| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Roedy Green" |
| Date: |
29 Jan 2004 09:18:12 PM |
| Object: |
Universal Education as Pancea |
"At every turning point in history ther is a dream and some panacea is
seen as the way to implement it. Two hundred years ago, the utopia
was a democratic society, and the panacea was universal education. It
seemed logical that the ills of society were a product of the
ignorance of the majority. If only the masses could be educated and
given a voice, it was urged, man's essential rationality would come
into play and the enlightened populace would create a truly democratic
utopia. This was the vision of Locke and Jefferson. Popular
education became a fact, and the masses -- no longer illiterate or
grossly ignorant -- failed to create utopia. The ultimate
disillusionment came when the most highly educated nation of the day
followed Hitler into the Third German Reich. The panacea had been
applied, and what ensued was hardly utopia."
~ Snell & Gail Putney in The Adjusted American
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060900954/canadianmindprod
Why did it fail?
What we call education today is quite different from what Jefferson
would have received from his tutors.
Education today means:
1. sitting still quietly for long periods of time.
2. answering multiple choice questions in a way that reflects the
teacher's/state's prejudice.
3. not rebelling against many arbitrary rules.
4. memorising reams of unrelated facts.
Education usually turns off curiosity, evidenced by the fact most
Americans never read another book once they leave school.
--
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
Coaching, problem solving, economical contract programming.
See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html for The Java Glossary.
.
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