Blizzhackers

education is outthere, it's in your hands, wikipedia is your friend. bad schools are not your fault. not getting better is.

Public schooling is a social experience, and unfortunately probably a necessary one.

As far as learning course material in the US's public schools... LOL!

In my neck of the woods we use the term "home school(ed)" as an insult. Its slightly more of an insult than 'retard' because it implies that while you are a proper person, you somehow manage to have the cognitive ability of a low functioning mentally handicapped person.

I will always believe bullying is good.

Home Ec was my favorite class in high school. I mean come on. A class where some of the hottest girls in the school make me food? sign me the fuck up. I was the only dude in there. Class had me feelin like hugh heffner. Seriously, best class ever.

I graduated from an affluent school district in the US and I can safely say my education was subpar, if only because I never payed attention in class. Yet, for some reason, I mannaged to graduate with a 3.0 GPA and enter a nice state university. I learned very little, but others probably did learn more than me. Still, I feel as though vocational schooling would be better for a lot of kids... I mean, we're sending kids to college who'll just end up at jobs that don't require formal educations.

It's interesting that literally every single person in this thread took Education to mean either: a) Vocational training b) Institutions

Anybody heard the term Enlightenment?

Sure, but is that the same thing as education?

It's one side of it that, as the microcosm of this thread makes painfully obvious, is more and more underrepresented today.
Generally, you can split views on the purpose of education into two separate parties - The traditional Enlightenment view which holds that "the goal of human life is to inquire and create, to search the riches of the past and try to internalize the parts of them that are significant to you - carrying the quest for knowledge further in your own way."[1].

The other side, the one to which everybody but myself in this thread (whether knowingly or not) belongs to, is essentially corporate indoctrination. The idea that from a young age (~5 or 6 in my country) people should be placed into a framework in which they will follow orders, learn to be disciplined, learn to accept/believe that their true success comes from careerism and material wealth. This obviously requires that students/young people accept existing 'paradigms' (don't like using the word, but here I mean it in a strictly Kuhnian sense) and NOT challenge or question them or challenge any systems.

This is the doctrine of the late-capitalist education system. It may seem here that I am elaborating on implied consequences of indoctrination within the current education system, but on the contrary they are often quite explicit - After (and during) the civil rights movement of the 1960's the general educated class of America decided that young people were too 'free', too liberated and the country was become too democratic, that these things were dangerous to the country - this spawned a well-known and important study 'The Crisis of Democracy' that concluded that certain institutions (universities, highschools, churches etc) were responsible for the "indoctrination of the young" (not my phrase, theirs) and they were not doing their job properly. Educational institutions were then remodeled to indoctrinate and control more efficiently, and that is the educational institution we are dealing with today. (more info on this here)

From general opinion and indeed from this thread, it would seem that this undertaking has been most successful. So the fact that only recently (last century) the education system has been turned away from its original (and I stress original here) purpose - that which I elaborated upon first in this post; and towards this newer purpose of control and indoctrination gives some insight what in my opinion is the absolutely disgusting and shameful state of education in the west. The fact that most people like those of you in this thread do not even consider the issue I have raised here (which is obviously of more import than those quibbled over in this thread - politics and the job market and fairness etc in that it has an effect on something much more grander - the actual progression of our species, perhaps even it's destiny) is worrying. Look at the bigger picture people!

[1]a quote from Noam Chomsky (who writes brilliantly on the topic) from a seminar called Learning Without Frontiers in London earlier this year. (Jan I think)

well obviously guy, primary grades are of course meant to indoctrinate kids into society's mores. they teach you shit like "we call this color red" or "walk on the right hand side of the hall." Without this, modern society would fall apart. Unfortunately, schools are becoming more and more of a hugbox thereby failing in their basic duty.

Even more distressing is the state of modern higher "education". As you've mentioned (I guess --the verbosity of your post makes it hard to peruse--) higher education (university) is nothing more than an indoctrination vehicle for the liberal left. Its sad but hey, it is what it is.

I agree completely. Well, almost. Teaching children things like this is red, etc isn't quite indoctrination. It isn't a problem. What would be, however - "This is red. And if you ever say it is anything but RED you will be kicked out of school, disappoint your family, destroy your future, be marginalized in society, and GET AN F!"

I had used red and "on the right" intentionally because those two things are fundamental elements of driving. The basic rules of driving have been beaten into our heads since we were little. Whether its being made to walk on the right hand side of the hallway, or that childrens game "red light green light". Imagine arguing with a cop "no the goddamn stop sign is green". Even trivial things such as colors can have life altering effects.

now I need to step back and admit that I dont know what this thread is actually about, and thus I'm not exactly sure what i'm supposed to be debating...