[ExI] my view of education

[Dave Sill]

On Fri, Dec 14, 2018 at 3:15 PM Dan TheBookMan <danust2012 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Dec 14, 2018, at 5:44 AM, Dave Sill <sparge at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Government-run education promotes the government, not too surprisingly.
>
> While I don’t doubt that, I wonder if it’s the biggest factor here. Are
> most people likely to not be loyal Americans or whatever simply because
> they weren’t taught so in school?
>

No, I doubt it's the biggest factor.

> Yeah, they don't teach critical thinking and generally don't reward
>> students questioning their teachings.
>>
> I’m a bit pessimistic if critical thinking and a questioning attitude can
> be taught to kids who aren’t already open to them. And a problem here is
> how general skills are often not applied to specific cases. I believe this
> explains phenomena like someone being for freedom of speech, but then
> supporting speech codes.
>

Oh, I think kids do a great job of learning by example. If they see
critical thinking rewarded, they're motivated to seek the same rewards.

> It's some of both, of course. I think where public K-12 education really
> fails is in teaching life skills like planning, time management, finance,
> decision making, etc.
>
> Most of those skills might be taught on the job rather than in school,
> don’t you think?
>

I'm talking about basic life skills that would help people get jobs. And
what motivation would an employer have to teach these skills?

-Dave
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