New Parents
How an ER doctor became a primary care doctor, and developed a talk for new parents.
Intellectual Abuse
Educational Darwinism, Educational Eugenics
When a major researchers suggests that teachers and schools contribute very little to education, and that genetics is the major factor, what are we to make of such information?
Are we simply going to throw some children away?
Busted Paradigms: Why Education Doesn’t Work
There is growing evidence that our brightest students don’t remember the most basic things they have studied, and that they are disconnected from the most general current events. When these ideas emerge, many people complain that schools, students, and parents aren’t doing their jobs.
What if they are doing their jobs?
Critical Thinking as a Teachable Skill
The world is changing rapidly – politically, socially, technologically – and we have repeatedly considered here how we are ill-equipped to deal with it. One of the major problems blocking progress is one of authority vs critical thinking. All of us, professionals included, often defer to authority without critically thinking about the complexities of a … [Read more…]
Scientific Fundamentalism
It is interesting that scientists rail against Christian fundamentalists, because so many scientists are equally fundamentalist about their own disciplines. Let us begin with examples, data; let us use science against the scientist. I have previously mentioned Bernard Barber’s paper, ‘Resistance by Scientists to Scientific Discovery‘, and Thomas Kuhn’s slender but essential – and largely … [Read more…]
Education vs Training
Workforce development is a big buzzword in education. We should, business and government leaders insist, invest education dollars in training workers for the marketplace, so that they may grow our economy, our nation, and our way of life. Oh, and also grow their pocketbooks. It’s no coincidence that many proponents of workforce development are executives. … [Read more…]
Sabotaging Children
We have been looking at how our educational paradigms are outmoded, and how they keep our children far below their potential. The fact is, education is designed to hamstring our children. People in the past simply could not afford to fully educate children. We have been covering the groundwork for this discussion over some time. … [Read more…]
First Day of Kindergarten
On the first day of kindergarten, two groups of children show up for class: those who have been read to, and who have become comfortable around books. And those who have not. One of the worst things we do in our schools is that we throw these two groups of children into the same classroom; … [Read more…]
Non-Learners
Some kids just don’t want to learn.” I was talking with an education bureaucrat a few years ago, discussing the problems in education and how we might approach them differently, when this comment popped out of her mouth. A few days later I was talking to a young man, maybe 12, who was struggling in … [Read more…]
Tailoring Education vs Teaching in a Shoe
There’s this woman I know of, who has too many children. The unfortunate thing, however, is that despite the natural differences among them, she all expects them to perform and master new skills on demand: all at the same time, and at with same level of proficiency.