hall monitors, police, military, red light cameras, neighborhood watch, maybe this list has no end. This teaches that one cannot do the things one wants to do, not because it is wrong but because someone else may not like it and thus we become a nation of slaves who are required to pay our taxes, not stand up for our rights and “go along to get along”. We are taught to understand and agree that government knows best and to resist will be countered by force. That to buck the trend will have a neighbor talking to the “authorities” , who will question our motives while ensuring our knowledge of their authority, while not even having to give their names

Stop the regimentation of people but that is perhaps the easy part. People expect to be controlled and certainly a certain amount of control is necessary but it has to be enhanced with a positive result at the end.

As for education as a technology; there is a technology of study and it works every time it is tried. Basically it teaches about the three barriers to study and the methods to handle them, the physical phenomena of each of them along with their remedies. These are not taught in public schools and rarely in private schools. Using the technology of study any person can learn anything. In large public school systems there appears to be a backlash against learning. I am reminded a few years ago of the Los Angeles Unified school district where several teachers go together and decided to purchase a copy of a math program with their own funds. They applied the program and their students outshone the rest of the districts students. The school administration, in their bureaucratic idiocy, discovered that some students were doing better than others so they investigated. Finding the program worked they still demanded that it not be used because it wasn’t purchased through the district and therefore wasn’t authorized.

Philosophy: Has several facets. Among them are that any person can learn anything that is real. There is an axiom that that which can be experienced can be measured and can be learned and can have an effect on us, anything else cannot. That kind of defines real.

Education is only worthwhile when it leads to an application of what has been learned. A degree in comparative literature is fine, if one can find a use for it. It will benefit someone when the use can provide a means of exchange for ones sustenance. Education in the absence of application is useless. ( a redundancy, I know). Education is a have which leads to a do ( doing) of something. An example: a baker has to learn how to light off his ovens, how much of each ingredient to put in which pans and when it is all done correctly he will end with a very tasty product that he can exchange for some other portion of his existence.

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It will benefit someone when the use can provide a means of exchange for ones sustenance.

I find your desire to change people into commodities with knowledge only desirable if it accumulates "stuff" to be both morally bankrupt and reprehensibly disgusting.

Finland's public school system works remarkably well and is a demonstrable example against essentially every point you made. Try again

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I find your desire to change people into commodities with knowledge only desirable if it accumulates "stuff" to be both morally bankrupt and reprehensibly disgusting.

Finland's public school system works remarkably well and is a demonstrable example against essentially every point you made. Try again

He doesn't need to. Its his opinion and is entitled to it.

What works for Finland may not work here.

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He doesn't need to. Its his opinion and is entitled to it.

What works for Finland may not work here.

An opinion is as valid as it is informed. The real work examples contradict his claims showing his opinion is uninformed. And by that metric, his opinion is invalid.

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Finland's public school system works remarkably well and is a demonstrable example against essentially every point you made.
Try googling this....
Finnish early childhood education emphasizes respect for each child’s individuality and the chance for each child to develop as a unique person. Finnish early educators also guide children in the development of social and interactive skills, encouraging them to pay attention to other people’s needs and interests, to care about others, and to have a positive attitude toward other people, other cultures, and different environments. The purpose of gradually providing opportunities for increased independence is to enable all children to take care of themselves as “becoming adults,” to be capable of making responsible decisions, to participate productively in society as an active citizen, and to take care of other people who will need his [or her] help.”

...and then compare what you find out about Finnish education philosophy to what s-b said... They are not that different.

I know that a lot of people will tell you that Finland's educational system's success is due to its egalitarian socialism, but I personally suspect it has more to do with a cultural focus on self-improvement.

Edited by mererdog
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. . . "there is a technology of study and it works every time it is tried."

Keep going, S-B.

I am reading and listening to everything you wrote. So far you are making a lot of sense.

I'm not going to quibble at this point, I'm loving it.

You made my mouth water with the tantalizing phrase above. What is it?

Keep going.

Edited by Carl Harry Carlson
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S-B,

Your other thread got wiped out by the server this afternoon. That's just as well I think because both were sorta on the same education topic.

Nick, I probably am going to disagree with S-B in a few more postings, as usual, but I'd like to hear what the man has to say.

Finland, by the way, is a country about 1/60th the size of the United States. It has a largely homogenous population by race, religion, culture, and a more closely grouped income range. Finland does not have the huge urban (and elsewhere too) social ills and poverty issues we have.

The situation here in the U.S. is vastly different. We have a vastly different set of issues.

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First of all let me thank you for posting this.

Your little tidbits about education in other postings made me suspect you have solid opinions on and experience in education. And my suspicions turned out to be true!

When children are allowed to help from the youngest age, they will love their family and want to contribute to the betterment of their families. As early as they can understand children should be given the facts about the family, its purpose and goals as well as how it gets done.

I think this is refreshing and true.

Those of nobility know this from birth and it stretches from learning manners and discipline to become socially effective to getting an education in order to become a contributor to society to choosing a good partner to extend the family line.

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Children ( and adults) want to make their own choices, this applies from the earliest possible choices of what to eat, what to wear, when to play and what to learn. Adults need to communicate with their children, not force them to be models of the adults wishes.

Each person is an individual; each wants to make our own choices. This is as true of children as it is adults.

I agree with that up to an extent.

I think that children are often not capable of making good decisions because they lack life experience or intellectual maturity. In those cases I believe the parents (or the family) have the responsibility to keep them from falling in case they make bad decisions.

Children in public (and a great many private ) schools are made to run when the bell rings, no matter if they are in the middle of something they enjoy. Children are prevented from continuing the things they want to understand or make. In schools it is rarely corporal punishment but the force is just as strong because they get “disciplined” for not doing as the administration demands. Just as with children above, the resentment builds. Children are taught to not pursue their dreams because they will not get to finish them or bring them to actuality.

However I would think that it is also important to learn discipline.

I think discipline is not designed to stifle creativity or individualism but to make things work, whether it is working from 9 to 5 or following SEC regulations.

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sb, I think you would REALLY like montessori education .... have you ever looked at it?

the problem is that this education is most often afforded only to those with a means to pay (and pay dearly) for it - in direct conflict with dr. montessori's philosophy/pedagogy I might add

I knew that my daughter could only be educated in a particular fashion, in montessori and private quaker schools; I believe it is no small part of who she is today (most importantly, kind, and confident in her abilities ...) able to travel widely with confidence and enthusiasm and to totally enjoy her work

and I agree, discipline is not a dirty word - it is liberty within limits ( most perfect for the small fry wink)

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I do like the Montessori methods. One of their biggest problems is the resistance put up by others who cannot compete with Montessori success. I think the cost of Montessori will come down when they can more easily fill their class rooms.

Montessori does allow for choice of the student and flexibility of schedule, Makes for much more capable adults after the teaching.

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