What's the Point of Education? (college, public school, illiterate, computers)
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So Pearson can make a lot of money, Michelle Rhee can feed her ego, Bill Gates can feel important, and schools get as many students as possible to pass tests.
I'd rep you 10 times for this if I could. WAY TOO MUCH of education policy is set because people make a LOT OF MONEY selling stuff.
I am not writing a paper and appreciate all responses. It is interesting how each of you interpreted the question differently. I am a teacher who believes our public schools need to be recreated to meet the needs of today's society and provide each child an "opportunity" to learn.
I am not writing a paper and appreciate all responses. It is interesting how each of you interpreted the question differently. I am a teacher who believes our public schools need to be recreated to meet the needs of today's society and provide each child an "opportunity" to learn.
An "opportunity" to learn is so vague it doesn't mean anything. You obviously don't think all students have an opportunity to learn. You need to explain what you mean.
. I am a teacher who believes our public schools need to be recreated to meet the needs of today's society and provide each child an "opportunity" to learn.
And how do you plan to do that?
I personally think every child already has an "opportunity" to learn....
Education for me is a essential tool of survival. With a good education, you can line up, food, shelter, security.
Its a means to improve your self financially as well as holistically ( health / mental well being). An essential part of education is schooling. A far more important part of it is an sustained attempt at self-education.
For my kids, I hope schooling should be about preparation for an adult life, which should include serious consideration to employability or a desire to be entrepreneurial. In short, school should teach our kids that if they are not striving to be helpful/useful to others around them, they are not headed in the right direction.
The purpose of education is to expand children's (student's) minds.
That may sound kind of vague but it describes what is needed best. This means acquiring knowledge and understanding important ideas. This should enable people to best serve their own economic interests. But our schools are mostly designed to produce people who can be used by the system/culture.
I think watching the documentary, The Fog of War, about Robert McNamara is a great idea. He describes his grammar school years where he competed to sit in the 1st seat in the class. In my grade school we were always in alphabetical order. But we were given colored stars, gold, silver, green or red, every grading period to show our standing in class. These were posted on a cork board so every student could see how they compare with every other student. That did not keep school from being BORING.
Then I discovered science fiction in 4th grade. One of my sisters told me that a nun told her, "that science and religion don't mix." The SF books presented real science and imagined science that my teachers never mentioned regardless of all of the gold and silver stars I got.
The competition restricts your mind to what you are told to compete at. I got no stars for what I learned on my own but that taught me that the stars were not worth much.
psik
Last edited by psikeyhackr; 06-18-2015 at 06:15 PM..
Education for me is a essential tool of survival. With a good education, you can line up, food, shelter, security.
Its a means to improve your self financially as well as holistically ( health / mental well being). An essential part of education is schooling. A far more important part of it is an sustained attempt at self-education.
For my kids, I hope schooling should be about preparation for an adult life, which should include serious consideration to employability or a desire to be entrepreneurial. In short, school should teach our kids that if they are not striving to be helpful/useful to others around them, they are not headed in the right direction.
No this is what family teaches you. It's not up to schools to instill ethics. If it were, whose ethics should they teach?
The purpose of education is to expand children's (student's) minds.
That may sound kind of vague but it describes what is needed best. This means acquiring knowledge and understanding important ideas. This should enable people to best serve their own economic interests. But our schools are mostly designed to produce people who can be used by the system/culture.
I think watching the documentary, The Fog of War, about Robert McNamara is a great idea. He describes his grammar school years where he competed to sit in the 1st seat in the class. In my grade school we were always in alphabetical order. But we were given colored stars, gold, silver, green or red, every grading period to show our standing in class. These were posted on a cork board so every student could see how they compare with every other student. That did not keep school from being BORING.
Then I discovered science fiction in 4th grade. One of my sisters told me that a nun told her, "that science and religion don't mix." The SF books presented real science and imagined science that my teachers never mentioned regardless of all of the gold and silver stars I got.
The competition restricts your mid to what you are told to compete at. I got no stars for what I learned on my own but that taught me that the stars were worthless.
psik
Nope. They don't because they have nothing to do with each other. I hope the nun went on to explain that part. Science and religion are oil and water. When you try to mix them you get a mess and when you stop trying to force them to mix, they settle out into their own space. They don't have to agree because they are about different things. Science looks at what and religion looks at why. Science addresses physical things and religion matters of the soul. Trying to make one fit the other will just get you into trouble and when you stop shaking they just settle out anyway. I have come to view the study of science as the study of the laws God used to create the universe and study of religion as the study of WHY he created the universe. What and why are two entirely different questions with totally different answers. I do not believe we know all there is about either science or religion. I think the bible is RS100. The basics to get you on the right path but I don't think for one second every question in the universe is answered in the bible.
I got stuck for about 10 years asking whether evolution or creation were correct. Seeing them at odds with each other. Then one day I asked a different question. I asked what difference does it make and to my surprise the answer is none. We are here having this conversation either way. I don't know whether the universe was created in 7 days and just looks old because the processes were speeded up or it really is billions of years old but it doesn't matter. Occam's razor says you can stop once you have a sufficient explanation. If God is capable of doing things in fast forward we have a sufficient explanation. I don't care if God did things in fast forward or not. I just find the laws of this universe fascinating and there is where I find God. The more I study science the more I feel the presence of God. This universe is FASCINATING.
FTR I attended a Jesuit university where one of my required engineering courses was religion in an age of science taught by a Jesuit priest with a PhD in engineering. That was one of my favorite classes. The discussions ran very deep.
Last edited by psikeyhackr; 06-18-2015 at 06:38 PM..
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What's the Point of Education?
