<OT> One more reason I am glad I don't live in CA

[R. Quenett]

mutilated misquotes 
from Tim Wunder's 10 Mar 2004 classic prose
may follow:

" > ... Or is the 
" > purpose of education the 'production of obedient citizens'?
" 
" In today's US school system, yes, it seems to be a major component.

Then a more accurate description might be something like 'behavioural 
modification' since the last thing needed for obedience is thinking.  
Thinking can lead to so many inconvenient questions.   Sounds to me 
more like an incarceration and correctional situation than anything 
else.   The word 'prisons' (which also have various forms of parole 
and permitted absences) springs to mind.

You know, I have given up so long ago wrt most of this stuff that I 
have forgotten the citations and scholarship and just internalized it 
into the general view that 'education' sucks.  But to refresh my 
memory a bit, I just did a web search for 'John Dewey' and 'obedient 
citizen' and a whole whackload of stuff comes up, including this:

http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Educate/education.htm

I have no knowledge of the people behind the link, or anything about 
them, but some of the material on the website does look interesting, 
at least at first glance.

" > ...Or does 
" > the purpose depend on who is grinding the axe?  Whose axe should be 
" > ground and who should have the responsibility of the grinding?  What 
" > _is_ 'education', anyway?

" Education is the process by which we teach. It is a vital aspect to 
" raising children.

Ah.  You and I part company here.  In my sparsely populated universe, 
education is the process by which an individual advances his own 
learning.  It is something a person does _for_ himself for his own 
purposes.  It is not something which is done _to_ a person by others 
for their purposes.  I acknowledge that my point of view is 
incompatible with the present public school system.

" > " That is not to say that two years of public service would be a bad thing 
" > " for teenagers, just that it shouldn't be mandated by the g'ment.

" > I've heard the 'public' defined as 'everyone but you' and I imagine 
" > that 'service' is 'advancing someone else's agenda'.  Sorry, not 
" > interested.
 
" "service to others" would've been better, I suppose. Yes, there is a 
" certain benefit to serving others, IMO. Again, having the g'ment mandate

Agreed.  Iirc, one of the world's wealthy men, asked for his formula, 
said 'find a need and fill it'.   But that's far from what is usually 
meant by the phrase 'public service'.  I stand by my previous 
description in that context.

" > [Psst....  wanna buy a corpse?]

" No, why do you ask? Got extra?

No, I have only the one I'm using at the moment.  We were, however, 
touching on (the uses and abuses of) education, and, well, it just 
seemed so apropos...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1896&u=/nm/20040310/us_nm/crime_bodyparts_dc_8&printer=1

R
-- 
http://www.quen.net

"Fix reason firmly in her seat and call to her tribunal every fact,
every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God;
because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of 
reason, than that of blindfolded fear."  --Thomas Jefferson