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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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Well, I've had more time to look at the linked article. Interesting subject, though I have to say I found the arguments poorly reasoned and ridiculously loaded with tendentious assertions. I have limited detailed knowledge of the history of American education through the course of the 20th century, but what I do know of this, and similar models in other countries, makes many of the assertions of this article seem ludicrous. These a priori findings are often declared without regard to factual evidence – sometimes even despite internal contradictions in the material under discussion – and even where there is some evidence adduced, little attempt is made to quantify and qualify the value of the source. Some sentences are so packed with assumptions that even without digging into the detail of conflicting points of view a critical reader can see the poverty of analysis on display.
Having said that, I certainly understand that education has always been a battle-ground of conflicting views of how we want to mould future generations within our societies. I just can’t accept as credible the proposition that all American education is governed by “an oligarchy” and that this junta is enthralled by a Machiavellian desire to appease the narrow interests of a few major capitalists, in contrast to some unspecified golden age of pedagogy that celebrated a living breathing democratic republic.
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stranger
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stranger
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(Back after traveling a few days)
Mav, do you not find the Woodrow Wilson quote telling? There rarely is a workable conspiracy involving large numbers of people. That's not really what's at issue here. I'm sure Wilson and his cohorts thought they were doing the best they could.
I think there has been a strong shift away from "the basics" to a load to toachy-feely tripe in the last several decades. I remember in high school (1972) getting put into "Honors" History and "Honors English" and learning little history, except for the Bantu tribe in South Africa, and no grammar. In English we were encouraged to be "creative" and as a consequence virtually all of the A students were taking speed and mescaline for something to occupy their attention. It was in a university class in Spanish that I finally realized I didn't know what a preposition was. It took years of finding the right university professors to help me read and write clearly. Looking back (and having taught Latin and Journalsim to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders; Freshman English to university students as a gradute student; Business English at Business College; legal writing to paralegals, and executive writing skills to California law enforcement at Command College at Cal Poly Pomona), there is a very clear pattern of mostly "unconscious" evil in our public education, with some conscious help from ideologues who operate in the education department and various Trusts and Foundations.
As always, evil is often not seen by the good, who have difficulty believing in it without have had a direct experience with it.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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> a very clear pattern of mostly "unconscious" evil in our public education, with some conscious help from ideologues
ah, that I could entirely believe, Mark. Yep, that would be consistent with a lot of similar patterns I've seen elsewhere.
I guess if people of good intention, from whatever individual standopint, come together to battle out the details of what may work best, we'll never be *too far out from the central ground of common sense. In hindsight, I can understand that your blog entry was probably an elided reference to a whole bunch of stuff that you take for granted that other people recognise as the truth. Probably much of it is - as I said, I'm no specialist in US educational history. I just get apprehensive when too much is taken as an assumption on shared values, having learned the hard way!
Hey, you have an interesting voice - I hope you choose to stick around here at least from time to time; be good to hear more from you.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
and no grammar. In English we were encouraged to be "creative" and as a consequence virtually all of the A students were taking speed and mescaline for something to occupy their attention. It was in a university class in Spanish that I finally realized I didn't know what a preposition was.
Just out of curiosity:
I ran into an old friend in the mall yesterday.
List all the prepositions in that sentence.
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: May 2002
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Quote:
I guess if people of good intention... come together to battle out the details of what may work best [then] we'll never be "too far out from the central ground of common sense".
In hindsight, I can understand that your blog entry was probably an elided reference to a whole bunch of stuff that you take for granted... I just get apprehensive when too much is taken as an assumption on shared values, having learned the hard way!
Universals, Maverick.
We humans share fundamental traits that trancend localized cultural functions. For example, your yearn to equate in worth the pecularities of variant human cultural experiments belies an understanding of objective reality.
As pack animals we have developed many different social patterns to contest our removal from the dance of human life.
Some function. Some don't.
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Joined: Jul 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Quote:
Just out of curiosity:
I ran into an old friend in the mall yesterday.
List all the prepositions in that sentence.
in
TEd
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2006
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Just out of curiosity: I ran into an old friend in the mall yesterday. List all the prepositions in that sentence. Quote:
in
Whew!
Ya wait long enough, others will show you the way.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Quote:
in
Whew!
Ya wait long enough, others will show you the way.
OK, since it appears that you've peeked at TEd's paper, explain why "into" isn't a preposition. Please, no answers from anyone other than MA.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Please, no answers from anyone other than MA.
Oh good 'cos I don't have the answer being another of that generation that only learned practical grammer by osmosis and never learned to parse. Found out in night school Spanish class how useful a skill it would have been.
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
> how useful a skill it would have been
yeah, I *never won at parse the parcel, it was so unfair...
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