Education in America - Part Duo ac Tria.

Education and Jihad, Part II

Good heavens Cubed - where do you get the time and energy to knit these exceedingly complicated thoughts together in what turns out to be perfectly understandable and logical to an old public school alumnus such as myself? That was a hell of a sentence but part TWO combines a fascinating history of education - not only in modern America, but in early America...and..and..Germany for goodness sakes - with an analysis of what we deal with today. Good God - to think that our education system emanated from the fragging GERMANS. Well. Anyhoo - I got lost on that for awhile but was quickly brought to (what I saw as) the four main points.

The philosophy of continuing childhood indefinitely to avoid the 'pain' of growing up is doing the wee ones no good at all.

Separating children from the adults in their lives does a harmful disservice to their ability to learn how to be moral, productive, healthy adults.

Separating children into strict groups determined by age rather than ability levels results in only the average kids on the curve actually getting something from their time in class in our 'factory schools'.

Dumbed down subject matter is not the only problem. Subject matter has also been separated completely with how the subject applies to the real world.

"Between the practice of separating children from adult role models, and the deliberate policy of infantilizing them, there is little opportunity for children to acquire the goals, ambitions, social skills, and values that most parents would like them to have, and that would benefit them the most as they become adults. This is unimaginably unfortunate, since the attitudes and views of most people are crystallized during adolescence, and undergo little change after that. While they often continue to acquire more facts, their philosophies are not very easily changed."

Another HUGE point that was made was the matter of the teaching of Philosophy. In this world now - where the Islamofascist maniacs are well schooled in THEIR philosophy - our children haven't been formally taught Philosophy. Sure - we all possess a philosophy whether formally taught or not, but as cubed points out philosophy is not self evident. It has to be studied in order to understand it or benefit from it. "Philosophy is far too important to leave to chance, or to the diffuse or even overtly leftist views that permeate our schools."

(May I just share that I am very impressed with my girls and the way the interact with each other in our little homeschool? The older one is helpful to the little one and she enjoys sharing her knowledge. The little one looks up to the older one and is amazed by her in every way and wants to emulate her - and is proud when she accomplishes a task that gets her nearer to that goal of being a big girl. This is a good thing.)

On to Education and Jihad, Part III

Major point: "Folks, the reward for learning is self-esteem. The motivation for learning is pleasure. The source of pleasure is growing competence and independence."

It's all about motivation, HOW children learn, and the fact that children WANT to be grown-up and independent. That is their goal and boredom kills.

"The biologically mandated developmental goal of the child is to become a competent, independent adult. That is what drives the child. The achievement of a competent, independent adulthood is a highly worthy pursuit, since if he fails, he will not survive, unless cared for by others who do have those skills. Survival is a value to all living creatures, and our children are no exception. Evolution is a stern teacher; it has selected for survival those children who take PLEASURE in observing and imitating the survival skills of adults."

"The fundamental source of self-esteem comes from the knowledge that one is competent, not from knowing that one is liked by the teachers or classmates. With competence, the child becomes self-confident--in other words, he has self-esteem."

*Sigh* What a wonderful read that was. You REALLY need to go check those links out. You will be happy that you did.