Three Disturbances

[jducoeur]

I've received three pointers this morning, each of them disturbing in a different way. Three being one of Those Numbers, it seems worthwhile to pass them on. In order of receipt:

In the sca community, reabhecc posted a link to an article about the British understanding of history: a poll illustrating just how badly confused people are about what did and didn't actually happen, apparently as a result of the media treatment of history. I'm not surprised by the number of fictions that people believe did happen; I'm rather more disturbed, though, by the number of historical events that many people think didn't. It's a fine illustration of the sad state of critical thinking in modern society: many people just don't have the tools to understand what's real and what isn't.

siderea passed along a deeper and more interesting article on the relationship of religion and politics. As she says, it's a fairly long article, and deserves to be read carefully and thoughtfully. Frankly, I find it comforting to know that there are conservatives out there who are serious about the subject of religion, and just as bothered by this cynical mixing as I am.

And just to remind me that one can be disturbed in ways that are far less intellectual, laurion put up a simple pointer to one of the creepiest bits of geek humor I've seen in quite a while: instructions for Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Yes, it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like...

Comments

History

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the other stories, altho I will get to the one on religion. However, I am sometimes stunned by what my children have learned in school and what they haven't. Sometimes, I think, this comes from two causes: the effort to broaden general education to be more "diverse," and the shortening of the school day to meet budget and parental demands.

Mostly, I find that many children haven't been taught to think, to reason through issues and sort facts. I know I've told nearly everyone the story about my daughter's second grade teacher, who asked for a parent conference due to Jen's "innapropriate language and behavior" in the classroom. In brief, the teacher objected to Jen coming up with new ideas about how or why something was, and to asking for more classwork sheets when she finished early and was bored.

Both Dads (step and biological -- we all came to the conference) and I told the teacher that as long as Jen was polite, we saw nothing innapropriate in her behavior. And then we grumped to the principal....

Jen is now 25, and Duncan 15, and both read and think broadly, but I think that skill has been fostered more by upbringing than school. No surprise that a survey can reveal this kind of general thought.

Re: History

[siderea]

Hi. I work in the field of education reform. (No kidding.) Math and sci, though, not history. Me just SCA geek.

Sometimes, I think, this comes from two causes: the effort to broaden general education to be more "diverse," and the shortening of the school day to meet budget and parental demands.

As a point of fact, parents more often demand a lengthening of the school day than a shortening of it. All considerations of education aside, economically, school is free daycare. Parents, not educators, lead the push for schools staying open longer and longer.

As to the broadening of general education, while the broadening of general education may or may not (I think not but it's reasonably debatable) diminish the ultimate knowledge students leave with, the fact is that right now (precisely unlike when your two were in school) we are in the throws of an educationally conservative swing of the pedagogical pendulum, a contracting of general education. This is reflected in (among other things) NCLB and the high-stakes testing movement.

I, being the most bitterly cynical person on earth about public education in the US, am convinced that the problem is not that many children haven't been thought to think, but that -- and I think this is a far more reasonable read of your anecdote -- most have been actively taught not to think, most especially in, of all fields, history. I have come to the conclusion that the "teaching" of "history" has far more to do with the propagandizing and indoctrinating of American citizens to be corporate serfs of an emerging pluto-aristocracy.

The multiply revolutionary history of the US is, therefore, dangerously seditious material, from the point of view of any status quo power base. From a simple cui-bono point of view, it is in the best self-presevatory interests of any power broker to sabotage the teaching of history and to discourage intellectual curiosity. Such opposition arises organically, unintentionally, and repeatedly from the mechanics of the situation; it is not a conspiracy but a trend that is an artifact of the circumstances.

So I've come to see the idea of a government teaching history a lot like Enron being trusted to audit itself.

Re: History

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I've come to see the idea of a government teaching history a lot like Enron being trusted to audit itself.

May I steal this for my quote file?

Re: History

[siderea]

Sure.

Re: History

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

As a point of fact, parents more often demand a lengthening of the school day than a shortening of it. All considerations of education aside, economically, school is free daycare. Parents, not educators, lead the push for schools staying open longer and longer.

Hmm. Thanks for the alternate viewpoint. My experiences with Elem. & middle schools were that the "lengthening" was afterschool daycare, not classroom time. And that the classroom minutes were being shaved to accomodate lower electric/heat/AC bills, more administrative work, unfunded mandates, etc. At High School they actively encourage the kids not to take 7 classes, because that way they can have fewer classes available, letting them send the buses home earlier and/or letting kids get after-school jobs.

Are we seeing the same things?

I, being the most bitterly cynical person on earth about public education in the US, am convinced that the problem is not that many children haven't been thought to think, but that -- and I think this is a far more reasonable read of your anecdote -- most have been actively taught not to think, most especially in, of all fields, history.

You're probably right, come to think of it. I know that we (the parents of the kids involved) are considered pretty weird by a lot of parents because we read so much, talk so much about issues, and (gasp!) encourage their kids to talk and think, too. (I do have a general checkpoint about religion. One Mom stopped letting her son see Dunc because we had religious discussions, and she didn't want him to hear my "heresy." So I generally ask how their parents feel about religious discussions, and remind them that my feelings/views may be radically different from their parents... It's such fun being 'intellectually dangerous.')

Hmmmm. (she goes off to think some more...)

Re: History

[siderea]

My experiences with Elem. & middle schools were that the "lengthening" was afterschool daycare, not classroom time. And that the classroom minutes were being shaved to accomodate lower electric/heat/AC bills, more administrative work, unfunded mandates, etc.

Only, of course, where that trick works. The problem (definitely with elementary students and possibly in middle school) is that you have to pay someone to look after them. If having fewer classroom minutes means you can use cheaper, non-teacher labor, then that trick works. If you have to have teachers or similarly-priced labor, anyway, shaving things doesn't save much money. And, of course, this entirely depends on the district and tax-base's attitude towards their schools, and how well funded the schools are.

In HS, there's no need for babysitting -- at least not in middle-class suburbs. There have been parental pushes in urban, impoverished school districts to lengthen school days just to get the kids of the streets, but the money isn't there. So you're quite right; there, they shave resources any which way they can.

Hmmmm. (she goes off to think some more...)

Happy to share the paranoia. :) I recommend Lies My Teacher Told Me: The White-Washing of American History by Walter Lowen. What is particularly interesting to me is not merely what has been done to history (which is fascinating in its own right) but how.

Lowen discusses the politics of state adoption textbook boards. The summary is: Not all states have textbook adoption boards, instead, most let each district decide what books to buy. The states which decide, en masse, which textbooks are the official ones, therefore have enormous buying power. From the point of view of the publishers, getting through the adoption process in any one such state means, essentially, instant monopoly in that state. Which would you rather do: spend millions advertising to every district, every school, every teacher in a state, hoping to convince them one-by-one to buy your text book.... or convince a single board of, say, 7 people to buy your book for their state? Right.

So, if several such adoption-board states are southern states which don't want certain facts about the American Civil War presented.... history textbooks will just skip over those things, rather than forfeit the chance to get through adoption in those states.

His focus is on history, but I've learned some further elaborations from the side of science. Anything controversial in science can have the same problem. Not only does that include evolution, that can also include evironmentalism. Certain pedagogical methods are controversial, per ipse. (Speaking of teaching kids to reason.)

Badger

[metageek.livejournal.com]

The dead badger HOWTO says:

Let's face it: any script kiddie with a pair of pliers can put Red Hat on a Compaq, his mom's toaster, or even the family dog. But nothing earns you geek points like installing Linux on a dead badger.

Well, that was true until this bozo wrote the article telling everybody how to do it! Geez, now nobody's going to be impressed by my Beobadger cluster. Maybe if I switch to geese.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

The "no one knows history" article rings false with me. Most of the conclusions look like false negations of survey questions. I.e., they asked "Do you believe in King Arthur?"
Guess what, 50% of people will admit that. But instead of saying that, they claim 50% of people think he was a real person and don't know any better, ha ha, people are dumb, papers sell.

Anyway.

The flip side is the question I always ask -- does everyone need to know who Mussolini is? Sure, he was important -- but how important, on a daily basis? Surely, *some* people need to know who he is, but...I think the issue is more (as you hint at) that people don't have the ability to go and find out fact for themselves, making them easier to control and feed a line of crock (as per siderea's side remark).