Gov't, Gov't What Have You Done?
| 25 February 2011
I am so tired of Gov't. Out there blaming this, blaming that, not working!! Going to the press, talking crazy. Did you see the Kadfi speeches, it's incredible. I feel like we have outgrown these little boys. Could we really do that? I don't think so, we will need gov't for a long time, but definitely it has to change. We have outgrown the need for someone to represent us in making decisions, that I think is what stands out. The advent of the internet is the symbol of what has changed. We know things now more quickly than our fearless leaders. We are more educated than we have ever been. Yes, there are some problems with uneducated people, but for heaven sakes have you watched our leaders fumble around trying to get a message out, it's embarrassing. I am not talking about political differences, they are all getting further and further behind us!
Our country was set up with the idea that it took awhile to get messages out, money around, etc. and that is why we needed a representative democracy. Now the gov't spends most of its time playing politics which in laymen's terms means trying to stay in office. Look at the state of education, blame everybody else but for heaven's sake save the jobs. No, save the minds of the children. Even this can be changed. Parents could take it out of the bureaucracies hands. Most of elementary education is facts to be memorized and those facts are on the internet (or in the library if you are old fashioned). The point is we have the power in our hands to teach a superior elementary education right in our own homes.
I would like to see a curriculum like this:
Reading--44 sounds and 26 letters who can't memorize that? If you say what about comprehension? Well when children learn to speak, do they 'understand' everything that is said? Of course not, but they can speak it. Why can't reading be that way? Learn to read first. Then pick up books and go at it.
Language--Learn at least one other language than your natal one. This one is easy, take the child to someone who speaks another language. Turns out it doesn't matter which one, just get that second one in. So if it's an obscure dialect no longer spoken much (in other words not the most helpful in terms of future use) it still sets the brain up. Later the child can learn many others as long as the second one was done early.
Math- You must know that Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division are all memorized and they are all interconnected (can be taught together).
History--Start with the bare facts, learn a time line. Less chance of bias, just the facts.
Physical and Biological Science--the basics hard facts of the major sciences.
Logic--Whoa, won't that put the powers that be on edge, you mean we could actually learn how to follow a line of reasoning (or lack of)?
If we just taught our kids this, we could catapult the level of education higher than it's ever been. How do we do that? We have the will and we create programs that are interesting, clever and let our kids do it themselves. Yes, there are things we need to explain and guide but for fundamental stuff, computers are getting sophisticated enough that more and more they can help and guide a student to understanding with a lot more patience than most of our teachers.
I am not saying all teachers are bad, no, but I am saying the mediocre state that education has gotten in has caused stagnation and failure. There is a need for teachers. We need them to take this fundamental knowledge and teach children what a machine cannot --creativity.
A dirty rumor I heard was that education was set up in this country to educate workers just enough to work in the factories. It would explain a lot. We are at a point in history where this is going to change, whether anybody likes it or not. I just hope we choose to go in a positive path, do the best for our children so they can be the masters of their own destiny, not the slave of others ideas.
With education, we can take control of our own lives, our own government and really find that freedom we always talk about. Not freedom to tell others what to do, freedom to make our own decisions.
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