Theft

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Theft

September 12, 2013 by kmabarrett

Perhaps the greatest cost of wave conflict in America will be paid by the millions of children currently compulsorily enrolled in schools that are attempting to prepare them – and not very successfully at that – for jobs that won’t exist. Call that stealing the future.

— Alvin Toffler
From his book: “Future Shock“

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On This Day In:
2012	Cranky Old Man
2011	A Man’s Got To Know His Limitations

Posted in Politics, Quotes, Science and Learning | Tagged Alvin Toffler, Education, Future Jobs, Future Shock, Quotes, The Politics of Education | 2 Comments

2 Responses

on September 12, 2013 at 6:35 am | Reply hitandrun1964

I have been making noise about this for soooo long. You are absolutely correct. I also think that we need to teach CREATIVITY/ART/HOW TO THINK and we need to stop teaching rule following and being obedient. Arggggg. We don’t need sheep we need crusaders and creative minds working to find new and better ways to solve problems and live. We need different kinds of teachers as well. Teachers are limited in what they can teach by more rules and regulations. We also need teachers who are creative and inventive themselves…teachers who are willing to take risks and never know what the next day will bring. We need to answer kids questions and let them think for themselves and point out different ways to get answers , etc. We need to let kids help teach class, bringing their own experience and ideas to the mix. Oh well, the status quo wants sheep…easy to control citizens who will let someone else decide for them and give them stale candy at the end of the day for being good. Blah.
- on September 12, 2013 at 2:49 pm | Reply kmabarrett
  
  Pls feel free to add links to any of your posts concerning this topic into a reply so it gets associated with this quote.
  
  You should understand, this posting is not a criticism of the public school system as I don’t know of any other way of providing “free” education to the whole of the population. Nor is it an advocacy of “home-schooling”, as I am not convinced “many” parents (or adults) are able to educate their kids to a sufficient “general” level of education. I believe there are exceptions, but I’ve met very few people in the general population who I would want to teach reading and writing, let alone math, science, or history to my children.
  
  I firmly believe that ethical behavior (right and wrong) is best left to family teaching with emphasis by an external education system. I am sure there are adults who are trained teachers (or natural teachers) who can teach some subjects up to a given age level or depth of knowledge, but this is (in my opinion) the rare exception rather than the rule.
  
  The quote is meant to express my reservation about “teaching to tests” and rote memorization as opposed to considered thought, research, reflection, critical thinking (the ability to weigh opposing arguments), and ethics in decision making (applying local / family “norms” to you make your decisions).
  
  This is why I believe while we need “life skills” training in schools – particularly through high school, we should not be emphasizing “one job skill” training over the ability to reason or appreciate the arts.
  
  Many of the people I have worked with (and for) over my lifetime did not go to college, but they are as smart as (or smarter than) me. They simply didn’t have the same “formal educational” opportunities I had.
  
  While I am sure there are “bad” teachers in the public school system, I believe most are well-trained and hard-working professionals.
  
  I am speaking from a very small sample size for home-school teachers. I have met fewer than five such families and (with one exception) all of them were home-schooling for religious reasons and none understood scientific methodology (let alone agreed with it) and I did not feel they were competent to instruct on much beyond simple reading and algebra. I have encountered FAR more well reasoned individuals on the blogosphere who would “seem” to be able to home-school, but I have not met them.
  
  Finally, the above comment is not a criticism of the effort (or result) of the education provided by home-schoolers. By and large, from my experience, their children were well behaved and well mannered. I’m just not convinced their kids were socially adept or educated to be aware of how much religion factored into their specific education.