education: what does that mean?
Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2023 3:22 pm
it is rather easy to see that part of the "modern" world
crisis, is a lack of education... IQ45 has said that:
"I love the uneducated" and the reasons are simple enough...
they lack the skills and knowledge to make sense of an argument..
they are easily fooled by sincere but fake arguments about,
well about anything.... they are unable to tell what is a nonsense
argument from a well thought out reasoned argument...
and example of this is the nonsense argument that IQ45 won the
2020 election... he didn't... by all accounts including GOP
sources, that this last presidential election was the
most secure election in this nations history... but the
MAGA crowd is unable to reason this out.... and why is this?
I will work out some reasons for this lack of ability to reason
out arguments... one of the basic problems that our educational
system has failed is simple, it doesn't do what it ought to do...
that is the point of education is to be educated... and schools
don't do that anymore... virtually all public schooling is engaged
in vocational training... teaching children skills to get a job, or train
for a career, but that is not education...one of the primary ways our
educational system has failed is because it is focused on the wrong thing....
all collages do these days is job training... how do get a job in the field of
your choice... read a blurb from a collage or university these days and it
talks about what degrees one can get to gain that job or career...
it doesn't talk about learning life skills or becoming educated...
the university has become vocational training place, nothing more...
and that is not the point of being educated...
and that type of education is, well useless....
think about it..... most people who go to college don't have
a job in the field they majored in.. it is rare that people actually
work in the field they majored in... and if that is the case, then
why spend 4 or more years, studying to be a teacher, for example,
if they are likely to not be in teaching in 10 years?
job skills are really not that hard to learn... now even the professions,
doctor, lawyer, etc, those skills are harder to learn, but even there,
quite often those in train in those skills wind up working in
other careers... (and it should be hard to become a doctor or engineer
but most jobs/careers don't require those skills set)
look at how often people change jobs, even careers in mid life...
I have had several quite different jobs/careers in my life..
and I am by no means unusual...so given all this, what should
education look like?
The ''educated" person should have more rounded skills, not just
skills to get a job, but skills that allow them to make informed
decisions... to be participants in a democratic society...
the skills to make rational arguments for or against something..
an educated person should know some basic history and have some
knowledge about science and literature and the ARTS, and have
the ability to discover how to get knowledge if needed...
which leads me to the second point which is technology....
we have "smart" phones that have knowledge within them...
so, what incentive do I have to study history or science
if I can just look something up on my phone?
I have seen many, many people make arguments by simple posting YouTube
videos... and the rebuttals are done by YouTube videos.. that isn't a reasoned,
well thought out argument... that is just laziness... and the inability
to even make reasoned, well thought out arguments...
and if you can't even make a reasoned argument, how can you spot
an argument that isn't reasoned or well thought out? You can't....
The skills we need to be teaching are not skills to get a job, but
skills we need to navigate our lives... indeed I would argue
that the skills we need are to be found in philosophy...
to be able to reason out and make a rational argument/decisions
are vital skills to have in life... and the skill to understand
what knowledge is and the limits of knowledge, epistemology is
one such skill that we should be teaching in college/university...
to be able to tell the difference between an opinion and a
belief back by science or logic... now as is known, I am
not a big fan of metaphysics.. and I don't know if we should be
teaching metaphysics, but some basic knowledge is required...
if for no other reason than to open up the minds of the students...
to prepare them for the possibilities that exists in life...
and within those possibilities lie metaphysical content...
and one of my basic questions is this, "what does it mean to be human?"
and that is a metaphysical question...
one of the basic things we should be teaching is how to expand one
understanding... our current teaching is to limit thinking and what we should
be doing is to opening people's minds to other possibilities...
my brother went to the University of Chicago grad school in economics,
one of the premier, if not the premier schools of economics.. (this was in
the 1980's) and he spent a couple of years there and at no point, did
they teach anything about Marxist economics... he would call me
and ask me about Marxist economics because they didn't teach it
there...how can they teach economics and not talk about Marxist
economics? even if it is wrong, they should have at least discussed it...
and that is how education is used to limit our thinking...
by what it teaches or doesn't teach..
another example is how they teach Nietzsche... for some, he was
just some crazy person and his philosophy was not worth studying,
but it is valuable.. but you wouldn't know it from the teaching of
some universities... and that is the point of education.....
to open up possibilities.. not to close the mind to possibilities...
In a very real sense, education is really about the teaching of
the biases and prejudice of that society/state....but for me,
education is not about the teaching of biases or prejudice,
but about overcoming those biases and prejudice...
the bias that America is the greatest country on earth is not
what we should be teaching, but how to overcome that bias
and prejudice... in order to have a clearer understanding of
of what is truth or reality... or as Nietzsche wrote...
"it is not enough to have the courage of our convictions,
but the courage for an attack upon our convictions"
and that is what education should be about...
to work out our convictions, not to confirm them or
establish our convictions, but to lead us to what our
convictions really should be... or to say this another way,
education or real education is about overcoming our
biases and prejudice that we were taught since childhood...
and by doing so, leading us to the convictions that we
actually hold, not the convictions that we were indoctrinated with...
that is the real value of education... to be able to work out what
we really believe and hold to be true/reality...
and schooling should be about that, instead of vocational training...
Kropotkin
crisis, is a lack of education... IQ45 has said that:
"I love the uneducated" and the reasons are simple enough...
they lack the skills and knowledge to make sense of an argument..
they are easily fooled by sincere but fake arguments about,
well about anything.... they are unable to tell what is a nonsense
argument from a well thought out reasoned argument...
and example of this is the nonsense argument that IQ45 won the
2020 election... he didn't... by all accounts including GOP
sources, that this last presidential election was the
most secure election in this nations history... but the
MAGA crowd is unable to reason this out.... and why is this?
I will work out some reasons for this lack of ability to reason
out arguments... one of the basic problems that our educational
system has failed is simple, it doesn't do what it ought to do...
that is the point of education is to be educated... and schools
don't do that anymore... virtually all public schooling is engaged
in vocational training... teaching children skills to get a job, or train
for a career, but that is not education...one of the primary ways our
educational system has failed is because it is focused on the wrong thing....
all collages do these days is job training... how do get a job in the field of
your choice... read a blurb from a collage or university these days and it
talks about what degrees one can get to gain that job or career...
it doesn't talk about learning life skills or becoming educated...
the university has become vocational training place, nothing more...
and that is not the point of being educated...
and that type of education is, well useless....
think about it..... most people who go to college don't have
a job in the field they majored in.. it is rare that people actually
work in the field they majored in... and if that is the case, then
why spend 4 or more years, studying to be a teacher, for example,
if they are likely to not be in teaching in 10 years?
job skills are really not that hard to learn... now even the professions,
doctor, lawyer, etc, those skills are harder to learn, but even there,
quite often those in train in those skills wind up working in
other careers... (and it should be hard to become a doctor or engineer
but most jobs/careers don't require those skills set)
look at how often people change jobs, even careers in mid life...
I have had several quite different jobs/careers in my life..
and I am by no means unusual...so given all this, what should
education look like?
The ''educated" person should have more rounded skills, not just
skills to get a job, but skills that allow them to make informed
decisions... to be participants in a democratic society...
the skills to make rational arguments for or against something..
an educated person should know some basic history and have some
knowledge about science and literature and the ARTS, and have
the ability to discover how to get knowledge if needed...
which leads me to the second point which is technology....
we have "smart" phones that have knowledge within them...
so, what incentive do I have to study history or science
if I can just look something up on my phone?
I have seen many, many people make arguments by simple posting YouTube
videos... and the rebuttals are done by YouTube videos.. that isn't a reasoned,
well thought out argument... that is just laziness... and the inability
to even make reasoned, well thought out arguments...
and if you can't even make a reasoned argument, how can you spot
an argument that isn't reasoned or well thought out? You can't....
The skills we need to be teaching are not skills to get a job, but
skills we need to navigate our lives... indeed I would argue
that the skills we need are to be found in philosophy...
to be able to reason out and make a rational argument/decisions
are vital skills to have in life... and the skill to understand
what knowledge is and the limits of knowledge, epistemology is
one such skill that we should be teaching in college/university...
to be able to tell the difference between an opinion and a
belief back by science or logic... now as is known, I am
not a big fan of metaphysics.. and I don't know if we should be
teaching metaphysics, but some basic knowledge is required...
if for no other reason than to open up the minds of the students...
to prepare them for the possibilities that exists in life...
and within those possibilities lie metaphysical content...
and one of my basic questions is this, "what does it mean to be human?"
and that is a metaphysical question...
one of the basic things we should be teaching is how to expand one
understanding... our current teaching is to limit thinking and what we should
be doing is to opening people's minds to other possibilities...
my brother went to the University of Chicago grad school in economics,
one of the premier, if not the premier schools of economics.. (this was in
the 1980's) and he spent a couple of years there and at no point, did
they teach anything about Marxist economics... he would call me
and ask me about Marxist economics because they didn't teach it
there...how can they teach economics and not talk about Marxist
economics? even if it is wrong, they should have at least discussed it...
and that is how education is used to limit our thinking...
by what it teaches or doesn't teach..
another example is how they teach Nietzsche... for some, he was
just some crazy person and his philosophy was not worth studying,
but it is valuable.. but you wouldn't know it from the teaching of
some universities... and that is the point of education.....
to open up possibilities.. not to close the mind to possibilities...
In a very real sense, education is really about the teaching of
the biases and prejudice of that society/state....but for me,
education is not about the teaching of biases or prejudice,
but about overcoming those biases and prejudice...
the bias that America is the greatest country on earth is not
what we should be teaching, but how to overcome that bias
and prejudice... in order to have a clearer understanding of
of what is truth or reality... or as Nietzsche wrote...
"it is not enough to have the courage of our convictions,
but the courage for an attack upon our convictions"
and that is what education should be about...
to work out our convictions, not to confirm them or
establish our convictions, but to lead us to what our
convictions really should be... or to say this another way,
education or real education is about overcoming our
biases and prejudice that we were taught since childhood...
and by doing so, leading us to the convictions that we
actually hold, not the convictions that we were indoctrinated with...
that is the real value of education... to be able to work out what
we really believe and hold to be true/reality...
and schooling should be about that, instead of vocational training...
Kropotkin