The Naked Truth
Education is a wonderful thing, if only there were more of it. The problem is that too few schools really educate students, but rather teach them. There's a big difference. You teach people to think like you do, you educate them to think for themselves. This becomes critical when you have an entire population of high school and college graduates who have no idea how to gather information and reach educated conclusions from it. Instead they rely on the spewage that gushes out of the media for their recycled opinions on things they know little about. And most people limit themselves to those media outlets they can count on to provide them with opinions they already know will be acceptable to them, which saves them the time and effort of informing themselves. Information. In formation. Much better to have opinions that are in the process of being formed than to be perpetually stuck in a quagmire of ignorance.
posted by John M Crowther @ 6:44 AM
12 Comments:
These days it is fast food, fast results and fast opinions, all served up equally. To think means one must first listen to all sides of an argument, gather all the facts possible, then form an opinion after weighing all the pros and cons. Much easier to let the media, teachers or actors tell one what to think. Then if it is shouted loud enough, long enough it proves one is right, right?
Sorry, forgot to mention our beloved elected officials who are always honest and correct in their assessments, right?
Never more true than the current penchant for the media and government to exploit the global warming crisis. And it's really sinking in with the population. If I hear one more comment like
"geez it's hot - must be global warming"
"geez it's wet - must be global warming"
"geez shame the reservoirs have all dried up... must be global warming" or... now that it's rained... "all this flooding... must be global warming"
I will surely spit!
When I was teaching I used to have the students do a bibliography. Then annotate it> Then write the term paper. This pretty well made sure that what came out was their own work for better or worse. It also gave me the chance to help them out. That was how I was taught but it doesn't work unless you have a relative small (under20)class. And you have to do it yourself no grad assistant. roger
By the way great drawing john. roger
Personally I feel we have little to fear from global warming anyway. The way things are progressing politically the ultimate global warming (nuclear holocaust) will be upon us w-a-y before nature decides to call it quits.
Apologies Roger... our posts overlapped... my comment... an afterthought from my previous comment.
There should be more educators like you Roger... those willing to go the extra mile to ensure an informed educated outcome.
The typical modern university focuses on research contracts. Not research,but supported research. Teaching comes in a poor second when the time comes to select permanent faculty- who turn out not to be permanent as they get hired away. I hope my grandkids go to small liberal arts colleges as yet not too infected by this process.roger
Roger,
My son that does research on drugs for Lewin, mostly financed by government contracts, told me that often he is told what they want the results to be. They are not happy if he comes up with different results. But he never reports anything but true facts and I admire him for sticking to his feeling that he will not change facts to come up with a politically wanted result. Why should he waste his time to do a study unless he gets accurate data?
John-
You forgot to give us the information on how to get into this class. Please forward immediately. Thanks, Rico
Katherine... that is absolutely terrible... (if not altogether surprising)...
Now, John. You're an artist, and although this is very funny, you know that's not how it is in an art studio. My earliest memories are of the art studio where my mother sculpted, and I modeled some myself in college. Artists liked me because my veins and arteries stick out.
If anything, it's the very opposite of the way you portray it to be. The models are pretty much just objects, barely noticed.
As I remember, it was cold and boring. And the artists would get upset and yell if you made even the slightest movement.
Of course, it might have been different for me if I'd had the DD cups your model has!
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