Schools turn out educated fools. A diploma is just another brick in the wall, an earned building material.
Didn’t Quayle say “A mind is a terrible thing to have.”?
America has been singing the dirty dumb down political blues for a while now.
I left school when I was 18 and kicked around for a while. I learned a lot that I would not have learned in school. I had the opportunity to spend time with some really smart and interesting people who were not academics. I also ran my own small business for a while. But I always wanted to learn things, and I discovered that there were things I could not learn on my own. So I went back to school, and I had the opportunity not only to learn, but to spend time with some really smart and interesting people who were academics. (Of course no academic is an academic 24 hours a day – except maybe my historical linguistics teacher – but that’s another story.) It’s good to have experience inside school and outside.
As the No Child Left Behind program proved, teaching is seldom left to the teachers. Too many people have things they don’t want children to learn so they get involved.
A child (even me when I was one) is a learning machine, they want to know how and why things work (the why part can drive you crazy, because, sometimes, there is no good reason for the why), but they still learn.
The problem is very, very human: If you bore them you lose them!
It is important important to treach children what they should know, but it is more important just to teach them how to learn, and they will take care of the rest on their own.
Ad hoc, ad loc, quid pro quo…
So little time, so much to know!
Hold on Dr. C! “What fools we mortals be?” I live in the South and can fully appreciate your somewhat redundant admonition (uneducated,ignorant) of a certain demographic of our populace, but dear God man! Or woman, I know not, Doc…to indict all Americans with such vehemence! For the love of all things holy!! You are reading the post of an American man who has hugged Lord Stanley’s cup! (Took some critical thinking skills to be in that position, eh?
lonecat–I absolutely agree with your description of a well rounded education. We certainly need university and academics to learn. The school of hard knocks can be a great learning resource also. I’ve met some publish or perish types in my day who wouldn’t last a farting spell enrolled at Hard Knock U.
Ken! If we were all taught how to learn, our known universe would be Nirvana, Utopia, Perfected, take your pick. What a dream it would be.
Danny-the-Q’s line was “What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is very wasteful. How true that is.”
Not splitting hairs, zeke, it’s just that the original is so much funnier.
My understanding is that the early 60’s was the last real push to teach children how to think rather than simply what to think. By the late 60’s, the Powers that Be learned just how dangerous that was, and it’s an experiment that’s not likely to be repeated soon…
Still, some people manage to learn despite a lack of schooling, and some people manage to learn despite having it.
Wow, thanks for the history/accuracy dial twist, fritzoid. I had a fuzzy about him butchering the classic quote. I do recall Dan had nice hair.
Ah yes, the 60’s…I can still taste the pepper gas inhaled while sprinting away from our Capitol’s broad steps. SDS had just slit open a live pig at the top of the steps outside and I stood towards the bottom of them and stared in a bizarre sort of locked up shock as the blood from the now dead yet twitching pig waterfalled down each and every step. The trance was broken when I got that first hit of gas. Fight or flee had a nano debate and my feet took charge.
Fritz, your final statement about learning is wonderful. Kudos!
Well Doc, You brushed me back a bit, also. My wife says when I point a finger, there’s three pointing right back at me. Honestly, I suppose I’m simply jealous of the magnum super achiever braniacs..at the same time, frustrated that 30% of Americans believe that humans walked with dinosaurs. At times our nation truly appears to be a three ring circus. We are young. And through my love for our nation, I trust we’ll survive our adolescence!
Well your women beat us–will your men?
Hey there fennec, guess your x/y question is answered. By way of comment, I did find my inner woman (sans therapy) and that discovery has helped me survive 27 yrs.of Holy Matrimony–not to mention the conversational ice breaker it can be at social gatherings. Whoops! I said social.
Perpendicular T-bone segue to sign off with– I wonder how many right leaning politicos can sing along with Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”?
Tear gas. That brings back memories. Not of SDS demonstrations (I was far too young for that), but of Basic Training…
I’ve got some fun stories about tear gas, but they’re too long (not to mention irrelevant) to post here. But it’s an experience I’d recommend anyone try ONCE, if you get the opportunity. Now THAT’S educative…
By the way, zeke, I appreciate your Jeremy Hillary Boob (phud) quote, but remember that, while the Boob was kind of unfocused, he was certainly accomplished, and he comes out a winner in the end. Although it isn’t explicit, I’d imagine that he found out what Emerson knew, that a scholar’s obligation is to experience life in its fullness, not merely to observe, document, and comment on it. If nothing else, it provides grist for the mill. Some cultures have valued their intellectuals so highly that they made sure their lofty thoughts weren’t in any way contaminated by real-world application.
The unexamined life is not worth living, but the unlived life is not worth examining.
Hey ahab–yeah, it is refreshing to have back and forth with civility. I can imagine Doc and the northern neighbors are a tad sleep deprived this Monday morn. From start to finish, Canada showed the world what generational decency grows up to become! What an exceptional job their nation did with the winter games…wow.
Well, except for that quick young Penguin getting loose on the ice at the end there…
kennethcwarren64 about 14 years ago
Great Cartoon.
But, isn’t this just Democracy at work? The GOP & DEMS work for the people, and aren’t (thanks to the Supreme Court) these corporations just people?
lonecat about 14 years ago
Howie – I guess the school you graduated from taught you that insults and ad hominem attacks are the best form of argumentation.
Motivemagus about 14 years ago
Good one, Davies. And also Ken.
zekedog55 about 14 years ago
Schools turn out educated fools. A diploma is just another brick in the wall, an earned building material. Didn’t Quayle say “A mind is a terrible thing to have.”? America has been singing the dirty dumb down political blues for a while now.
lonecat about 14 years ago
I left school when I was 18 and kicked around for a while. I learned a lot that I would not have learned in school. I had the opportunity to spend time with some really smart and interesting people who were not academics. I also ran my own small business for a while. But I always wanted to learn things, and I discovered that there were things I could not learn on my own. So I went back to school, and I had the opportunity not only to learn, but to spend time with some really smart and interesting people who were academics. (Of course no academic is an academic 24 hours a day – except maybe my historical linguistics teacher – but that’s another story.) It’s good to have experience inside school and outside.
kennethcwarren64 about 14 years ago
As the No Child Left Behind program proved, teaching is seldom left to the teachers. Too many people have things they don’t want children to learn so they get involved.
A child (even me when I was one) is a learning machine, they want to know how and why things work (the why part can drive you crazy, because, sometimes, there is no good reason for the why), but they still learn.
The problem is very, very human: If you bore them you lose them!
It is important important to treach children what they should know, but it is more important just to teach them how to learn, and they will take care of the rest on their own.
lonecat about 14 years ago
Ken – right on!
lonecat about 14 years ago
Which is better – an educated fool or an uneducated fool? Maybe the rule is “Fool in, fool out.”
zekedog55 about 14 years ago
Ad hoc, ad loc, quid pro quo… So little time, so much to know!
Hold on Dr. C! “What fools we mortals be?” I live in the South and can fully appreciate your somewhat redundant admonition (uneducated,ignorant) of a certain demographic of our populace, but dear God man! Or woman, I know not, Doc…to indict all Americans with such vehemence! For the love of all things holy!! You are reading the post of an American man who has hugged Lord Stanley’s cup! (Took some critical thinking skills to be in that position, eh?
lonecat–I absolutely agree with your description of a well rounded education. We certainly need university and academics to learn. The school of hard knocks can be a great learning resource also. I’ve met some publish or perish types in my day who wouldn’t last a farting spell enrolled at Hard Knock U.
Ken! If we were all taught how to learn, our known universe would be Nirvana, Utopia, Perfected, take your pick. What a dream it would be.
fritzoid Premium Member about 14 years ago
Danny-the-Q’s line was “What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is very wasteful. How true that is.”
Not splitting hairs, zeke, it’s just that the original is so much funnier.
My understanding is that the early 60’s was the last real push to teach children how to think rather than simply what to think. By the late 60’s, the Powers that Be learned just how dangerous that was, and it’s an experiment that’s not likely to be repeated soon…
Still, some people manage to learn despite a lack of schooling, and some people manage to learn despite having it.
zekedog55 about 14 years ago
Wow, thanks for the history/accuracy dial twist, fritzoid. I had a fuzzy about him butchering the classic quote. I do recall Dan had nice hair. Ah yes, the 60’s…I can still taste the pepper gas inhaled while sprinting away from our Capitol’s broad steps. SDS had just slit open a live pig at the top of the steps outside and I stood towards the bottom of them and stared in a bizarre sort of locked up shock as the blood from the now dead yet twitching pig waterfalled down each and every step. The trance was broken when I got that first hit of gas. Fight or flee had a nano debate and my feet took charge. Fritz, your final statement about learning is wonderful. Kudos!
Well Doc, You brushed me back a bit, also. My wife says when I point a finger, there’s three pointing right back at me. Honestly, I suppose I’m simply jealous of the magnum super achiever braniacs..at the same time, frustrated that 30% of Americans believe that humans walked with dinosaurs. At times our nation truly appears to be a three ring circus. We are young. And through my love for our nation, I trust we’ll survive our adolescence! Well your women beat us–will your men?
Hey there fennec, guess your x/y question is answered. By way of comment, I did find my inner woman (sans therapy) and that discovery has helped me survive 27 yrs.of Holy Matrimony–not to mention the conversational ice breaker it can be at social gatherings. Whoops! I said social. Perpendicular T-bone segue to sign off with– I wonder how many right leaning politicos can sing along with Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”?
fritzoid Premium Member about 14 years ago
Tear gas. That brings back memories. Not of SDS demonstrations (I was far too young for that), but of Basic Training…
I’ve got some fun stories about tear gas, but they’re too long (not to mention irrelevant) to post here. But it’s an experience I’d recommend anyone try ONCE, if you get the opportunity. Now THAT’S educative…
By the way, zeke, I appreciate your Jeremy Hillary Boob (phud) quote, but remember that, while the Boob was kind of unfocused, he was certainly accomplished, and he comes out a winner in the end. Although it isn’t explicit, I’d imagine that he found out what Emerson knew, that a scholar’s obligation is to experience life in its fullness, not merely to observe, document, and comment on it. If nothing else, it provides grist for the mill. Some cultures have valued their intellectuals so highly that they made sure their lofty thoughts weren’t in any way contaminated by real-world application.
The unexamined life is not worth living, but the unlived life is not worth examining.
zekedog55 about 14 years ago
Hey ahab–yeah, it is refreshing to have back and forth with civility. I can imagine Doc and the northern neighbors are a tad sleep deprived this Monday morn. From start to finish, Canada showed the world what generational decency grows up to become! What an exceptional job their nation did with the winter games…wow.
Well, except for that quick young Penguin getting loose on the ice at the end there…
zekedog55 about 14 years ago
Yo Doc-Gotta run–check out my Toles/Wall St post.
believecommonsense about 14 years ago
two thumbs up for this enjoyable thread ….