Why Write an Essay?

I have spent years writing on a variety of topics and posting that here or my previous blog.  Mostly, this is for my own edification; I have limited readership.  With that in mind, has it just been a waste of my time?  Could I have spent all those hours doing something more productive?  Then again, this YouTuber argues that I'm using the best learning tool in history.

Yes, it is a great way to learn.  I have found that my recall on the subjects where I have written is much better than those where I have not.  From experience, I'd have to say that Python Programmer is absolutely correct.  Write essays to learn.  Recommended. 

Russ Roberts on Education

"The ideal education is less of a focus on information, and more on open inquiry; less worry about the right answers, and more concern for asking the right questions."

Russ Roberts

Russ Roberts, President of Shalem College in Jerusalem, was interviewed by Alex Aragona of The Curious Task podcast on the topic of education.  It was made available on EconTalk as well.  Where most of EconTalk is a back and forth discussion, this was question and answer.  Russ provides thoughtful answers and in-depth analysis regarding his views on education.  Too often in the modern world, education is somewhat passive as the student sits through a lecture and then takes a test.  He notably asks, "...of all the things you know, how many of them came from school?"  He admits that all his knowledge of calculus came from school, but most of what he knows has come from other sources, notably conversations.  Another interesting point was that a liberal education provides self-examination.

"If you don't study history and you don't study culture and you don't study literature and you don't study ideas, you won't understand how you came to be who you are."

This is an important insight.  A person is more than their genes.  Parents, country, culture, religion, and so forth have a profound impact on what you can achieve.  Not surprisingly, he quotes Socrates famous line, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

Here is a deep dive into what it means to be educated and why it's important.  This covers some of the same ground as a recent discussion with Pano Kanelos, which makes a good companion for this episode.

A Liberal Education

Russ interviewed Pano Kanelos, the President of St. John's College, notably about the future of education and why a liberal education is important.  Russ has recently moved to Israel to become President of Shalem College.  The two discuss why a liberal education has fallen in esteem in recent decades and why they think it is perhaps the most important aspect of education.  St. John's, which is one of the oldest colleges in the United States (established 1696), bases its curriculum on the Great Books.  Too much of modern education is providing technical skills of a particular field (engineering, computer science, etc.), which is more in line with practical trades rather than higher learning.  Both Roberts and Kanelos hold that education should produce thoughtful people rather than a barcoded product with specific knowledge on narrow subjects.  Kanelos says that "education is not the acquisition of knowledge.  It's the acquisition of wisdom."  Precisely.

An excellent discussion with thoughts on why the humanities have been in decline for decades and how that trend might be reversed.  As one who pursued a liberal education, I wish them luck.

Texas Book Ban

Considering how I rail against censorship, I must surely be opposed to removing books from school libraries.  Not so much.  I went through the list of books that NBC detailed.  Most of them are about sexuality and race.  Mostly sexuality.  Now, I would be absolutely opposed to these books being delisted from Amazon, but I don't know that they are appropriate for primary and secondary education.  What is it we want from K-12 education?  

ThoughtCo proposes the following 7 goals:

1. Knowledge to Get By.  This is the core reading, writing, and arithmetic.

2. Knowledge of Subject Matter Being Taught: I have no idea what the person is talking about here.  This seems like advice for the teacher not to get hyper-focused on one subject.  Studetns should be well-rounded.

3. Creating Thoughtful Citizens: Though the paragraph detailing this is vague to the extreme, this is about critical thinking, knowing how to reason.

4. Self-Esteem and Confidence: Self-explanatory and would resolve itself if points 1 and 2 were successful.

5. Learn How to Learn: I forget where I heard it, but the sign of an education person is that they know where to look up information.  Google has made this much easier.

6. Lifelong Habits for Work: This is the socialization aspect.  Dress and behave appropriately, be on time, and so forth.

7. Teach Students How to Live: Another aspect of socialization, such as proper work ettiquette, cooperation, teamwork, etc.

Will the listed books help in any of these areas?  Maybe self-esteem, which really ought not be on the list.  Self-esteem or confidence without actual knowledge or accomplishment is just delusion.  Little Billy has no ability in math, but let's not damage his self-esteem by giving him grades that show his inability.  Huh?  I am concerned about the ability to communicate this person provided.  Let's try a different site.

The Educator's Room also has 7 goals:

1. To have the basic skills needed to build upon to accomplish whatever task or job is assigned in the future:  Sigh.  Neither brief nor clear.  However, the description is math and language arts are needed for workers of the future.

2. To be a critical thinker: That's better.  Yes, we want people who think rather than feel.  Someone who can analyze information.

3. To be able to troubleshoot or strategize: This is more critical thinking and specifies logical steps to solve problems.  She calls it horse sense.

4. To be a moral person: Ooh, here is a dangerous one.  This fits into socialization.  Kids learn what constitutes good behavior vs. bad behavior.  I would have stated the goal with more secular language.

5. To be a good citizen: Another facet of socialization, this is learning civics, understanding law, and so forth.

6. To have enough interests to be able to have not only a job but outside passions as well: This is about making a person well-rounded.  This is why we have music, art, dance, sports, and other electives in school.

7. To be happy: Self-explanatory and questionable.  This looks like a version of the self-esteem goal from the last one.

A lot of these look repetitive and unclear.  Who writes this stuff?  Let's see what Forbes has to say on the topic:

1. To prepare children for citizenship

2. To cultivate a skilled workforce

3. To teach cultural literacy

4. To help students become critical thinkers

5. To help students compete in a global marketplace

I like this list.  All the goals are so self-explanatory that no detailed description is provided.  I also appreciate that there is no talk of self-esteem or happiness.  If we could teach happiness, we wouldn't have school shooters.  If we could instill self-esteem, we wouldn't have teen suicide.  Dump these nonsense unattainable 'goals' and stick to the concrete stuff.

Back to the books that are proposed for banning: do they help any of the goals?  Are the sex exploits of a gay 17-year-old student a worthwhile book?  Books with rape and pedophilia may provide cultural literacy, but shouldn't that be something for outside of school?  Many of these books might be okay for high school, but I fear they are populating elementary shelves, where they do not belong.

Ignorant by Design

Americans don't know their rights and that's no accident.  A recent survey showed that 40% of respondents could not identify even one freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.  Ignorant people are more easily led, misled, or cheated.  If you know nothing about cars, an unscrupulous mechanic will sell you blinker fluid.  If you know nothing of economics, you might be convinced that a $15 minimum wage won't lead to higher unemployment.  If you know nothing of the Constitution, you might accept that Freedom of Speech can be limited when it is 'hate' speech.

 

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people

John Adams

 

Educate and inform the whole mass of people.  They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of liberty.

Thomas Jefferson

 

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

George Orwell

 

Ignorant people can be easily molded.  An astonishing number of young people have embraced socialism, utterly oblivious that it always fails and leads to mass poverty like we see in Venezuela.  The government education system has gutted history and civics.  This survey shows the level of 'success' that has been achieved in producing misinformed citizens who don't know they are being taken for a ride.

Ignorant by Design

According to this survey, Americans are clueless about the 1st Amendment and the three branches of the government.  Virtually the first things you learn about the federal government in even the most basic civics class and near 40% are unaware.  This is intentional.  The education system is run by government, for government.  Government, especially one that craves money and power, will benefit if the citizens don't know when government is overstepping.  Government is spending more money on education than ever and yet the level of ignorance is jaw-dropping.  That is not an accident.

 

Abolish public education and watch ignorance evaporate.  When parents are given back their tax dollars and get to pick from among competing schools, schools will rapidly improve.  Imagine a Yelp for schools in which hundreds of parents or older students offer reviews.  Mobile phones haven't seen astonishing improvement because of an overarching government agency and schools won't either.  Let's use the iPhone/Android competition model to improve our schools rather than the one-size-fits-all government model that has achieved decades of mediocrity.

When Harassing a Woman is Appropriate?

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos tried to go to a DC school today but a crowd of protestors blocked the entrance and then started berating her as she retreated to her vehicle.  One cried 'Shame' repeatedly like he was playing a scene out of Game of Thrones.  Even after she was in the car and attempting to drive away, the successful 'shamer' stepped in front of the vehicle to once again inflict his sign on the secretary.

 

Having exhausted the legitimate means of defeating Betsy DeVos, her opponents are now resorting to illegitimate means.  Most times, a man harassing a woman in this manner would be yet another sign of the War on Women but the problem is that the woman is Republican and the protestor is presumably a Democrat.  As we have seen with Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, Kellyanne Conway, Ivanka Trump, Condoleezza Rice, and other Republican women, it is entirely appropriate to attack and harass them.  Really, they don't count as women.

Getting Rid of Secretary DeVos

Betsy DeVos won confirmation today on the barest of margins.  In fact, prior to Harry Reid's nixing the filibuster, there is no way she could have been confirmed.  One must always consider that the other side is going to benefit from such innovations.  Ms. DeVos is noted for championing charter schools and vouchers as an alternative to the demonstrably mediocre public school system.  This is a threat to teachers' unions throughout the country.  With all efforts to stop her from getting the job having failed, maybe now is the time to really go nuclear: Abolish the Department of Education.

Today, Thomas Massie of Kentucky proposed a bill that would shutter the Department of Education on December 31, 2018.  Created in 1980, US students have seen gains in math but losses in verbal skills.  SAT scores were 502/492 when DOE began and rose all the way to 494/508.  That's below the 1972 scores of 530/509, which predate DOE.  It is a money pit, like most federal departments.  Though the intentions were great, the results don't justify the cost.  Let's close up shop and say good bye to Secretary DeVos!  I approve this method of removing Ms. DeVos from government.

Killing Terrorism

Seen on Facebook:

With guns, you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism.

Malala Yousafzai

 

Wow, that sounds deep.  For those not in the know, Malala is a Nobel Peace Prize winner.  She had been outspoken in favor of education rights in 2008, which she was only 11.  By the time she was 15, she had become famous among Westerners but infamous among Taliban-supporters.  Living in Pakistan made her a target.  She was shot in the face in 2012 but survived to continue to call for education rights.  She is a truly extraordinary person and I wish her well.  However, her claim is demonstrably false.

Khalid Sheik Muhammad - one of the major figures in the 9/11 attack - has a BS in Mechanical Engineering (earned in North Carolina!).  Osama Bin Laden had at least a couple years of college where he studied civil engineering or public administration.  Muhammad Atta - who flew into the twin towers - had a degree in architecture.  Ayman al-Zawahiri - current leader of al-Qaeda - is a surgeon. Omar Abdel Rahman (the blind sheikh who instigated the 1993 bombing of the twin towers) is a Doctor of Theology. Nidal Hasan - the Fort Hood Shooter - has a BS in Biochemistry and an MD.  Syed Farook - the San Bernadino shooter - had a bachelor's degree in environmental health.  His wife, Tashfeen Malik, had a pharmacology degree.  Omar Mateen - the Orlando shooter - had an associates degree in Criminal Justice, of all things.

 

These are not uneducated bumpkins with no better options than to kill themselves and others in the name of Allah.  Each could have had a bright future by Western standards.  Maybe they didn't get the education that Malala thinks would kill terrorism.  The only education that is going to do that is to teach them that Islam is an evil religion.  Indeed, every Islamic terrorist can give a solid argument for their actions by quoting the Koran or the Hadith.  It should be noted that the Koran is the word of Allah while the Hadith is Muhammad's interpretation of the Koran.  Of course, it is utterly unthinkable that one could teach against Islam in Muslim countries.  To do so is to court imprisonment or death.

 

The Religion of Peace website has an instructive graphic: Ramadan Bombathon 2016.  It shows how many people have been killed in the name of religion or by Islamaphobes.  So far, Islam is in the lead with 220 attacks and 1573 deaths.  All other religions combined come in a distant second of 0 attacks and 0 deaths.  Islamophobes also had 0 attacks for 0 deaths.  Huh.

 

All right, so we've tossed education as a way to stop terrorism.  What other alternatives might we have?  Sadly, the only way to stop people willing to detonate themselves is to kill them before they get the chance.  Oh, but that is SO politically incorrect as to be hate speech.  Terrorism must become so counterproductive that the terrorists abandon it.  But it is part of their religion.  That's a really tough nut to crack.  First, much like we did with Communism, we should contain Islam.  Where it spreads, rape, murder, and explosions follow.  Yes, containment.  Conversion.  Oh, that is really, really politically incorrect!  Unlike Fascism, Nazism, Communism, and other evil ideologies, Islam is integrated into a religion.  This makes it a particularly nasty ideology when coming against Western tolerance of religious belief.  Abridge the 1st Amendment freedom of religion or suffer more Fort Hoods, Orlandos, and San Bernardinos?  There are many reasons why the War on Terror has been so hard to win.

 

Of course, my prescriptions are irrelevant.  No Western nation will implement them.  Islam is most likely going to find Russia or China as their main foe.  These countries are not constrained by Western values and will pulverize Muslim countries when given enough cause to do so.  Whether Clinton or Trump wins, the US is going to mostly leave the Middle East to stew, perhaps offering some bombing to satisfy the hawks.

Here is David Wood also blasting the "Education prevents terrorism" myth.  He provides excellent sourcing for why Islam is the cause of terrorism.

Ignorant by Design

George Korda has an article where he discusses the basic historical knowledge of American students, offering some data on middle school students to college seniors.  The results are terrible.  Here is an excerpt:

In 2000, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that seniors from America’s colleges and universities were graduating with, "alarming ignorance of their heritage and a profound historical illiteracy…four out of five—81%—of seniors recently surveyed from the top 55 colleges and universities in the United States received a grade of D or F on history questions drawn from a basic high school curriculum…Seniors could not identify Valley Forge, words from the Gettysburg Address, or even the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution.

Korda goes on to say that people ignorant of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and such are much less likely to squawk if the principals therein are not observed.

This ignorance is no mistake.  It is intentional.  Most schools are run by governments.  Governments prefer docile and obedient peasants.  It makes exercising power so much easier when the people nod numbly rather than fighting a tyrannical government.  Governments are making moves against homeschoolers because it both threatens a state client - teachers unions - and a state interest - students inculcated with state-supported ideology.  Look at how many young people are in favor of Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist.  A government-funded school is unlikely to teach students about the immense distrust that the Founders felt toward government.

 

Is this a conspiracy?  No.  This is the invisible hand of the market, much like Adam Smith explained.  Politicians, bureaucrats, and government employees who run and populate the school systems innately know that they should not produce citizens who are inclined to oppose those very politicians, bureaucrats, and government employees.  Instead we have seen a gradual embrace of more and more government control.

 

1913 Income Tax

1935 Social Security

1935 Welfare

1938 Minimum Wage

1946 School Lunch Program

1964 Food Stamp Act

1965 Medicare

1967 State-run Media (Corporation for Public Broadcasting)

2003 Medicare Drug Benefit

2010 National Healthcare (Affordable Care Act)

 

These are only some highlights.  It would require a very long list to mention all the ways government has taken over aspects of life that were once the responsibility of the individual or the family.  The process will not end until the government controls everything.  The uninformed graduates of government schools are all in favor of this, unaware that it contradicts the founding principles of the nation.

Terrifying Ignorance

The following link worries me.  How one can be in college and not know this stuff is baffling.  Interesting that they all knew the pop culture questions.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/11/completely-clueless-week-at-college-insurrection/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LegalInsurrection+%28Le%C2%B7gal+In%C2%B7sur%C2%B7rec%C2%B7tion%29