4 ms·

"Government school" is a wonderful example of how snappy terminology short circuits critical thinking. It may be rewarding on some level to assume that every s

"Government school" is a wonderful example of how snappy terminology short circuits critical thinking. It may be rewarding on some level to assume that every school operated by the government is part of a monolithic agenda to turn the nation's youth into unquestioning robots to staff our various production lines. That is simply not true.

rooshdi 14y ago
That is simply not true. Please elaborate.
- R_Edward 14y ago
  I suppose the most compelling reason to disbelieve the sheeple agenda theory is Occam's Razor. Do not attribute malice where incompetence is an adequate explanation. If our high schoolers are generally lacking in critical thinking skills, is it necessarily because millions of bureaucrats occupying several layers of hierarchy are all in lockstep in actively, intentionally making it so? Or is it possible--and more likely--that critical thinking is difficult to do in the first place, and even harder to teach, and anyone who is any good at it in the first place is far more likely to be employable in a setting that is favorable to that of the public schools? I'm not slagging on public schools and teachers! Well, OK, yeah, I suppose I am, at least a little. I know a fair number of teachers. Some of them really like working with kids at that developmental stage, and some of them are really good at motivating their students to achieve. Others don't like the kids, and have become very good at identifying the minimum amount of effort they need to put forth to stay employed. Kind of like almost any other random cluster of professionals.
  - rooshdi 14y ago
    Who are these teachers training their students for? I prefer looking at numbers, and the numbers don't look too fair for employees: http://occupygeorge.com/ http://occupygeorge.com/
barry-cotter 14y ago
An explicit agenda isn't necessary. And when there is an explicit agenda that need not be the only thing taught. It seems extremely unlikely to me that there is any grand conspiracy. There never was, really. All modern school systems of any size are organisationally descended from ones designed to produce good raw material for soldiers[0]. Personally I don't think "government schools" is much more informative than just "schools". For practical purposes all schools with age ranked students do the same job of social control. They train children to do what they're told, reduce or sometimes channel creativity, and inure children to being ranked or judged[1]. There are some exceptions as schools or as philosophies of schooling but they're marginal things like Steiner-Waldorf. [0]http://www.nber.org/papers/w18049 http://www.nber.org/papers/w18049 [1]http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html

rooshdi 14y ago

That is simply not true. Please elaborate.

R_Edward 14y ago
I suppose the most compelling reason to disbelieve the sheeple agenda theory is Occam's Razor. Do not attribute malice where incompetence is an adequate explanation. If our high schoolers are generally lacking in critical thinking skills, is it necessarily because millions of bureaucrats occupying several layers of hierarchy are all in lockstep in actively, intentionally making it so? Or is it possible--and more likely--that critical thinking is difficult to do in the first place, and even harder to teach, and anyone who is any good at it in the first place is far more likely to be employable in a setting that is favorable to that of the public schools? I'm not slagging on public schools and teachers! Well, OK, yeah, I suppose I am, at least a little. I know a fair number of teachers. Some of them really like working with kids at that developmental stage, and some of them are really good at motivating their students to achieve. Others don't like the kids, and have become very good at identifying the minimum amount of effort they need to put forth to stay employed. Kind of like almost any other random cluster of professionals.
- rooshdi 14y ago
  Who are these teachers training their students for? I prefer looking at numbers, and the numbers don't look too fair for employees: http://occupygeorge.com/ http://occupygeorge.com/

barry-cotter 14y ago

An explicit agenda isn't necessary. And when there is an explicit agenda that need not be the only thing taught. It seems extremely unlikely to me that there is any grand conspiracy. There never was, really. All modern school systems of any size are organisationally descended from ones designed to produce good raw material for soldiers[0]. Personally I don't think "government schools" is much more informative than just "schools". For practical purposes all schools with age ranked students do the same job of social control. They train children to do what they're told, reduce or sometimes channel creativity, and inure children to being ranked or judged[1]. There are some exceptions as schools or as philosophies of schooling but they're marginal things like Steiner-Waldorf. [0]http://www.nber.org/papers/w18049 http://www.nber.org/papers/w18049 [1]http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html