The 10 Books Everyone Should Read
What are the 10 books that every well educated person should read? It depends on the definition of ‘well educated’.
Lifelong Learning
Human Genetic Behavior
…And this is why I have foolishly chosen to discuss the taboos of genetic behavior, and ethnic and sexual norms; not to chain people to stereotypes, but to free us all from them. We must recognize our genetic tendencies in order to design around them, and past them; as Bertolt Brecht noted, “When there are obstacles, the shortest distance between two points is a crooked line.”
Artificial Education vs Natural Education
Our choices are artificial education vs natural education: either we force the student to learn; or, curiosity is universal, and only needs encouragement.
Reinventing Wheels
‘No need to reinvent the wheel.’ That was fine for the past. But accelerating progress makes reinventing wheels an absolute imperative.
War on Women, War on Children
The hard right has been waging a War on Women, and their freedoms. It appears they are also waging a War on Children, and their intellectual freedoms.
Zero Tolerance for Education
Zero tolerance for rule-breaking, is zero tolerance for challenging the status quo.
Which is inseparable from intolerance for learning altogether.
Paying it Forward
I want to tell a nice story about myself, not to brag, but in the hope that others might do similar things. I try to head overseas every year or two, and so far my wife and I have been able to do that with our children. It requires some hard choices and some clear … [Read more…]
Openness vs Authority
With the growth of openness, i.e., the Open Source / Open Content culture, if everyone can contribute then what is the meaning of authority?
Educational Abuse
Every child starts with a natural curiosity, but educational abuse destroys it. What if we re-designed education to preserve that curiosity above all else?
Intellectual Abuse in Our Schools
We have begun addressing the problems of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in children, but there is very little consideration of intellectual abuse. A critical insight is that our educational traditions begin in the medieval, when almost all aspects of child treatment were abusive.