Posted on 06/20/2011 9:40:15 AM PDT by RobRoy
As futurists observe the usage and functionality of the internet, more and more of us have predicted an end to the relevance of Public schools. Well, the Khan Academy site may be the first clear indicator that public schools really are a dead institution walking.
Imagine a future world where, via a home computer, laptop, tablet or even smart phone you can access your own personal curriculum of k-12 level class work complete with lectures, follow up questions and help? Imagine it also covers subjects that public school seldom covers, like the intricacies of how banking works?
Well, a friend of mine sent me a link today to just such a site. My jaw dropped when I saw it. I felt like I had been projected into a future where children can be effectively educated at their own pace, by their own parents, completely separate from the indoctrination of public schools, teachers unions, and other leaders with an “agenda”. In this future, all education curriculums are chosen by the parents and child. It can be worked at any time; it can be augmented by external sources on the internet, public libraries, or even field trips. And the parents control the teaching and “indoctrination” of their own children.
And anyone with a thirst for knowledge will find this a huge opportunity to not only learn about many diverse subjects them self, but also as a springboard to much deeper investigation of whatever subject catches their fancy.
This future has arrived. And I know what you are thinking: this will be shut down by “them” in short order. Well, “they” have already tried and failed. This site has significant backing and anything that happens in this vein will be exposed to the light of day – and the press. And you cannot patent Algebra. Teachers unions teamed with book publishers in some states to get the state legislatures to limit what methods can even be used in classrooms funded with public dollars. But this is privately funded and is a non-profit academy. The NEA and Luddite book publishers are facing their looming obsolescence with great apprehension.
This needs to go VIRAL. It could literally change the future of the US and the world as we know it – and for the good!
Having several friends who have lost their children to
“The New Atheism”, I’m happy to know there is a way to
educate without indoctrination. God’s Word tells us that
bad company corrupts good morals. I’m all for socialization,
but on my terms, not the government’s terms. Government
long ago lost their right to make moral decisions. Rather
than encouraging a healthy exchange of ideas, government
schools place way too much pressure on children to conform
to secular status quo (group think). A part of education is
the ability to discover truth through reasoning and facts
through research. Being rewarded for knowing the answer the
teacher expects isn’t necessarily fact or truth but it is
useful to undermine social order and Judeo-Christian values.
Ah ... I see what has gone wrong here. You are assuming that I said that the Federal government would determine what constitutes a degree. I said no such thing. Here is the acutal sentance that I said from my post:
“Feds would set the requirements for federal recognition and acceptance of Associate, Bacholers, Masters and PHD degrees for hiring into the Federal government”
In other words, the Feds would set Fed policy about what the Federal government considers acceptable evidence for a degree - their only lever being the Federal hiring policy.
Please do not read anything more into that sentance. I never said that the federal government would decide for others what constitutes a degree. I did not say that the Federal government would specify eduacation standards. Only that the Federal government has the right (as in adherence or obedience to moral and legal principles and authority) to set what is acceptable to them for hiring policy. But since you seem to be caught up on the word “right”, how about we us the term “legal authority”. To which I now reword the same previous question.
Does the federal government have the legal authority to determine for itself what is an acceptable proof of education?
I would also point out that according to Article 1 section 8 Congress has the authority to “..To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces”. Determining the rules for hiring is clearly making rules for the government.
And further, should we adopt private credentialing or board certification, how is that any different from accepting a diploma? It is a sheet of paper from someone else. In the most hyperbolic argument, how can you trust the certifying the board or the private credentials.
“....would more than pay for the retraining.”
Why should the taxpayers be billed for “re-educating” the lowest ten percent of the graduating class?
Why does possession of a degree in education guarantee said degree holder a job?
Just askin’.
The following is the sum and substance of this thread. And the solution, too - if I may so say.
“Thus, technology has progressed to the point where one can acquire expert knowledge without “benefit” of this 19th Century hierarchical institutional structure with which you are so infatuated. Moreover, that structure has become so ossified in protecting its internal interests that it has become a barrier to learning. There is no longer any justification for people to save hundreds of thousands of post-tax dollars to pay a bunch of Marxists to decide if your child is properly brainwashed. The key is testing, because testing really can separate the competent from the credentialed. That’s why the left hates it.
Really, the last two lines say it all.
For any still harboring lingering fondness for the bricks & mortar citadels of the academented, remember that they came into being when books were rare and costly. Institutes of learning continued to grow after publishing became able to provide books at less cost than scribes because books needed to be in libraries where students could read then without prohibitive travel impediment.
The Internet makes available to nearly all a library far greater than most universities. And, soon we can enjoy the entire Library of Congress online.
“Stand and Recite” is sooo last century.The new paradigm is “Learn and be tested.”
Frankly, that points out an idea I had not contemplated, that the only borderline legitimate justification for public universities even in the 20th century was for purposes of pooling capital by which to subsidize military-industrial R&D. Now that the Internet has crashed the price of books, does putting the LOC online in fact socialize all copyright royalties?
Given that this nation is near the bottom of the industrialized world in educational quality, a lot.
Paper based books can never approach the availability or low cost of Internet books.
While I like the low cost of old books brought about partly by Dewey’s ‘Dumbing Down”, I look forward to the day when I can download the original first edition of Churchill’s The River War, along with the commentaries of later minds who also examined his book and were moved toshare their perspectives.
A world wide “Invisible College” beats any bricks & mortar based (should I say ‘limited’) college on many parameters. Not the least of which is the ability to avoid the academented.
How do you figure?
If I recall correctly, they have some preliminary test in their junior year but its really just practice and doesn't amount to much. Most educational duds don't even bother taking the SAT/ACT test that really matters.
“a future where children can be effectively educated at their own pace, by their own parents, completely separate from the indoctrination of public schools, teachers unions, and other leaders with an “agenda””
Not so fast. These K-12 schools, as they are called in Ohio, are not free from indoctrination, teacher’s unions and other leaders with an “agenda”. Students are merely using the same curriculum and the same agenda driven by the same unions in their homes.
This is not home schooling. It is public schooling at home.
Great idea.
GREAT post!
Thank you dear.
___________________________________________________________________
Here’s my modest proposal for education reform.
We have been discussing ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda and other idiocies:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
Proposal for the Free Republic High School Diploma.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316882/posts
___________________________________________________________________
Is anyone familiar with k12.com and CAVA (CA Virtual Academy)? IF so, what’s the story on it?
"Evidence for a degree" offloads the responsibility for determining competence to a third party, but interestingly, that is NOT what is historically typical for the Federal government. Back in the days before this policy, they used tests, that is, until communist lawyers at the ACLU sued for discriminatory tests. Now we have a system where, as long as the school is accredited, your MIT engineer is equivalent to that from ITT Tech.
Under the communist system, the government is enabling an extortionist monopoly based upon the legal assumption that the claque of leftists constituting the various university accreditation bodies produce an 'equal' degree. The problem is, that system does not allow for a person to acquire knowledge on their own. One cannot become a lawyer, doctor, psychologist, or teacher without paying up and putting in time in the institution of higher brainwashing.
Does the federal government have the legal authority to determine for itself what is an acceptable proof of education?
They have the authority to set functional qualifications; they do not have the authority to exclude people who are physically and mentally qualified to perform those tasks on the basis of an artificial extortion racket imposed by a third party agent of the political left.
What you are assuming is only right is effectively State-sanctioned monopoly, restraint of trade, and extortion. I know plenty of machinists and electricians who are far more qualified to do machine and system design work or even microwave signal processing than most degreed engineers. Unfortunately, they don't have the $200,000 and four years of more to pay off the educrats. Instead they have 10-20 years work experience. I know many a retired engineer who is far more qualified to teach math and science than are credentialed teachers. That the system you advocate systematically excludes these qualified people as a political paean to a government controlled (and if you think private colleges an exception, I have news for you) educational system on behalf of its usually unionized and indentured constituency.
And further, should we adopt private credentialing or board certification, how is that any different from accepting a diploma? It is a sheet of paper from someone else.
The Declaration of Independence is a "sheet of paper" too, which shows how shallow that argument is. A board certification is not a product of a State sanctioned monopoly accreditation body. It is sanctioned by the professionals in that field itself. For the most part, customers choose to use them or not at their preference.
In the most hyperbolic argument, how can you trust the certifying the board or the private credentials.
How do you trust your light bulbs? UL. Does UL back the bulbs? No, only the testing. The insurer backs the bulbs because they accept UL's TESTING. How do you trust your plumbing fixtures? UPC. The way one trusts in the free market is with third party verification (not a monopoly) and insured guarantees.
Does any university have any accountability that their credentials guarantee a qualified applicant? Mayhap you should get your head out of its apparently habitual 19th Century progressivism. It is socialist in origin, practice, and purpose.
Any time you’re at the top of “something”, that “something” wasn’t big enough to challenge you to climb higher.
“Public education” is goverment education and provides jobs and positions of status for the affirmative action folks.
If you doubt me, visit a post office, a IRS office, social security office and the DHHR system and look around.
There is no other work for these people, the private sector will not hire fakes.
uh huh, right *rolling eyes*
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.