Time of the Preacher

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

What's Wrong With Our Education System- Part II

Back in the “good old days” of western civilization, once a kid learned to read and write (in English, German, Spanish or whatever) the rest of his formal education would consist of studying Latin, History, philosophers, and religious teachers. Classical Education. None of this stuff was meant to lead him into his career as our secondary and higher education attempts to do today. Life experience, parents, reading, and apprenticeships did that. Instead his education was designed to teach him to think, research, discipline himself, develop ethics and an understanding of the events of history that lead to the current state of the affairs of the world. I do believe that it is still possible for a kid to go through the public school system and get a great education. Some of the elements of a classical education are still there, but without an understanding of the wherefores.
Let’s use the research paper as an example. Most kids are still required to do them in high school and in college. I believe the original intent of the assignment of research papers was not only to make students miserable, but also to develop curiosity and the ability to find the answers to things that puzzle them. It was about learning how to learn.
Yes, many teachers teach to test these days. Unfortunately, even when teachers aren’t teaching to test, most of our students are learning for the test, or memorizing what they need to get a good grade, but failing to grasp concepts and an understanding that what they are learning should be retained and can and should be used “in real life.” (To me, this explains how we ended up with President O’Bama.)
I’m thankful that my mother bought a set of encyclopedias for our home when we were kids. I was fortunate enough to have parents and teachers who said, “Look it up,” when I had questions about various things. This is where the previous post about canola oil ties in. How many people not only don’t know where canola oil comes from, but have had no curiosity about it? How many people get their news from Conan O’Brian or Letterman’s monologue? Do you know why a Ponzi scheme is called a Ponzi scheme?
Relative to the whole of human history, compulsory education is still a pretty new idea. While I do believe that every child in our society should be given the opportunity to learn to read and write, beyond that I say let each family give direction and let the individual decide what he will pursue. But what I say doesn’t usually affect TEA or my local ISD. So if we must have compulsory education and continue to tell everyone that he should go to college, I’d like to see our kids learning more than multiculturalmumbojumbo, completely filling bubbles with #2 lead, and self-esteem. I’d like to see them learning how to learn. Let’s teach them to be teachable.

I’d like comments from those of you who are teachers or teachers of teachers. You are the pros. I just drive trains and have opinions.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

What's Wrong With Our Education System-Part I

In case you’ve ever wondered…..

Some men take a lot of pride in grilling and/or barbecuing. I don’t. I’ve never cooked a steak that was even close to as good as a good steakhouse steak. I do like to fry things though. People who fry debate oils like pit masters debate charcoal, gas, hickory, and mesquite. Well, near the top of my list of oils is canola. Do you know what a canola is? I always wondered, but could never find out.

I went to England in 2001 and saw vast fields of bright yellow. I asked someone what it was and they said rape weed. “Rape?” I asked. “Yeah, rape.” he said. I asked what they did with it and was told that it was for canola oil. My question had finally been answered and relief spread over that sore spot on my brain, but it was soon replaced with another question…..If that’s rape, then what’s a canola?
A couple of days ago, the “What’s a canola?” question was bothering me again so I decided to Google it on my internets. It turns out than canola oil does come from rape seed, but rapeseed oil was always too acidic to be of much use and was very unhealthy, even toxic. Then this bunch of Canadians developed a low-acid breed of rape and began to market it. As you can imagine, rape oil didn’t sell very well. So they renamed it, Canadian oil, low-acid.

There's no such thing as a canola. It was just about marketing.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

New Job!

A dear friend in Amarillo has an adventure with toe nails. While I was in Amarillo she taught me how and I am beginning my business in Temple. What do you think of the toes below?(I have done a few more, but they are on my cousins camera) Would you be interested?