Aspies For Freedom

Good for you wondering1

Korrigan - why do you think public education is not entirely a natural idea?

I know a reality of experiencing a good education - an education with some fall backs and I know personally the experience of a bad education.

It is 0523hrs here, coffee is in the pot and kitty is asleep on my lap - toast is in the toaster.

Are you at work Korrigan?

I get the gist of what you mean by natural world -- but -yeah - it's not such a good word. We organise society to meet needs and demands of daily living. I think if we were living in a more "natural" world we would still be out picking berries and hunting with spears.
My children left for two hours at a time - then 5 hours at a time  at age 5 --- I think with both my children I extended the 5 hour day - just cause of their differences and ability to cope. And then right up until age 12 they would attend school for 6 hours a day.

I agree 8-10 hours a day is too long. Not acceptable (IMO).

Good point and the author you quoted - I have heard he links this idea into his writing. I think there is a movement to try to move away from this formular of education.  It is not moving fast enough - I would love for the ideals of humanitarian thinking to be promoted more in the classroom from a very young age. Learn how to live -not how to work.

My kitty when he was very small would sleep under my neck. Lovely.
We have two kitties - I just went through to my daughters room and Artemis is sleeping back to back with my daughter up against her head on her pillow. So cute!!

We are talking about faulty systems here -- not ideals.

Society should strive to make opportunities for education to be made more equal!!!!
I had to pay for my nursing education - but it was set up in such a way that it is affordable for all - people on welfare benefits (not employment benefit) are able to access a free education. People over the age of 70 can access a free education. I am studying post graduate papers - the govt. run health system pays for this aspect of education. It's a good system.

Gosh - lots of posts - can't keep up. Too many ideas

To go off on a tangent ---- I feel bad about what's been happening with the torch - I know the situation in Tibet is horrible -- but the people of Bejing have spent so long and taken so much pride in preparing for the olympics - and the ideals behind the torch are good -- why attack something good - idiots.

On point 6:
Criticial thinking first, individual ideologies, philosophies and religions second. It is important though to discuss ideologies such as racism and look at why they are flawed. "it's not nice" doesn't provide a solid reason and lays the foundations for the first racist with a slightly more detailed argument to come along and convince people. Sadly, "list morality" as I call it is taught almost universally rather than actual ethics. Ethics looks at WHY a certain action is good or bad, morality simply condemns certain things as evil while labelling other things as virtues without much backing.

Try this experiment if you know anyone below their teens: ask "why is racism bad?". If their response is "we're all the same inside" or "because it's cruel" etc then that child has not been taught how to think in terms of ethics but in terms of strict morality. If they answer "because a person's skin colour has nothing to do with how good they are" or similar then shake hands with their parents/teachers. The same goes for other simpler questions such as "Why should you not steal?". The answer is more complex then it would seem - i'll leave that one as an exercise for the reader

If property wasn't important theft wouldn't matter

However theft does matter

Ok, the answer: if you steal from others and have no objections or guilt you become a mere parasite dependent upon others and at the same time put yourself in a position of supporting theft, thus increasing your own chances of becoming a victim of theft.

"appropriation of the means of production" where the means of production are privately owned property is just as bad as any other form of theft. A factory owner who puts in the investment to build the factory or is gifted it as an heir is well within their rights to retain it as they see fit.

Read up on Rand's trader principle.

I actually own a company and can say quite easily that capitalism is still a meritocracy.  Companies house didn't check up on my social class before registering the incorporation, and my customers don't really seem interested in anything other than whether or not I can deliver.

Personal savings

Depending on the type of business being an MBA means absolutely nothing in itself. Even if you can not get hold of venture capital (which you should be able to if you have an idea that is really so good) it should be possible to self-fund or use loans etc. Ultimately if you go bust from this then it's because the market didn't like your ideas.

All forms of communism are about enforced equality, that is where they go wrong and they often turn to violence in practice when the system fails.

Where do their talents lie and how do they apply them in practice?

I agree. I have learned the most about math when in a classroom with students of widely ranging ability. People who need much more help should have individual tutors (or at least an assistant teacher to help students individually in addition to the main teacher), and/or be able to see the teacher before or after class, or maybe during recess or lunch, to get extra help. I remember in first grade, back when my dad worked evenings, that he would come to school to help me with things, whether crafts or computers or just understanding instructions. Surely teaching assistants can help students not get left behind.

One thing I have always wondered about school is why did they try to teach us to read by using phonics, "sounding it out" and syllables and vowel sounds? I never understood a bit of this (still don't, 12 years later), and the early years were terribly frustrating, as I can't break words up into syllables or sound out unfamiliar words or identify "long or short" vowel sounds, and in fact this method of teaching hindered my like and ability for reading (luckily, I started learning whole words at home from my dad before I started going to school, which is probably why by late elementary school I was considered an advanced reader).

I can understand why they shouldn't abandon the technique, as surely it helps some, but they should be more flexible and look into alternative ways to teach this stuff, and employ alternative teqniques, such as learning words as whole units and emphasizing the differences between shapes of letters that look the same.