Category Archives: education

Of Wolves And Businessmen

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{Note: I wrote this in two installments, and I’ve not proofed it for sense. It might suck. If it does, sorry. Also, this post was at least partially inspired by the tattoo on my left calf and this post from Camels With Hammers. Go read the post.}

As a kid, I decided that what made us special as a species was our ability to think beyond our immediate needs and the immediate good of society. That sounds strange, but what I meant was simple. In all the pack animals that I had ever heard of, food went to the healthiest and strongest members first. If a wolf got to be too old and could not fight for their share, they went without and were slowly starved. This makes sense for the society, encouraging the fittest members of their society to thrive, hopefully passing on their genes to the next generation, and ensuring that the pack is not bogged down in the aged. But humans don’t do that. We take care of everyone, and that separates us from the animals.

Children can be so naive.

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I Miss School

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I lead a pretty crazy life, and it’s one that comes with a lot of information and perpetual learning in all areas, and that’s cool, but I miss school. As we get closer to September, it starts to nag at me. It’s one thing to do a little research when you have some down time and another entirely to have research papers, assignments, exams, and overall understanding motivating you to press on through.

A couple of years ago, I decided I would go back to school. I was going to take a very long and very costly process to get my Master’s degree in Biology. My leanings were specializing in Evolutionary Biology, but I was prepared to make that choice later, after I got a broader view of how things were and where I thrived. The journey would have been extra-long, because my current degree wouldn’t be enough to get me straight into the Masters program. I’d have had to go part time and pick up both my Bachelors and Masters degrees. It would be expensive and a long time, and in the end it would probably be nothing more than a lark to have engaged in, but I was fine with that. I just want to learn.

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The Province As A Corporation – Education

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Now, my kids don’t live here. For a while, I had Spazz living with me, but today they all live in the beautifully forested province of British Columbia, and so one might believe that matters of education do not concern me. That would be an incorrect assumption. For starters, there’s Demon, the child of the Lovely Lady who lives with me and is knee deep in the public education system. But more than that, there is the pride in knowing that I live in a country that values education for children no matter what their political and economic backgrounds. And there are my friends who teach in public schools and the legacy of my parents, both of whom were public school teachers. I care very much about the education system, and the current situation gives me a great deal of reason to be concerned.

But there are even larger concerns. An educated society is one where great things can happen. That does not mean that I expect everyone to go on to a great post-secondary education and a career at Super Corporation, but the opportunity should be provided for all citizens to be able to move in whatever direction they desire. Encouraging intellect to grow is a positive for society, and leads to a more competent and capable work force. This is a good thing. Our country is made up of people, and the more well rounded those people are, the better off our society is.

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Response To Science And Reason In Higher Education

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[A note from Big Ugly Jim: This is a response to Cyndi Laurenti's guest post here on Meddling Kids about education and the conflict between reason/science and faith/religion. Please feel free to provide your opinion via the comments on either piece.]

I absolutely agree that there is a serious threat to scientific thinking at every level of the educational experience, but I do not agree with Cyndi’s opinion on how best to confront it. I believe that attempting to find that line between faith and fact is a moot point, and one that cuts deeply into the effectiveness of both sides of the argument. I believe in compromise wherever possible, but compromise in this case is ineffective.

I used to teach in college. I didn’t teach evolution or origins of life or anything that would cross the line into OMG UR HURTIN MY RELIJUNZ FEELINZ, but I can imagine what it must be like. I taught (among other things) systems analysis, which is the process of determining where problems exist, understanding all of the issues around them, figuring out how things work in the current model, and synthesizing a new model that resolves the problems. There are very simple truths to this process, not the least of which is that the only way to succeed in a project is to have buy-in from your customers. They need to know that you are there to make their lives easier, and not to score points with the boss or what have you.

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Guest Post – Science and Reason in Higher Education

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[A note from Big Ugly Jim: I was approached a while back by someone who wanted to know if we would be interested in some guest posts by the people she worked with. I'm always up for a guest post, and I agreed. This is the first, from Cindy Laurenti. When I read the piece, I felt it would be an interesting post to have a discussion about, because I am very much in opposition to what Cindy wrote. She and I discussed, and I have written a response to this. As ever, I love to have people provide their own thoughts on the topic in the comments.]

Although scientific rationality is certainly a feature of most curricula in higher education, for many scientists and academics who frequently find the most basic scientific principles under attack from elementary school to master’s degree programs, it often doesn’t seem like enough. Furthermore, attacks on the basic tenet of empiricism come from a wide variety of people and interest groups, not (as many think) only from religious fundamentalists.

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Oh No You Di-int… Rick Perry Hates Education

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Yeah, Rick Perry floundered at the debate last night. It happens. Everyone draws a blank sometimes, and given George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, you would think that somehow is an endearing quality for Republicans. However, I watched the video this morning and had the same reaction as PZ Myers. Did he just say he was going to do away with education?

So I want to know how the Republicans who would agree with such a policy think that the US should ensure that their future generations of worker drones are properly educated. What is his plan for ensuring a quality education for the people? Let me guess… Turn the power over to the individual states?

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Further Unschooling Thoughts

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Recently, I wrote an opinion piece on unschooling. I’m quite happy with what I wrote, and while I don’t believe it is the be-all and end-all of explanations of unschooling, I think it reflects accurately what such a program leads to. However, a reader named Bob Collier left the following comment:

You might discover if you read some Clark Aldrich that sometimes all is not as it first appears. http://unschoolingrules.blogspot.com/

And he’s absolutely right. I was looking at the practice of unschooling and not the thinking behind it, which the Unschooling Rules blog delves more deeply into.

I totally agree that the public education system we have in place needs a dramatic overhaul. I believe our current educational system is the product of commoditizing and disregard. I grew up the son of two teachers who were passionate about education. Both were active in the politics behind the schooling system, participating in collective bargaining groups, the union, and various groups. They also had students who for the most part respected and admired them, and learned a lot from them. But I watched the system crush them. I watched the passion fade from my parents as they were continuously pushed down by the job, and I’m beyond happy that they both chose to retire early, both for their happiness and for the students.

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Unschooling (or How To Screw Your Child Over In Favor Of Feeling Groovy)

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A friend of mine posted a propaganda video for unschooling the other day, and I realized that this was a topic I had never covered here. What better time than right now, as I air on a train heading to what should be the most boring meeting in living history.

Unschooling is that special method of raising your child where you keep them home and let them focus on whatever they want to focus on. You know, we build up our children based on who they want to be, and not on who The Man thinks they ought to be. Why teach our kids things they won’t need in life when we can nurture the things they will need?

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What Science Class Should Be

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Science classes should be an environment of wonder and awe, mixed with accomplishment and excitement. Sadly, we don’t get much of that. Science classes from the get-go should be about teaching kids how to question the world around them, and how to find the answers to those questions. I say wonder and awe because the topics of science are so wildly amazing, especially to young eyes who have never encountered such things before. Do you remember the first time you saw a powerful chemical reaction? Do you remember what it was like to open up a once-living thing and see all the incredible things inside it?

The scientific method is a means to understand. It utilizes creativity, skeptical thinking, problem solving, and dreaming all before we even pull out a flask. It encourages people to see things from all angles and to seek to understand. There is nothing bad about this in a free society. In fact, this sort of problem solving is important no matter what direction a child moves in their life.

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One Small Step For Man

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Wow. Texas sometimes surprises me. After all the talk of changing curriculum to incorporate (among other things) the teaching of Creationism alongside evolution in the science class, the board voted unanimously to reject all of the changes put forward by Creationists and keep their core content focused on actual science. This is huge, although I do hold the same concerns that PZ Myers shares.

This is a big deal for those who are not familiar with the story because of the sheer size of Texas. There are so many Texan students that any proposed changes to their text books become changes to the standard. Publishing companies are not going to write different texts for each state depending upon their ideological lean. Thus, if Texas was to approve changes that would introduce Creationism into the curriculum in a formal way, as opposed to the current slight-of-hand way, it would be in textbooks (whether taught or not) in far more than just the hands of Texas teenagers.

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