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A World Without Teachers
The American Thinker ^ | 12/26/2011 | Richard Miniter

Posted on 12/26/2011 8:23:52 AM PST by Discoshaman

The Kindle and Nook may make for not only the most important advance in reading since Gutenberg, but also, quite likely, a major lesson in unintended consequences. Especially for the educational establishment, because for the first time in history, Americans should be able to envision a future without public-school teachers -- indeed, a future without public-school administrators or state departments of education with their rigidly enforced, politically correct social-transformation curriculum. A future without onerous school taxes, "education president(s)," self-preening school boards, or million-dollar classrooms. But most happily, a future without a single supercilious finger wagging in our face as we're forever lectured about how much a securely tenured, part-time, self-important, overpaid class of public employees "cares" about our sons and daughters. Really, really, really cares. And, of course, knows much better than we do how to bring them up.

And it's all possible because these cheap, handheld, downloadable reading devices such as Kindle and Nook now give parents a choice between tutoring and classroom education.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/12/a_world_without_schoolteachers.html#ixzz1heq4w6Z2

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: ebooks; education; frhf; homeschooling; indoctrination; learning; publicschools; schools; teachers; teaching; unions
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To: BwanaNdege

Bwana Ndege - unazungumza kwa Kiswahili? Nilisoma Kiswahili huko Marekani, no sasa tunaishi Nairobi, Kenya... Na wewe?

And I like the line about undertakers. So true. Over 50% of public school teachers were in the bottom 25% of their college classes.


21 posted on 12/26/2011 8:47:19 AM PST by Discoshaman (Check out my conservative scifi novel - Knox's Irregulars! http://www.knoxsirregulars.com)
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To: Discoshaman

Until the electronic communications technology is capable of protecting itself from the figurative and literal crushing by the public school system, yours is nice pipe dream. There is evil in society, and some of that evil rests in public school teachers. (Or why else are there lists of school teachers who have had active sexual activities with school children?) Teachers are not going to go away. They will fight, unfairly, dirtily and arrogantly for their perceived rights to public salaries and benefits and, in the cases of some, their own sexual grazing territories.


22 posted on 12/26/2011 8:47:34 AM PST by righttackle44 (I may not be much, but I raised a United States Marine)
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To: junta

Wouldn’t that be great? It was a scandal what we were charging students each year for “new” editions of textbooks, back when I taught history.


23 posted on 12/26/2011 8:50:42 AM PST by Discoshaman (Check out my conservative scifi novel - Knox's Irregulars! http://www.knoxsirregulars.com)
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To: denydenydeny

“...the destruction of the foundation stone of modern liberalism, their domination of the education system.”

I hate to rain on the parade, but there is a difference between CAN replace the liberal dominated education and MAY replace it.

Look at the battle homeschooling parents have had just to remove a very few kids from the system. Imagine the fight if we tried to go to a system of apprenticeships, mentors, free-market winnowed basic schooling centers and schools driven by an ideology other than liberalism.

Liberals in academe, politics & the press know they are doomed if they loose control of the “little skulls full of mush”.


24 posted on 12/26/2011 8:53:34 AM PST by BwanaNdege (“Man has often lost his way, but modern man has lost his address” - Gilbert K. Chesterton)
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To: Discoshaman

“unazungumza kwa Kiswahili? Nilisoma Kiswahili huko Marekani, no sasa tunaishi Nairobi, Kenya... Na wewe?” Is that Swahili? As a child, I memorized the glossary or whatever you call it of Swahili phrases and sentences at the end of “Something of Value,” by Robert Ruark. Now I can’t even remember how to say, “Please get the soup in a hurry.” Well, maybe the “pese pese” part of it.


25 posted on 12/26/2011 9:01:15 AM PST by Silentgypsy (If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk!)
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To: who knows what evil?

LOL

Do you think the people in public housing pay property taxes ...and they contribute mightily to the public school population!


26 posted on 12/26/2011 9:02:23 AM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: Discoshaman
If we really wanted to be innovative, we would revisit not only the concept of the school, but also the library. These two institutions are over a thousand years old in their modern forms, but technology has made those forms irrelevant. They existed because information and knowledge was rare and valuable, and had to be preserved and shared cost effectively. The internet and computers completely disrupts those models.

What should a library be like today? It has been completely replaced by Google and the cloud as an effective knowledge repository. I am guessing that what remains of schools and libraries should focus on providing only what cannot be downloaded.

Instead of going to the library to check out a book, we could go to the library to check out a tool to fix our car or home. The training they offer can be more hands on vocational training. Instead of pooling our resources to provide knowledge, we can pool resources and share expensive machines. Our libraries can provide local 3d printing capability.

As for schools, they will provide instruction on physical education that requires interaction, in which I would put sports, music, art, and social skills building. The reading, writing, aritmetic will be left to computers.

27 posted on 12/26/2011 9:03:29 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: WOBBLY BOB

I think unions are trying to unionize everybody they can because they want the dues!


28 posted on 12/26/2011 9:04:16 AM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: goodnesswins
YES, and they are trying to make “schooling” start at birth....

Here in CT they have started a new program called "Birth to 3". They literally want people to start at birth to start relying on the state to teach your children.

29 posted on 12/26/2011 9:05:11 AM PST by raybbr (People who still support Obama are either a Marxist or a moron.)
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To: yldstrk
Pottery is a "craft"

Semantics....mere semantics. The people who built this sort of stuff were referred to as "craftsmen"

As a (quite brilliant) engineer for the last 20 years who is 12 credits short of a degree, MGD is often heard to say, "School isn't the only place to get an education"

30 posted on 12/26/2011 9:05:45 AM PST by Mygirlsmom (Disgusted with it all.)
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To: Vince Ferrer

Would YOU loan an expensive tool to SOMEONE you did not know? Nice idea....Libraries are re-inventing themselves as Community Centers....I have a friend who works in the system and she says it’s about pulling people in now....they have gathering areas for teens, etc....


31 posted on 12/26/2011 9:07:02 AM PST by goodnesswins (Banning Christmas (and Christmas decorations) is something that commies do.)
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To: BwanaNdege

I have to agree with discoshaman. It is a craft in the sense of a skill, discipline, technique. That is one definition of craft.

There are two problems with ineffective teachers. One, many aren’t themselves educated enough (not in ed courses, but subjects such as math, science, and english) to do a good job. Second, beyond teaching one or two children individually, you do need to have an affinity towards group teaching and public speaking. I’ve learned a lot from wonderful people, and I know some of them would be horrible in front of a classroom.

I have also found that people with affinity towards certain subjects, skills or talents tend to work harder at improving them. I have seen this in retail, home cooking, chemical research, and athletics.

Interestingly, there was a Townhall article a few weeks back that described a reading approach similar to the one with the foster child in the article. Students read Shakespeare out loud, stopped and looked up words they didn’t understand. That is how I learned Shakespeare.

We know phonics is effective for teaching the sound for each letter. Then students can read, look up the words, write, repeat. Very simple. Unfortunately this has been turned into some byzantine rube goldberg contraption.


32 posted on 12/26/2011 9:07:15 AM PST by PrincessB (Drill Baby Drill.)
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To: junta

The college bookstore wanted $285.00 for my son’s Calculus II book (Used). I bought a “used” one from Amazon for $46.00 (delivered in 2 days). We couldn’t find a mark on the book that was delivered.


33 posted on 12/26/2011 9:07:15 AM PST by anoldafvet
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To: Discoshaman

I have your book on my new Kindle to read next!

I agree with most of your comment, but just had my 14 year old nephew staying with me over Christmas. He is home-schooled, and while there are many obvious benefits (his attitude, etc.), he is not studying with any rigor and is, in my opinion, missing some important topics. He’s good at math, but not really inclined to put in the time and effort to become competent; in other words, a typical teenaged boy.


34 posted on 12/26/2011 9:07:28 AM PST by SuzyQue
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To: Discoshaman

As a Homeschooling parent, I hope this never happens. Once “they” approve Home Education with Kindle or any type of Media - access to our home will be expected to “ensure” that “all children” receive the “benefit”.

As much as I dislike Public Schooling - in some instances that is probably better for the child than home life. It may be their only chance to escape the System through another branch of the System.


35 posted on 12/26/2011 9:07:55 AM PST by NoNAIS (Yet another Government program not needed.)
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To: Discoshaman
Anything that breaks the monopoly of the educrats is beautiful, in my opinion.

I think we need to start with the flawed premise implicit in the title of the article - that only public school union drones can be "teachers". Getting rid of the education establishment doesn't mean a world without teachers. It means a world without bureaucrats telling us who can and can't be a teacher.

36 posted on 12/26/2011 9:08:38 AM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: BwanaNdege

“Learn at home at your own pace, with the ability to go back to steps & concepts you do not fully grasp.” That’s the key for some of us. As a child, I was out of the classroom for half the year because of contracting a few childhood diseases sequentially. I did the homework assignments and received a prize for getting the highest average in the class. As an adult, a career change necessitated more math classes. I did them via correspondence courses from the state university and reported for exams that were purportedly the same as the ones given to their onsite students. Straight A’s. Would not have been able to do that in a classroom situation that rushes through the curriculum and doesn’t allow one to digest and play with the concepts.


37 posted on 12/26/2011 9:09:59 AM PST by Silentgypsy (If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk!)
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To: Vince Ferrer

That’s a wonderful model!


38 posted on 12/26/2011 9:12:41 AM PST by Silentgypsy (If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk!)
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To: goodnesswins
Would YOU loan an expensive tool to SOMEONE you did not know?

No, I would not, I would make sure I knew who they were before I loaned it to them. Rental companies exist today that make money renting out machines costing tens of thousands of dollars to people, it can be done. And the tools may also stay at the librariy, which may transform into something looking more like a garage/laboratory/factory.

39 posted on 12/26/2011 9:14:20 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: SuzyQue

Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy the book! :)

I agree, about 5% of homeschooling parents give the rest a bad name. Though that’s much better than the 75% of public school teachers who give the rest a bad name! LOL


40 posted on 12/26/2011 9:14:37 AM PST by Discoshaman (Check out my conservative scifi novel - Knox's Irregulars! http://www.knoxsirregulars.com)
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