Thursday, June 23, 2011
Propaganda Trumps Facts When Public Education Is Involved
SEE HERE The government indoctrination centers continue to add propaganda to the curriculum. The proper role of education is to teach people how to think and not what to think. Increasingly our educational system is ignoring that principle and instead indoctrinating students into the latest group think propaganda whether it be global warming, sustainability as consecrated by the U.N.'s Agenda-21, or green socialism, and any of a myriad of other trendy left progressive ideas created primarily to sustain the world wide power grab. Meanwhile the lack of critical thinking skills and the dumbing down of education overall proceeds apace. Only 30% of students with two years of high school algebra can test out of first year algebra when they arrive at college. Only about the same number can write cursive. The importance of writing cursive and clear handwriting is that it gives you the ability to take notes in a lecture format which is the most efficient format for transmitting information. Other formats are more fun, but they convey less information. You're actually supposed to practice what you learned outside of the classroom, not just play patty cake inside the classroom.
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Oh, my. You've been crawling around in my head again. Stop it!
ReplyDeleteCursive is a huge issue for me. When I taught religious ed (for 9 years to 7th - 12th graders), it was the rare kid who could a) write a complete sentence b) do anything other than print (and very poorly) c) knew how to take notes or d) had the faintest idea of what a outline was.
I have been blessed to have been taught by PhD nuns (when nuns weren't practicing reiki and chanting om) for the first 12 years of my education. I'm proud to be a Palmer method girl.
My regret is not learning my shorthand better. My mother took picture perfect shorthand and was always in demand. Word is that people that can take shorthand are still in demand.
I was taught the Palmer method as well and also experimented with calligraphy so I can, when I pay attention, write beautifully and even when I'm not paying attention I write rapidly and clearly. My students can't take notes because they can't write fluidly or well. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteEven sadder is that the educators are using it to demonize lecture and spouting all about "active learning" and while I think there is some benefit in active learning (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_learning) it tends to be time consuming and use classroom contact time inefficiently. It would be better exercised outside the classroom. But we live in the world we have made! It isn't clear to me why a learning style that was typically handled well by a couple of nuns (I was in a gradeschool classroom with 1st through 4th grade taught by a single nun ... when I left the 4th grade I was reading at the 8th grade level because when you finished a reader they just gave you the next one). I think that teacher's unions and bureaucrats have been the death of real education.
I'm going to be doing a rather large posting on education soon (soon in my world means anytime between tomorrow and 2 years from now.)
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