[ExI] jarring change

[William Flynn Wallace]

if you read Bryan Caplan's book on education, I'd also wonder if
it matters. One of his theses is that most education is simply
forgotten or has little impact once the degree is achieved.

This reminds me of how many people approach learning and education:
memorizing trivia.   Dan

There are many areas, psych not one of them, that do require extensive rote
memory, though not of trivia - anatomy for one; many science classes.  But
I am not a fan of rote memory, being poor at it.  Would have flunked
anatomy big time.  But here's a couple of thoughts:  things learned tend
not to be forgotten.  Oh if you give them their final from two years ago
they probably will flunk it - some studies have shown that.  But that's not
the point:  the point is that when they have to deal with the thing or
process, it will come back to them when they re-read that material.  (Thus
the theory of open book tests.)  Re-learning is far faster than learning.
A learned person cannot just pull out of his head everything he knows.  He
takes a book off the shelf, reads a few pages, memories come back, and he
can talk expertly about it, or do it if it's a process.  The original
learning was not wasted at all.  To me, a lot of education is about
learning how to learn.   And what you have to learn in the future might not
be anywhere near the same as what you learned in school, but the process of
learning it is.

Do not get me wrong.  I am a strong critic of education at every level, and
teaching trivia is a small part of that.  bill w

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 1:56 PM Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> thOn Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 5:20 PM spike jones via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> > What is the most change-averse institutions in modern society?  John
> Burch Society?  OK sure but mainstream.  Presbyterian church?  Hmmm… warmer
> but still not really mainstream and you might be surprised on their
> attitude toward change.
> >
> > Imagine setting up a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being most
> change-averse and then multiplying by the order of magnitude of people who
> are in some way involved in that.  So… Burch Society is about a 3: a few
> thousand people take that seriously, and Presbyterian, a 5?  OK then.
> >
> > Imagine your change-averse times numbers of people involved in some way,
> and think of who ranks up near the top of that scale.
> >
> > To simplify matters, you can work with just your own country or subset
> of humanity where you know the rules.  I will focus on USA, having no
> expertise outside (haven’t been there or done that (hope to someday (but
> won’t get on a plane or ship (unless they carry me aboard in a wooden
> box.))))
> >
> > OK, see the game?  Number of people (OOM) times change aversity.
> >
> > My highest ranking institution is…
> >
> > Public education in general, the university system in particular.  The
> number of people involved in that is in about the 8 range, with a score I
> estimated for aversion to change around at least 8 or 9, so we are way up
> in the 60 to 70 zone with the product.
> >
> > Commentary to follow, but I want to read what you have to say first.
> >
> > spike
>
> Not that I doubt your conclusion, but I'd like to see how you're
> measuring change here.
>
> One problem I do see here is public education has only existed a short
> time -- basically, in the US since the late 19th century and that's a
> little deceptive since it wasn't that centralized back then and mostly
> became mandatory in the 1930s. So in terms of long-term duration, it
> wouldn't have an institution like, say, the Church of England or the
> Roman Catholic Church beat.
>
> Also, if you read Bryan Caplan's book on education, I'd also wonder if
> it matters. One of his theses is that most education is simply
> forgotten or has little impact once the degree is achieved.
>
> This reminds me of how many people approach learning and education:
> memorizing trivia. As one person online quipped, 'Why do we need to
> know the names of Columbus's ships? Who gives a fuck?' :)
>
> Regards,
>
> Dan
>   Sample my Kindle books via:
> http://www.amazon.com/Dan-Ust/e/B00J6HPX8M/
>
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