Edu INDEX: EVERYTHING GOOD AND EVERYTHING BAD IS BORN IN THE SCHOOLS

We say that it comes from the history of our past, and from our upbringing through our parents and peers, but it is the schools that reinforce it all, and put their own indelible stamp on it.

[I’ll amend the title to acknowledge in antiquity there were no schools. There was religion and superstition, and of course beliefs were passed on by ruthless social pressure. what is the nature of these linguistic systems?]

I’ll use Berea College in Kentucky as the icon for the master INDEX.

I have collected a lot of reading on education in America, but I have never really immersed myself in it, always postponing. Of course it is the primary root interest about every other thing. In that sense, without a grounding in the state of our education, and the apparent options, ALL other inquiries (about anything), are shallow and lacking understanding. Without further comprehension we seek to blame a villain for all of our predicaments. But it is really us, and our own non-involvement.

Actually I have a ton of material. It is a very big work, maybe a year??? We'll see if I can sustain it. My plan is not to ship books to you, nor provide links. I hope to read them (they’re excerpts or chapters, not the whole book), and give you an overview. Later, if people begin to adhere to this thread, I may pass chapters and let you review them too. (So far I am giving links to the material too.)

There are a lot of issues, and each one has its proponents, and their reasoning, and its detractors, and their reasoning. It is going to have to be us that must sort it out, and determine what could be an improvement. I will be trying to come up with balanced views.

So far I have quickly put in a “pad” of initial posts. These were the easy ones developed in the past, but that will slow down. Please open this Edu 6. and you’ll see what it is all about. Also Edu 1. turn your thinking upside-down.

__________________

THIS ONE really must not be missed. It is a theory of learning based on decades of experience. It says anyone, regardless of background, can learn most anything, that “talent” and aptitude take a back seat. But it takes an environment that doesn’t squash them.