On Oct 8, 2013 8:21 PM, "Scott McEachern" <sc...@blackstaff.ca> wrote: > > On 10/08/13 22:44, Benjamin Heath wrote: >> But that's just it, isn't it? People are naive. They go to public schools >> where they are taught to accept what is popular and reject all else, and >> that's where much of it starts. Computers must run Windows. If you want to >> be different, buy a Mac. Programs must be big and graphical with plenty of >> room for error. Why have it any other way? > > > So far as I understand it, kids often aren't being taught the course material. They're being "taught the test". That is, the standardized evaluation tests for each subject. It inflates test scores to "acceptable" limits. > > The ability to think, critically, isn't being taught at all. You have kids walking out of school thinking crap like "Intelligent Design" is plausible, and that the earth really is only 6000 years old. Darwin's ideas are "just theories", but fail to realize gravity is "just a theory" too. Stand on a 10th floor balcony, and test out that "just a theory". > > Why would kids do such silly things as read books, when they have summarized versions online that they can skim over while they're waiting for their tweet/facebook update to be replied to. After all, it is the most profound 130 character message ever written.
It isn't only the course material or the testing material, but I'd argue that public school itself is a critical time in which a young human being learns to desire what's popular, and to desire to be popular. (Look, I'm a geek, and things like The Big Bang Theory on CBS make me cringe.) But the lack of critical thinking in this issue leads to a lot of confused kids who then graduate and are soon called legal adults if they aren't already. And then what? Inattention, apathy, acceptance, mediocrity, and that's how the toad boils. It's also quite interesting that there are more books and other documents on this planet than ever before, more people know the basics of how to read and write than ever before, and yet the interest is shot down by lack of attention, for whichever reason.
