Posts
- Samuel McCord
AMERICAN SCHOOLS ARE TRAINING CHILDREN FOR A WORLD THAT DOESN'T EXIST.
Browse FB, skim Twitter, listen to the talking heads on TV.
Americans are getting dumber in crucial ways.
Our math skills are being stunted by strange ways of getting to simple solutions.
(But it does prepare kids for the nonsense of our political response to practical problems.)
“A man who has both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal
as opposed to the conservative, who has both feet firmly planted in his mouth.”
- Mark Twain
Our reading skills are withering.
(Yet, no subject of study is more important than reading, for all other intellectual powers depend upon it.)
Our kids learn within a system of education devised for a world that increasingly does not exist.
Over the next 20 years, our planet with sag under the weight of an additional two billion people.
OUR PLANET CAN NO LONGER FEED ITS PEOPLE.
The climate will continue to change. Our coastlines and its populations are doomed unless we start thinking outside the box or make an entirely new one.
Microbiological threats will increase as our traditional techniques of anti-microbial defense lead to greater and greater resistances,
and to fight these we must discover new approaches to medical treatment.
AMERICANS NEED TO LEARN HOW TO DISCOVER.
Being dumb in the existing educational system is bad enough.
Failing to create a new way of learning adapted to contemporary circumstances MAY PROVE TO BE FATAL.
DISCOVERY has always prompted interest. It is fun to see the curtain lift before your eyes.
CAN YOU REMEMBER SCHOOL EVER BEING FUN?
It is worse in today's classrooms with combat-fatigued teachers and bored, unruly students.
But the good news is that Nature has a way of
wiping the slate clean and starting over.
What our leaders choose to do with education
in the next few years
may well determine
if we are around
after the slate cleaning.
What do you think?
I suspect that greed (and stupidity) will ensure that we not only clear our own slate, but that of rather a lot of other species as well. I am not even sure the planet is safe from us.
ReplyDeleteI sadly believe you are right. :-( Michael Crichton believed that every epoch or so, a race arose that wiped the slate clean of most species. He felt that Man was that race for today.
DeleteWe need a new blackboard, and a backup plan that doesn't rely on tech. We need teachers that can use practical information, not just the latest tech toy. If the dystopian future were to happen, how well would our kids be prepared? Turn a blind eye to practical, hands on knowledge and those skills will be lost.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. How many of our children know how to maintain a car engine, use pulleys to lift weight, how to distill dirty water into drinkable liquid, to fish or set traps for rabbits? Simple first aid is beyond them. If a Carrington Event happened tomorrow, most people would starve in the midst of potential plenty.
DeleteBesides the usual subjects, I wish our schools would stop assuming that students are learning important things at home, because many of them aren't. From cooking and nutrition to tax returns, basic electrical and mechanical work, how to read a contract, keep to a budget--just life skills.
ReplyDeleteExactly. Basic electrical and mechanical skills, keeping a budget, bookkeeping, tax forms, and how to read a contract are necessary skills that schools ignore to the students' detriment. :-(
DeleteHi Roland - I was going to say similar to Helena - when I was growing up we were taught as much as possible at home ... gardening, cooking, various activities, encouraged to look things up ...
ReplyDeleteBeing curious is essential and tying things we learn into everyday life ... and definitely taking time away from many of those screens and useless reality tv ...
Great post .. cheers Hilary
It's the lack of common sense that seems to be missing in all ages. Is it that common sense is so difficult to administer or that people actually lack it.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of it is our own fault. The kids see us and do not want to be us. As the parent of two teenagers, I can say I am an idol to neither one of them. They do not aspire to be an engineer and sit in an office. They do not want to be laid off (I was not laid off), nor do they want to start a business only to struggle (I started a business and am struggling). They don't want to sit at a computer all day in a cubicle.
ReplyDeleteThey don't want to work for The Man.
They don't want the sag of an additional 2 billion people on their tax dollars. They see how much we pay, and they see the kids at school flaunting the welfare dollars for cash or drugs. That's a literal truth. Drugs are rampant, and food stamps are currency.
They see these things, and they rise each morning to go to school bearing a huge burden of The Fuckits.
My son, thankfully, has found an inspiration in his percussion teacher. I was a percussionist growing up, but lacked the opportunity he has found. I considered majoring in percussion in college, until I saw the other guys in the program and became immediately discouraged. I chose Chemical Engineering, because it looked easier, and I didn't care so much if I did well at it.
So he is on a track for percussion, with my full support. He is a freshman, and his instructor already has singled him out as somewhat phenomenal (which he really is), and is already talking about how easy it will be to find him a scholarship if he stays on this path.
My daughter is an artist, though without the inspiration my son has discovered. It's hard to mentor her, again, because they do not want to be like us.
So I think the biggest change we can make is not with the system, but with ourselves. Become something inspirational to your child. Give them something to aspire to beyond the drudgery of American Consumerism. Good God, man, nobody wants to hole up in a cube for forty years, only to be laid off and unceremoniously dismissed as trivial, nor do they want all that hard work splurged on exorbitant taxes, only to be divied out to thankless, often criminal recipients, and to programs to which they have no access or right.
- Eric
Parents mold their children that is true. How many children all through history wanted to be like their parents? Very few.
DeleteChildren are allowed to be idealistic and divorced from the harsh realities of making a living however you can by good parents.
Tender shoots cannot bear much weight.
I am so happy for your son, finding a way to make his dream come true. It happens too seldom in today's world.
The right teachers can guide their students into making informed decisions about how they will support themselves in a mostly uncaring world.
Very insightful comment, Eric. Thanks for visiting and staying to talk awhile.