|
Posted by Kris Krieger on November 21, 2007, 4:53 pm
> Amy Blankenship wrote:
>>
>>>>>> Have you looked at what countries that don't have publicly funded
>>>>>> educational systems are like?
>>>>> You're an expert at ignoring the obvious and unanswering
>>>>> questions.... If you're such a fan of other countries why don't
>>>>> you live in one of them?
>>>>> ....perhaps the reality is too much to bear.
>>>> I wouldn't live in a country without a publicly funded educational
>>>> system. That was the point. However, I do feel sorry for you that
>>>> you can't look to other places for ideas.
>>> In fact Amy, I have looked to other places, and have assisted
>>> thousands of other people in this regard as well, so don't waste
>>> your time feeling sorry for me.
>>
>> Then why do you belittle solutions from other countries (or simply
>> looking at other countries that don't implement sensible solutions as
>> examples of what failures we'd be if we didn't do that either)?
>
> I don't belittle solutions in other countries. But their systems
> aren't based on the same stupidity ours is. They don't assume that
> more money=better education. Here's a model I'd like to see followed:
>
> http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20040416/ai_n11450489
>
> But you must understand that culturally, the Finns are different (I've
> lived there, I have Finnish relatives, I understand the culture). They
> don't spend nearly as much money as we do to educate our children.
> Why? The parents instill the idea that education is very important
> into their children. This idea is reinforced throughout society. It
> works because culturally, education is important, not because they
> spend money. And they mean it. We pretend to mean it. Until we
> really mean it, and not with money, we'll continue to have schools
> that turn out brain-dead idiots expecting the government to solve
> their problems.
>
"More Money" is unfortunatley very American - it's a lot like "bigger
vehicles" and "giant teevee screens". IOW, the entire "bigger is
better" mentality. What matters more is quantity rather than quality,
appearance rather than substance.
The most important aspect of education, however, is *not* ever-more-
expensive gee-gaws, but rather, learning how to think - how to gather
facts, assimilate them, derive principles, and then apply thiose
principles to other areas. I learned that on my own, but it'd be
interesting to see it being taught, because it's so useful.
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap