The Purpose of Education

Originally posted by Nemesio
I feel that the purposes of education are:

1) To better enable you to be enriched by the world around you;
2) To better allow you to make an informed decision about pursuing an
occupation you enjoy; and
3) To foster senses of personal autonomy and social responsibility.

It's my opinion that anything else education does is personal, not general.

Nemesio

I am not sure if it is included in your points but what about
To better make informed decisions in you life, including:
Managing your own household etc. Better educated people tend to manage their money better.
Political decisions (how many people supported the Iraq war without knowing where Iraq was).
Education of your children (how many people support removing the teaching of evolution in school because they themselves don't understand it).

And what about:
To better be able to actually pursue an occupation once you have decided. If you don't decide what you want to do till you are 18 for example then it is a bit late to start educating yourself in you career if you have no education at all.
Also many careers actually benefit from a fairly broad education.

And finally to increase the number of people who choose a research career thus enabling the human race to progress technologically thus benefiting all.

Originally posted by jammer
I don't know about where you live, but here in the USA, "higher education" is mostly about avoiding personal responsibilty .. delaying maturity at any cost.
I'd estamate that 60-70% never even choose a major .. or change it 4-5 times over the course of a 6-10 year college career.
That's the rich kids.

The poor kids (unless they're white) are indoctrinat ...[text shortened]... r all the failures of higher education.
Those that can .. do. Those that can't .. teach.

Ah, back to the local witch to cure your ails. No doctors in Jammer's world.

Originally posted by Alcibiades
I am afraid you are halucinating again. Persecution mania?

Nope. it's called reality. Drop the smokescreen Nargaguna - we all know it's you.

Originally posted by scottishinnz
Ah, back to the local witch to cure your ails. No doctors in Jammer's world.

It's either that or an affirmative action doctor that speaks in ebonics and can't tie his own shoes.

Originally posted by jammer
It's either that or an affirmative action doctor that speaks in ebonics and can't tie his own shoes.

Any examples?

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Any examples?

I'd say your collected posts would be a prime example of what the California Education System is producing these days.

Affirmative action is only one of many problems with the system.

One of the worse is the NEA http://www.nea.org/index.html
A subset of the Democrat Party .. the Liberal Wing.
We don't drug test teachers in California, the Union won't stand for that. The janitors, yes, but not the teachers.

"Social Promotions" .. no child left behind .. The Democrat version.

PC and moral relativity taught, as opposed to personal responsibilty.

The system is good at producing worker bees of the lower classes and pseude-intellectual educated idiots of the rich ones .. those that can't achieve either of these will remain in school and teach.

The purpose of education in America was altered forever about 40 years ago. The prime purpose now, it appears to me, is to indoctrinate our youth into left-thought.

Originally posted by jammer
pseude-intellectual educated idiots

Anyone spot the problem with this?


Get your tin foil hat back on.


[edit; you know Jammer, you've got everything necessary for the making of a good commie. You hate people smarter than you, you think that manual labour is the only type of productive work possible, and you have a strong desire for an infallible leader figure.]

Originally posted by jammer
I'd say your collected posts would be a prime example of what the California Education System is producing these days.

Affirmative action is only one of many problems with the system.

One of the worse is the NEA http://www.nea.org/index.html
A subset of the Democrat Party .. the Liberal Wing.
We don't drug test teachers in California, the Union won' ...[text shortened]... . The prime purpose now, it appears to me, is to indoctrinate our youth into left-thought.

As for not drug testing the teachers, well, you ever heard of this thing called "trust"?

Originally posted by scottishinnz
As for not drug testing the teachers, well, you ever heard of this thing called "trust"?

I would bet that it has a lot more to do with teachers unions than it does trust.

Originally posted by scottishinnz
As for not drug testing the teachers, well, you ever heard of this thing called "trust"?

Not when there are teachers out there who need to be tested badly. Why should they not want to take a drug test? HMMM I wonder.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287375,00.html

Originally posted by torch71
Not when there are teachers out there who need to be tested badly. Why should they not want to take a drug test? HMMM I wonder.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287375,00.html

Geez, citing Fox News? That explains a lot. There are people in every single job category who drink or use drugs. Unless you are mandating drug testing for everyone in the nation over the age of twelve, you're just on a witch hunt.

Originally posted by jammer
I'd say your collected posts would be a prime example of what the California Education System is producing these days.

Affirmative action is only one of many problems with the system.

One of the worse is the NEA http://www.nea.org/index.html
A subset of the Democrat Party .. the Liberal Wing.
We don't drug test teachers in California, the Union won' ...[text shortened]... . The prime purpose now, it appears to me, is to indoctrinate our youth into left-thought.

If all schools were equal -- if all schools had the enough textbooks and room and supplies and heat and unbroken windows and technology and equipment, then there's be no need for Affirmative Action. But if schools in one area can provide children with a quality education but schools in another area can't because of the way school funds are provided, then the system needs to come up with a way to right the wrong. The second all children in America have the same educational opportunities, Affirmative Action should be dismantled. But that hasn't happened yet.

"Social Promotions" are awful -- agreed. But parents have the legal right to refuse to have their child retained. They'd rather not hurt their child's ego by having him or her retained, and so they'd rather hurt their child's ego by having him or her behind and confused the entire rest of their school career. Talk to parents on this one, not schools.

NCLB is far more than horrendously awful and stupied and bizarre.

Personal responsibility begins at home. If nothing is the child's fault at home or school, and society or the neighbors or the teacher are at fault for everything, schools can't undo that. Again, tell every parent you know to stop making excuses for their children. Do not prevent them from facing the consequences of their actions.

Until you become a teacher you actually have no idea what they really do -- how much of their own money they spend on their students and their classroom, how much of their own time they spend trying to be better teachers, learning new ways to reach all students so that all students can succeed, etc. Maybe California is just weird. Go to another state and spend a week on the job with a teacher who has to teach on top of worrying about whether a child is being abused or not and reporting it, helping children who aren't fed or cared for at home, teaching children who are sick and infecting everyone around them, teaching children who are angry and frustrated because they have undiagnosed learning disabilities because their parents don't want them labeled, trying to teach children like you who've been taught that teachers are losers so there's no point in listening to them, buying school supplies for children whose parents can't or won't, working nights, weekends, and holidays ... spend time with real teachers and then judge...

Originally posted by pawnhandler
Geez, citing Fox News? That explains a lot. There are people in every single job category who drink or use drugs. Unless you are mandating drug testing for everyone in the nation over the age of twelve, you're just on a witch hunt.

Geez, sorry forgot about all the fox news haters out there. Here it is in CBS if thats okay with you, or would you like the bbc version or which do you prefer, but to me news is news!!! Don't know about you but I have random drug tests at my job as for alot of Businesses in America, but I for one don't have a problem with it, Oh but I'm not a user. Sorry

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/28/ap/strange/main2994866.shtml

Originally posted by mancityboy
What is the purpose of education? Some responses to my thread about the (alleged) Geographical illiteracy of the average American suggest that some believe it is purely a means to make more money. The intrinsic value of it doesn't seem to to come into it. As a Maths (Not Math!) teacher I am constantly asked what the point of it is - or "When will we ever ...[text shortened]... ity of the life around them.

What do people think the purpose of education should be?

To cure ignorance.

Originally posted by torch71
Geez, sorry forgot about all the fox news haters out there. Here it is in CBS if thats okay with you, or would you like the bbc version or which do you prefer, but to me news is news!!! Don't know about you but I have random drug tests at my job as for alot of Businesses in America, but I for one don't have a problem with it, Oh but I'm not a user. Sorry

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/28/ap/strange/main2994866.shtml

I'm not a user either, ever. My point is about singling out one group. If you support drug testing for all jobs, that's swell. If you think specifically teachers should be tested because you have issues, that's different.