Tag: Education
We Need to Do Better at Prioritizing Important Topics in Primary Education
I was helping with my son’s 6th-grade social studies homework yesterday, where, for this semester, they’re studying India’s history. It’s mildly interesting, but in the back of my mind, I can’t help but think: “Why the hell is he learning this?”
Don’t get me wrong, I think being exposed to a variety of topics and subjects is good on some level, but that “some level”, is probably at most an hour or two for things that aren’t really relevant to his existence, or help him prepare for the future, or maybe most importantly, aren’t really making for a better future for all of us.
I guess I would be fine with this little diversion into history if we weren’t failing in the education game in so many other ways. I’m sure he’ll make it through his primary education without touching on formal logical fallacies, or some basic economics principles, or how the US calculates his taxes. He won’t be exposed to ideas for how to think in ways that perhaps don’t come naturally, or how to push deeper into thoughts, going beyond those initial inhibitions that allow you to arrive in some really interesting places if you can think beyond them.
Again, I think it’s good to touch on random topics, like the history of India. Perhaps it will speak to some students, and spur some fascination or passion that will serve them well through life. But we can undoubtedly do a better job of prioritizing some things that will have a higher chance of creating better people, and a better country. And we desperately need to do so.
An Essential High School Course: Shit You Should Know
There is a course that needs to exist in high schools across the country, titled: “Shit You Should Know”. Even for me, a moderately intelligent individual, it would have been helpful to have such a course that wades into a variety of highly important topics that seem to be overlooked in our current education system.
Here’s an initial start on the course syllabus for “Shit You Should Know”:
- Week 1 – Introduction, Overview of Course Topics
- Week 2 – Logic Principles, Reasoning Skills
An introduction to logic and reasoning. - Week 3 – Logical Fallacies
Highlighting the most common logical fallacies through the first half of the week, then working through less common fallacies in order of importance. - Week 4 – Thinking Better – Patterns and Strategies
Helping to build better thinkers, with emphasis on various ways of looking at topics, pushing past the inclination to limit thought. - Week 5 – Critical Thinking, Skeptical Thinking, Media Literacy
How to see through bullshit, think critically, and consume news and opinion in a responsible manner. - Week 6 – Basic Economic Principles
A basic economic primer, covering basic topics like supply and demand. Compare and contrast various economic systems. - Week 7 – Your Government
How taxes are actually calculated (most people don’t seem to understand), representation. Discussions on how the existing system works, critiques, class discussion on improvements. - Week 8 – Being a Good, Considerate Citizen
Basic moral and ethical principles. How to be a good, considerate citizen. Stupid decisions vs good decisions (win/win vs lose/lose). Conversation skills. - Week 9 – Basic Life Management
Basic life skills, such as budgeting, the concept of compound interest, strategies for making good decisions.
Either/Or Thinking
I’ve always fallen into the same trap that most people do — thinking along the lines of either/or statements. In my two most recent posts I’ve been thinking about this concept in terms of democracy and authoritariansm — Are we a democracy or not? In reality, there is a whole range of in-betweens. Previously I’ve also confronted this with regards to belief in God. It’s common to ask; “Do you believe in God or not?”. For me, over the past twenty-or-so years, it’s not an either/or questions — it’s a percentage of likelihood, based on the properties of the god that we’re describing.
I get the sense that any condition where we automatically inclined to assign an either/or, a yes/no, or some notion of black or white is, in reality, better expressed as some position between the two extremes. I’m trying to do better at spotting these thinking traps, but this seems like something I should have been trained to identify early on in my education. In one of the courses that I think should be taught in middle or high school, “How to Think”, this would definitely be one of the topics covered.
Ignorance, Power, and Communication
I believe our current (dreadful) situation as a nation is heavily brought about by the lack of thinking ability for a large swath of the country. It’s not really their fault of course, no one gets to choose their natural abilities or upbringing. But it is a serious issue that we really need to face as a species I feel like we can combat much of our issues by just having better education, and easier access to it, and honestly, this seems like the easiest approach. But we can also come at it from the other end — finding ways to limit power (things like Trump, Fox News, Joe Rogan), and find better ways to communicate, or break through these bubbles that exist, that are currently very difficult to break into. Education in comparison seems easy, but perhaps the needed, more robust approach is to hit the issue from both sides.