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TheEvilDetector
07-28-2007, 12:16 PM
All of this and more in here

http://www.mysteriesofthemind.com/images/white%20paper%20crash%202005.pdf

Very interesting information.

Sad, tragic you might say but true.

giskard
07-28-2007, 12:53 PM
Thanks for the link. I'll be forwarding this around.
The books I link below talks about the corruption of the educational system, among many topics.

jjschless
07-28-2007, 01:08 PM
My younger brother just graduated from high school and his basic thought was that, "They just want you to graduate so you can start paying taxes, it's a joke."

Now I graduated from the same school 10 years ago and I can say with confidence that the teachers and the education I recieved were great. I enjoyed the advanced classes and learned a great deal that I still put to use today.

But I suppose if you want sheeple, you need to keep them dumb.

lucius
07-28-2007, 01:31 PM
All of this and more in here

http://www.mysteriesofthemind.com/images/white%20paper%20crash%202005.pdf

Very interesting information.

Sad, tragic you might say but true.

Thank you!

"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." W. Durant

John Taylor Gatto's 'The Underground History of American Education' is very powerful for waking up literate individuals. The whole book at link: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm

TheMikael
07-28-2007, 01:57 PM
Thanks for the link...will be reading it. :)

I'm in high school and have been taught (so far) many difficult complex formulas and subjects...with more to come (trig :( ). I would say that almost all (if not all) of what i have been (and will be) taught is going to be useless in the real world. Its frustrating to receive poor grades in some math that I will never use in the future.



My younger brother just graduated from high school and his basic thought was that, "They just want you to graduate so you can start paying taxes, it's a joke."
I'm beginning to believe that as well.

TheEvilDetector
07-28-2007, 02:04 PM
Thanks for the link...will be reading it. :)

I'm in high school and have been taught (so far) many difficult complex formulas and subjects...with more to come (trig :( ). I would say that almost all (if not all) of what i have been (and will be) taught is going to be useless in the real world. Its frustrating to receive poor grades in some math that I will never use in the future.



I'm beginning to believe that as well.

That's right, at the very least, parents and students should be given a choice, whether to focus on abstract maths or real world maths. Those students who favour the academic career may choose abstract maths, those that favour non-academic careers may choose real-world maths. Probably the best solution would be to have both.

AnotherAmerican
07-28-2007, 03:42 PM
Those students who favour the academic career may choose abstract maths, those that favour non-academic careers may choose real-world maths. Probably the best solution would be to have both.

No need for both - "real-world" maths are a special case of general "abstract" maths. It's really a question of giving a man a fish (formula), or teaching him to fish (create needed formulas).

Speaking of scary public school-dumbing down, check out this High School lesson plan I found at University of Omaha (warning, PDF alert):
http://ecedweb.unomaha.edu/ve/library/TMTL.PDF



STUDENT OBJECTIVES

After viewing the video program, students will be able to:

* identify the Federal Reserve System as the institution responsible for providing the "right" amount of money for a healthy and growing economy;

* describe one way in which the Federal Reserve System's goals to promote economic stability might affect them or their families.


It goes on like that... cute, huh?

TheEvilDetector
07-28-2007, 03:55 PM
"STUDENT OBJECTIVES

After viewing the video program, students will be able to:

* identify the Federal Reserve System as the institution responsible for providing the "right" amount of money for a healthy and growing economy;

* describe one way in which the Federal Reserve System's goals to promote economic stability might affect them or their families."

If only it was "cute".

In a real educational system that teaches and reinforces independent thought and curiosity rather than cramming state propaganda down a kid's throat this is what would have been stated:

"STUDENT OBJECTIVES

After viewing the video program, students are asked to:

* verify whether or not the Federal Reserve System as an institution has been able to provide the "right" amount of money for a healthy and growing economy and provide evidence independent of the video backing your research.

* describe ways (whether positive or negative) in which the Federal Reserve System affects economic stability and describe how economic stability might affect them or their families and provide evidence independent of the video backing your research"

PS. I had a quick look at the pdf and I saw this: "cite at least one advantage of the political independence of the
Federal Reserve System".

I had to laugh about that, because the FED is NOT politically independent.

From http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/frseries/frseri.htm

"Appointments to the Board
The seven members of the Board of Governors are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve 14-year terms of office. Members may serve only one full term, but a member who has been appointed to complete an unexpired term may be reappointed to a full term. The President designates, and the Senate confirms, two members of the Board to be Chairman and Vice Chairman, for four-year terms."

The above is only the tip of the iceberg, for more info see:

http://pubchoicesoc.org/papers_2006/abrams_iossifov.pdf

"Concluding remarks.
Our empirical findings suggest that the political monetary cycle is not quite as
dead as previous researchers have concluded. Contrary to the conventional wisdom,
evidence indicates that the Fed establishes an abnormally expansionary monetary policy
in the run-up to the presidential election, but only if the incumbent president or party is
from the party that initially appointed the Fed chair. The finding of a partisan-based
opportunistic political monetary cycle appears to be robust with respect to model
specification as consistent results are obtained for both OLS and GMM estimations. The
finding of a politicization of Fed policy should help to encourage a re-opening of the
“rules versus discretion” debate. If a seemingly “independent” Fed has difficulty
operating apolitically, perhaps additional constraints on discretionary monetary policies
are socially desirable."