Posted on 12/29/2010 5:50:30 AM PST by IbJensen
Hodar, I agree with you.
Same for learning about vacuum tubes. Nobody uses them anymore, but the theory is the basis for field effect transistors, which are everywhere.
Not to rag on her, but Wendy gives us a glimpse of why this article is just wishful thinking.
Without a central core, there would be a (large, I think) percentage of well-meaning parents out there who would cheat their kids out of the basics and perhaps give them a "good Snopes-based" superficial education.
The article mentions the classic education of the classic theological texts...ahem...but that was due to the central education institution of THE CHURCH.
Government schools are not the best, but they are typical of a large one-size-fits-all institution.
The one-size-fits-all Church was not all that good for an engineering education back in the day, either. (Ask Galileo!)
Wow, Wendy, that’s a provincial point of view I rarely see represented here on Free Republic. Most Europeans by necessity speak three or four languages with ease, and having a basic foundation in Latin and Greek makes learning English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian much easier, as they are all rooted in those early languages. Language skills make learning any language, including Chinese or Arabic, much easier, too. Why so negative?
Gee, and I thought it was only liberals who instinctively think the worst of human nature!
It’s not instinct, and if I’m wrong, I’ll be glad of it. But I wonder how to get from here to there after so many years of indoctrination.
Those are excellent points, but I think there’s a very positive angle to eliminating compulsory education: You’d get the non-serious “students” completely out of the way and allow the serious ones to get a serious education. The problem with having these social/cultural misfits in a classroom is that they reduce the lowest common denominator dramatically — and that brings the whole system down.
I do not oppose a 'core' basic education. I have two children that have earned college degrees. One is in law school and the other is currently working on a PhD in electrical engineering. My third child at this point is not interested in attending college... teaches beginning piano and has a retail job.
All three of my children would say that at least one half of their time in public school was 'wasted' time. The 'core' was 'socialization' in fundraising and special classes in situation ethics. It was what I required of my children outside of the classrooms that kept their focus on building upon the 'core basic' information from which to move to higher education.
Thank the Dear LORD, all my children are adults now and I do not have to deal with public education. One year in eighth grade one of my children had three different math books, none of which were allowed out of the classroom. The math class was about teaching to take a state required test so the district would have great numbers.
After the presidential election of 2008, I heard a liberal trying to be JonStewart, brag that the overwhelming majority of 40 and under college educated voters, voted for BamBamKennedy.... Wonder how many of this crowd are now surviving from unemployment stipends?
I have read a number of articles and book reviews that hammer the foundations of American education that were implemented in the early decades of the 20th Century -- particularly the pernicious influence of John Dewey on our education system. The whole point of "education" under that system was not to educate children, but to train them to be functioning parts in the machinery of the American "corporate state." Even something as simple as the bell that rang in the school yard in the morning and after recess had a very specific purpose: to prepare children for the day when they'd work in a factory or mine and respond to the same kind of bell or whistle at different times of the day.
The fact that Dewey's philosophy on education was built on the eradication of any religious aspect to a child's education was a clear indication of his motivations.
Oh, but they do, especially in audio.
Oh Lord. Only in "boutique amps." Ridiculous people who argue over how many angels they can hear dancing on the head of a pin called "Audiophiles" do!
Don't get me started!
I use tubes in antique AM radios where they belong.
And, people use a tube (magnetron) in their microwave ovens.
But actually, these exceptions prove the rule!
Parents who would skip latin or greek would skip over the basics of tube technology too....while heating up a slice of pizza (greek etymology?) for their darling in the microwave with a vacuum tube!!
Not all teachers are bad. Not all government schools are bad. Not all parents are good, and not all good parents are good teachers. So all homeschooling might not be all good!
Thanks for writing.I see your point. But today, when it comes to punishing independent intellectual inquiry as heresy, our state-supported institutions are ready and willing.....
LOL
Actually, a couple years ago, I hooked up two Scott amps on my workbench here, with the same signal source and the same speakers. One amp was solid state, the other an old LK-48 that I had refurbished.
The LK-48 (7189 outputs) sounded better. And that's not a boutique amp by any definition.
However, this one definitely is.
That was before the NEA was formed and the busy bodies in DC figured they knew more than the states about education and started taking over. Now we have about $9,000-$20,000 per kid, per year being spent "educating" the skulls full of mush and are ranked 21st and 25th in the world in math and science. Good job, Washington.
And what do the parents do, nothing, as their children's brains are destroyed by the beauracrats. The parents are to blame for going along and not in the streets in a rage!!
True. Vatican yesterday. White House today.
Except the White House now only reflects the morality of a majority of the voters.
I have so much fun when enthusiastic experts about something I don’t know anything about go at it. It’s sort of like watching Bollywood films without subtitles.
Or as my father-in-law says when his wife’s Sicilian relatives get cranked up, “Like watching the fights on the Spanish channel!” (Which wouldn’t work for me, because I understand Spanish ...)
I agree with the author’s principle, that education should be private. Private pay, or private charity. His predictions of the outcome of that situation are arguable, of course, but a person would have to try very hard to persuade me that *any* possible outcome of fully privatizing education would be worse for the country than what we have now.
I agree. Anything is better than having the greasy hands of a central socialist government on the education ‘industry.’
If the UK can lay off 500,000 government workers, the US should be able to permanently furlough a million. This should start with eliminating permanently the FED and the DOE!
The posting was almost starting to sound intelligent until I got to the point about wanting to foist Greek and Latin on kids. I mean, if I was a Greek kid and the only language being taught in school was Greek, I’d move.... There are enough LIVE languages available to study that it should be possible to get whatever side benefits you hope to get by studying live/real ones. You can get a good enough feel for IE grammer by studying Russian and at the end of the day you have something useful.
The so-called "progressive" movement brought about the promotion of other ideas which are counterfeit and lead to tyranny. Their propagandizing the citizenry through the "government" schools has created the constitutional illiteracy which brought us the Congress and Administration of the past two years.
"Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant - they have been cheated; asleep - they have been surprised; divided - the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? ...the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free." James Madison America's Constitution is the means by which knowledgeable and free people, capable of self-government, can bind and control their elected representatives in government. In order to remain free, the Founders said, the people themselves must clearly understand the ideas and principles upon which their Constitutional government is based. Through such understanding, they will be able to prevent those in power from eroding their Constitutional protections. The Founders established schools and seminaries for the distinct purpose of instilling in youth the lessons of history and the ideas of liberty. And, in their day, they were successful. Tocqueville, eminent French jurist, traveled America and in his 1830's work, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, wrote:
On the frontier, he noted that "...no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling that shelters him.... He wears the dress and speaks the language of the cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious about the future, and ready for argument about the present.... I do not think that so much intellectual activity exists in the most enlightened and populous districts of France' " He continued, "It cannot be doubted that in the United States the instruction of the people powerfully contributes to the support of the democratic republic; and such must always be the case...where the instruction which enlightens the understanding is not separated from the moral education.." Possessing a clear understanding of the failure of previous civilizations to achieve and sustain freedom for individuals, our forefathers discovered some timeless truths about human nature, the struggle for individual liberty, the human tendency toward abuse of power, and the means for curbing that tendency through Constitutional self-government. Jefferson's Bill For The More General Diffusion Of Knowledge For Virginia declared:
Education was not perceived by the Founders to be a mere process for teaching basic skills. It was much, much more. Education included the very process by which the people of America would understand and be able to preserve their liberty and secure their Creator-endowed rights. Understanding the nature and origin of their rights and the means of preserving them, the people would be capable of self government, for they would recognize any threats to liberty and "nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud." (Adams)
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People already know what the "quality" of "education" their children are getting (or not getting) in public schools. The liberals' response is always that there is not enough money in education budgets and use the poor education to actually increase the spending, taxes and benefits for the "education system".
What needs to be done is for people to find out how much BIG EDUCATION is costing them (whether they have children in school or not), and keep hammering at this message until most people will decide that, as Robert Redford's character Bill McKay said in The Candidate (1972), "there's got to be a better way!" of educating the kids - one that doesn't cost nearly as much money as it does now and one that (with the help of technology and market forces) spends less on teachers and books and "materials" and more on teaching.
Then, you will see progress... Until then, the government will keep transferring your money into their pockets via "education", "environment," "healthcare," "infrastructure," "union works," "your taxpayers money at work" etc. etc.
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