General

Re: How would you handle education?

toowm — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:12:18 GMT

Definitely agree on the thoughts of Dr. Robinson. We use his curriculum, along with Charlotte Mason-ish great literature for homeschooling our kids.

A great book on teaching is How to Tutor by Sam Blumenfeld http://www.amazon.com/How-Tutor-Samuel-L-Blumenfeld/dp/0941995011

Re: How would you handle education?

banned — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:15:41 GMT

thompsonisland:
Are you arguing that this is what school should be like, in that case?

No. I'm arguing my preference. School, for you, should be like whatever you and your school want it too. I just think the Montessori method has more to offer than the lecture method.

Re: How would you handle education?

thompsonisland — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:51:47 GMT

Are you arguing that this is what school should be like, in that case?

Re: How would you handle education?

banned — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:06:52 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_method

I went to a Montessori school from Pre-K to 3rd Grade. I don't remember ever being unhappy there.

Re: How would you handle education?

Stranger — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:33:48 GMT

Julio:

Education is more important than what people think.

When poor and rich are equaly educated the class differences vanish (other than $$ of course)

That's like saying when people are as tall as one another then difference vanishes.

Yes, but how is that relevant to our nature? People cannot be equally educated.

Re: How would you handle education?

thompsonisland — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:39:47 GMT

I believe the only real learning is self-directed. So how do you teach? Provide the resources (or be one) when asked, otherwise get out of the way.

Schools are NOT about true learning; I find them to be antithetical to it. Sure, it is possible to learn in spite of school, but it's an effort.

Re: How would you handle education?

Daniel J. Sanchez — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:48:22 GMT

I happen to be a teacher, and I recently taught a workshop about brains for a group of 24 fifth graders.

First I wrote on the board, "What does the brain do?" The students
dutifully enumerated the standard list: controls your movements,
thinks, feels emotion, controls your heartbeat, controls your body
temperature. Obviously they'd been studying this.

Then I wrote on the board, "How do you know that?"

An awkward silence followed.

Finally a student hesitantly ventured, "Because school told us."

"What if school is wrong?," I asked. "Can school ever be wrong?"

I heard an indistinct rumble of "yeah" and "I guess."

One student tried to resolve her cognitive dissonance by saying that
we know because scientists have studied it.

I asked, "What if the scientists are wrong? Let me tell you a secret:
scientists have been wrong about tons of stuff throughout the years.
They were proved wrong by later scientists. How do you know that
today's scientists aren't wrong about this? How can YOU know, from
your own thinking and your own experience, that the brain does all
these things: think, feel, move the body?

There was a smart guy a long time ago named Hippocrates who believed,
like today's scientists do, that thinking and emotion come from the
brain.

But there was another smart guy named Aristotle who said, "you know
what, I believe thinking and emotion comes from the heart. What does
the brain do: it sits there! It never budges an inch! How can all
these amazing abilities come from something that doesn't do anything?
The heart is where all the action is: it's constantly beating,
boom-boom, boom-boom. That's where you're going to get exciting stuff
like thoughts and feelings!"

So how do YOU know Aristotle is wrong, and that school and today's
scientists and Hippocrates are right?"

That's when the students, one by one, stopped reciting, and started
thinking. One student said that when he concentrates on his thinking,
it feels like it's happening in his head, and not in his chest.
Another noted that when a person's brain is damaged, their thinking
and emotions are often changed. A third offered an
argument-for-argument's sake for Aristotle's side saying that the
heart is indeed involved in movement. A fourth countered that with
the example of paralysis from brain injury as proof that the brain is
key to movement. For the rest of the intro, the students contributed
evidence and arguments instead of memorized facts: except, that is,
whenever their teacher interjected. Although she was basically
pleased with the class, throughout the session I could tell she was
perturbed by my approach. And every time she chimed in, she conducted
little call-and-response exercises, pressing them to vocalize the
various lobes and bulbs they had memorized, warning "this will
important later in school." She was my customer, so I could only sigh
inside.

This experience reinforced my belief in encouraging students to reason

for themselves and to question pedagogic authority. Memorizing facts
may help children do well on "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader", but
it will not make them true students of the world around and inside
them.

Re: How would you handle education?

Retrolives — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:46:53 GMT

I've always found exams to be dehumanising and don't think they would exist as they do today in a free society. (Nonetheless, I'm in grad school studying for a taught Masters in Maths at the moment.)

The point of exams started off in order to evaluate your progress in a subject but they turned into an end in themselves. I've always found exams drive people away from learning and can ruin the best and brightest with stress. I went to a publicly funded school myself. I think the school and university model that would emerge in a free market would be very similar to Prof. Arthur Robinson's Home-School Curriculum: http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/. He's got a great analysis of the current system, read about his family too! He predicts that universities will cease to exist in the future because they no longer hold a monopoly on education and information since the internet arrived.

This may not make sense at first, but I think teaching is an impediment to learning. The over-whelming majority of teachers I've had teach me, taught me nothing that I could not have taught myself out of a book. As Rothbard writes, 'ultimately in a fundamental sense we are all self-taught'. The role of the teacher should be simply to inspire and to discuss ideas, a role provided by this forum for example. People learn at different paces and there's no way of telling whether the person with the fastest aptitude for learning is in fact the brightest and will benefit most from an education. Think about how Einstein couldn't add and failed maths exams.....

I hope I'm making some sense. I tried to clarify some of my thoughts on education on this post I wrote for the Irish Liberty Forum:

http://irishliberty.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/a-lifetime-spent-in-formal-non-education/

Re: How would you handle education?

eliotn — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:32:34 GMT

susi:

I'd only allow those who truly want to learn to be educated.

Otherwise, they can get out of my schools; I'm tired of their stupidities. They seem to never understand that being stupid is not "cool" -__-

ditto.

What if you are interested in learning the subject, but the way the teacher teaches it is boring, you are required by your parents to do it, and you can learn more on your own?

Re: How would you handle education?

Susi — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:21:12 GMT

I'd only allow those who truly want to learn to be educated.

Otherwise, they can get out of my schools; I'm tired of their stupidities. They seem to never understand that being stupid is not "cool" -__-

Re: How would you handle education?

hayekianxyz — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:08:52 GMT

Karl Marx:
When poor and rich are equaly educated the class differences vanish

Re: How would you handle education?

Julio — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:50:58 GMT

Education is more important than what people think.

When poor and rich are equaly educated the class differences vanish (other than $$$ of course)

Education fills all 5 primary psychological human needs.

The problem with education is power. Educated people think for themselves and are always a treath to the elite in control.

And powerful guys are always afraid of losing their power.

Re: How would you handle education?

Rubén — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:45:05 GMT

Sometimes you must learn something that is not interesting at first, but is useful, and sometimes you must teach to someone who doesn't find it interesting but has a definite reason for wanting or needing to learn it.In those cases, good results can sometimes also be achieved, though with greater effort.

Re: How would you handle education?

Zlatko — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:46:28 GMT

In that case, there's not so much I can help you with :P

I've always found learning subjects that I am interested in, extremely easy. And subjects that I had no interest in, nearly impossible.

So my tip would be:

Learn that which you find interesting, and teach it only to those who find it interesting!