An interview with Glenn Reynolds about his latest book, The New School. Both in audio and transcript.
5 Replies to “The Children Are Our Future”
I don’t believe that the decline in western intelligence/civilization can be blamed solely on the education system. There has to be genetic degradation going on to cause this rapid a decline in the state of homo sapiens. People are REALLY fuggin stupid nowadays.
Yeah! I’ve had it with schools teachin’ kids tolerance and science and stuff! How am I ever going to teach them to be bullying racist, homophobic, science denying morons who believe that the sky ghost will destroy the earth shortly with all that going on?
Chinese Student: “I know Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics”
California Student: “I know Harvey Milk”
Chinese Student: “That’s great, now can I get some fries and extra mustard with that order?”
No dispute at all that education is messed up. In my daughter’s school the kids now mark all their own tests/assignments/exams. Apparently this is a growing trend. Teachers are too lazy to do any marking so just have the kids do it. The kids also pick their own books to read and review, whatever book they want, teacher does not care. Gone are the days when a teacher would help students through one of the challenging classics – that would require work on the part of the teacher, and possibly a brain!
My son comes home with assignments where not a *single* spelling error has been corrected by his teacher. How does a child learn to spell when the teacher will not even correct spelling errors?
Kids do not even know their times table, 9×8 = ???? stumped…..
Math education in particular is now nothing short of a complete and utter disaster.
I keep hearing about how technology will fix this mess (I’m not saying Reynolds is advocating that). I wish something would fix the mess, but I don’t see anything at all on the horizon that gives me any hope at all. Teachers unions and leftist training camps for new teachers are destroying education, and they have a firm grip on the system.
Any government with some guts could fix the problem overnight….but asking the government to fix something is like asking a bum on the street to get a job.
I provided an industry sponsored employment preparation program in local high schools which would give willing and eager students a great shot at post-graduation employment with the program sponsors. These were major industrial companies, not service or food industry employers.
However, teachers would not back up the minimal requirements for participation: neat, interview ready dress, no wearing of hats or use of cell phones during instruction, etc. Kids who chose to enter the program, but unwilling to meet standards were given a couple of opportunities to shape up and if unwilling, were shipped out as an example to other students of what expectations in the real world would be.
Sadly, this didn’t sit well with many teachers, who complained to their principal that students were not being treated fairly and equitably. Thus the well funded and rewarding program was dropped.
Secondarily, I found it interesting that when I went into the high school library to fetch a projection screen, I noted prominent, well posted signs regarding authorized use of library computers – no violent gaming programs allowed. Yet at the end of the school day there were lots of slouching (male) teens engrossed in Grand Theft Auto and first person shooters spraying blood and gray matter, all through the library.
When I asked the head librarian about the policy and it’s apparent ineffectiveness, I was told they would not act without a complaint.
Gotta like that tough love.
I don’t believe that the decline in western intelligence/civilization can be blamed solely on the education system. There has to be genetic degradation going on to cause this rapid a decline in the state of homo sapiens. People are REALLY fuggin stupid nowadays.
Yeah! I’ve had it with schools teachin’ kids tolerance and science and stuff! How am I ever going to teach them to be bullying racist, homophobic, science denying morons who believe that the sky ghost will destroy the earth shortly with all that going on?
Chinese Student: “I know Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics”
California Student: “I know Harvey Milk”
Chinese Student: “That’s great, now can I get some fries and extra mustard with that order?”
No dispute at all that education is messed up. In my daughter’s school the kids now mark all their own tests/assignments/exams. Apparently this is a growing trend. Teachers are too lazy to do any marking so just have the kids do it. The kids also pick their own books to read and review, whatever book they want, teacher does not care. Gone are the days when a teacher would help students through one of the challenging classics – that would require work on the part of the teacher, and possibly a brain!
My son comes home with assignments where not a *single* spelling error has been corrected by his teacher. How does a child learn to spell when the teacher will not even correct spelling errors?
Kids do not even know their times table, 9×8 = ???? stumped…..
Math education in particular is now nothing short of a complete and utter disaster.
I keep hearing about how technology will fix this mess (I’m not saying Reynolds is advocating that). I wish something would fix the mess, but I don’t see anything at all on the horizon that gives me any hope at all. Teachers unions and leftist training camps for new teachers are destroying education, and they have a firm grip on the system.
Any government with some guts could fix the problem overnight….but asking the government to fix something is like asking a bum on the street to get a job.
I provided an industry sponsored employment preparation program in local high schools which would give willing and eager students a great shot at post-graduation employment with the program sponsors. These were major industrial companies, not service or food industry employers.
However, teachers would not back up the minimal requirements for participation: neat, interview ready dress, no wearing of hats or use of cell phones during instruction, etc. Kids who chose to enter the program, but unwilling to meet standards were given a couple of opportunities to shape up and if unwilling, were shipped out as an example to other students of what expectations in the real world would be.
Sadly, this didn’t sit well with many teachers, who complained to their principal that students were not being treated fairly and equitably. Thus the well funded and rewarding program was dropped.
Secondarily, I found it interesting that when I went into the high school library to fetch a projection screen, I noted prominent, well posted signs regarding authorized use of library computers – no violent gaming programs allowed. Yet at the end of the school day there were lots of slouching (male) teens engrossed in Grand Theft Auto and first person shooters spraying blood and gray matter, all through the library.
When I asked the head librarian about the policy and it’s apparent ineffectiveness, I was told they would not act without a complaint.
Gotta like that tough love.