The Education Conspiracy

[YMix]

[Tinker]

[YMix]

The movement attracted all kinds of people, including the closet dictators.

[Tinker]

[Colonel Sun]

[Tinker]

Colonel Sun I don't think it has changed much, at least if it's changed it's probably for the worse.

I look forward with great trepidation to the point where I have to think about voluntarily incarcerating my own children in that system. I cannot bear the thought but I am unsure of how to circumvent it. I have a business idea that I want to look into, that I may pursue.

I'm thinking of setting up a 'Free School', which is basically a maintained study space that has other rooms available to teach courses, and an unofficial curriculum that engages local businesses that teach skills to be a part of the curriculum. Like for instance, setting up discounted programs at the Yoga studio, or the Martial Arts, or Dance studios. In Manhattan I can walk to all of those studios from my home. So the resources are there. There is also a City University of NY annex in my neighborhood where you can get such things as Spanish classes and other basic studies courses. As a result if I run such a space, I might be able to home-school my children in that environment without having to deal with the draconian zoning policies.

If you want to start a school you need to have a space dedicated to that use, it has to conform to certain zoning requirements, and you have to have the space before you can apply for the permit. The permit takes up to six months to be approved by the Board of Health. Given New York rents, I'm sure you can imagine how much of an outlay holding an empty facility for six months might cost. That's in addition to the modifications that make it fit the code.

So what I am referring to isn't a school per se. It is not meant to replace a school for anyone, if you want to bring your kids there they have to be accompanied by adults and so forth. I'm thinking more of an open community center. I'm getting more integrated into the community due to my political work this summer. I need to go do some volunteering on a particular campaign, which I intended to do today, but I got roped into doing something for another campaign, so I'll be doing pro-bono tech work on a fucked up laptop for the Union liaison for the primary campaign I'm working on. The other campaign is a guy running for Senator in my community. He is a nice guy but he is up against stiff competition from a Dominican local heavyweight. The Dominican vote is a HUGE bloc in this area. But he's also alienated some of the pillars of that community, so the Dominican vote is actually split with the Jewish guy who has a Dominican wife. And also, part of this district goes down into the Upper-West Side which is more white yuppie. So he might have a shot, but these two guys are the heavies in this election. The guy I want to support started a low-income credit union in the neighborhood and had some of the most sophisticated views on economic policy of anyone I've spoken to. So when primary season is over I am going to start making appointments with as many people as I possibly can in the neighborhood to discuss the nature of schooling in New York.

[noddy]

in Australia we seem to have got to the point we have private right wing schools and public left wing schools each teaching the kids to dislike the other.

[AzariLoveIran]

[noddy]

[Tinker]

The notion of 'official history' is bunk. There is no fucking official history. Academics think they rule what is considered history, and they do to a certain degree, but people will try and tell you what's right and what's wrong. You know that a lot of well-researched stuff is inaccurate sometimes, and a lot of shoddily researched stuff hits on a nugget of truth now and then.

The teaching of history is where the problem comes in.

My daughter has been asking for me to bring muscle books to look at for her bedtime stories. So that's pretty cool. She's learning the muscles, at least starting to. She had trouble assimilating the concept that she has these muscle complexes inside of her. So she's started to imagine that she has a body internally to her skin and that it's complex. She will grow into adulthood having a very strong knowledge of how her body works. It is my goal for her to understand the body at the level I understood it on the day I graduated from massage school. That'll be about 1000x more knowledgeable than your average 40 year old to be honest.

[noddy]

agreed there is no official history.

frustrated there isnt much nuanced history - the left right battle seems to be tediously focused on "western good" versus "western bad" - not so much on the complex cans of worms surrounding the events.

[AzariLoveIran]

[YMix]

History is a tool for anybody who knows how to use it.

[Endovelico]

Today, as always, it is very easy to fool the ignorant and those who are too lazy to do their own research and thinking. That's the reason why my greatest concern in teaching is encouraging my students to think for themselves.

[noddy]

[AzariLoveIran]

[Endovelico]

You need both. But without a solid theoretical basis your praxis may not lead anywhere. For instance, liberation theologians base their theology on praxis, but their praxis is deeply founded on values and principles. One couldn't live without the other.

[noddy]

[Tinker]

[Demon of Undoing]

You can teach a decently prepared cat how to pass standardized tests in six months. I took the SATs still tripping and awake for 48 hours and still got a 1360 .

Cats are superior to people , what can I say .

[Tinker]

[YMix]

[YMix]

[Endovelico]

Tinker,
You can teach a child at home, except on what concerns dealing with the world and other people. One shouldn't shelter a child from the unpleasant things around us, from the envy and stupidity of many others. A child must learn to deal with those things, without compromising its values. You can't do that by keeping a child at home. Let tour daughter go to school - preferably to a public school - and then complement her education at home. Talk to her about her school experiences, teach her to be compassionate but critical. Make her strong to deal with all the idiots she is going to be confronted throughout her life. By going to school she is going to face what we tend to call unnecessary risks. Except that they are not unnecessary. Either we run them early on and learn to cope with them, or they risk killing us later.

[Demon of Undoing]