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{ 15 comments }
Gee, thanks. Just what I wanted. Another Oxbridge-coated pile of merde from my favorite collectivist maniac.
Except nothing he said seems particularly wrong. :p
Hmm: …if collective education is so great why do home-schooled kids do so much better?
He didn’t exactly come out and give his plan for what the system should be so much as give reasons for why the current one doesn’t work and I think most of those reasons are things we can agree with.
Indeed. I’m surprised at the number of objections. Then again I am not familiar with Robinson’s own political paradigm.
We certainly can agree that a cookie cutter approach to education has not been successful.
Based on articles that I’ve read, the home-schooled kids who are the most successful are those who have been home-schooled in small groups. Parents form groups so that each parent teaches the subject which is his or her specialty. The children thereby receive both personal, individually designed classes and expert teachers.
Interesting! The moral offered at the end of the presentation is that the way education and creativity is done at the corporate level is the right way, while the government schools turn geniuses into morons.
Robinson attempts to make our eduction problems into problems of the influence of big business, but he totally misses the truth. Education problems are based on government solutions: one size fits all, the lowest common denominator, reduced diversity based on the most efficient line, the student is a cost not a resource and so he or she is strictly controlled and directed to minimize cost, arbitrary classification by seniority.
Anyone who has been in a corporate training class knows that students are chosen because of their diverse areas of interest.
“Robinson attempts to make our eduction problems into problems of the influence of big business”
I think he mistakes the direction of causation. It runs both ways, but what do you think an institution that can produce nothing needs most? A host to parasitise upon. Over time the relationship’s become a lot more symbiotic, granted, but it’s funny how leftists can only envision running the other way round.
I don’t understand his final point. So if we made all of these changes, then what? What’s the benefit to society? He rails against the needs of industrialization. Well, what’s this supposed to do? Create students that aren’t useful to industry???
The ultimate question now needs to be, can the government implement these changes on such a grand scale. If they cannot, why should they be given control of our school system?
I think you’re confusing education with politics. Public education has always been about politics. It has never been about education. Public education is one of the most effective political machines ever invented. Do you really think the political elites are going to abandon it simply because it doesn’t provide effective education?
The author has given a nice and entertaining description of the history and present system, but his solutions are just more of the same (i.e., politics).
I recently saw an episode of “Little House on the Prairie”. Contrast the changes in farm technology verses changes in the teaching methodology. On the farm there have been huge increases in productivity. Modern teaching methods have changed very little from the old schoolhouse. The modern education system is about the only institution that has not improved dramatically with improvements in technology.
Apples and oranges, Walt. The scope of the “education system’s” mission has changed dramatically.
The delivery mechanism has evolved in a variety of ways, and the technology, while not at the level of a competitive firm, is still extraordinarily different.
But the purpose now? Babysitting, surrogate parenting, psychological paralysis by analysis, and politics.
And that’s the way the so-called “public” wants it.
Since its purpose IS conformity, compliance and complacency, I’d say it’s a rousing success
When I think back on all the crap I’ve learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall
…Paul Simon
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