EVALUATION OF DATA

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Comment by Gregory L. Smith on October 10, 2008 at 7:43am

When I was a child, I tested too high for spacial comprehension and was forced to take the test again. I was treated like I was separate and frightened some. I have under achieved ever since, part by adaptation, but part because I fear the results, if I were to over achieve. My education process was boring, boring, boring! I made very low grades but always just enough to get by, because I asked too many questions, and some of them were dumb, some for attention, and some were dead on and couldn't be answered by the teachers. I enjoyed finding difficult questions and asking enigma questions when it seemed appropriate...right before the bell or just when we were going to start a new chapter. Yeah, I was that guy that befriended the weak ones and the ugly unappreciated ones, since I could fit in without exposure. Still, I am now wishing I had found more perceptive teachers that questioned gravity, that asked the odd question that couldn't be answered in Yes and No values..
It really is our responsibility to Kenn=Know what is real and not accept just the image of real.
But, evaluate everything critically and you will be an outcast. Internally evaluate everything and action on the results and you can expect differing results. It isn't like there are many constants in the Universe. Speed of light and...? It seems like everything else holds questions, not answers. But, do question what makes up gravity, it isn't exactly a constant! It is variable, but so minutely, it is close to constant. It was the flaw that prevented Einstein from perfecting his theory of relativity. It is why we have not advanced in Physics, Science, or Space travel since the 1960's to any significant degree. Argue it isn't true....For there is:No clear challenge to master...Mars? An expensive and expansive dream without a payback. We should consider RNLT- Rapid Near Light Travel. And yeah, I need more education, but who can afford it? Thanks Monte, you are correct, there are no leaders to see, just co-travelers. It's safer...GLS

Comment by Monte Smith on October 4, 2008 at 10:48am

What happened to the educational system in this country?

In the spring of 1978 in Portland, Or I met a man. His name was Paolo Lionni. He was promoting a book that he and a guy named Lance J. Klass had written. Actually it was Klass that had written the first draft and then Paolo and he teamed up to write the final draft. The name of their little book was, The Leipzig Connection. It is still in print and you can find it on Amazon for under $10 (I just checked). That night I bought the book and I promptly read it. As a result, education became "education". It's a short book and an easy read. It simply tracks the outside influence (from Germany) and how the outside influence came into this country (via Rockefeller's PR man) and connected up with our extant educational system. Some might call it a conspiracy. I call it effective management and effective use of the tools of Public Relations while being very well funded. There was an end result in mind and they got it. That's effective management.

Ask yourself this question, "What is the valuable final product (VFP) of the United States of America's public education system?"

If you were to look at the twelve year educational system as if it were a factory where on one end the raw materials entered (the little six year olds) where they progressed from one division of the factory to another and as they passed through each division something different was done to the raw material....therefore all along the way the raw material was shaped, molded, injected, fed and formed in some way or another so that when it left the final division of the factory and was made ready for distribution into society it was now considered to be......educated? Hmmm...

This product from the factory where it takes 12 years to process the raw material....how valuable is it? How enduring is it? What can we expect to get from it? Is it an asset and will it continue to be an asset? Is it self motivated or do we have to wind it up every so often? Is it self supporting or will it need assistance? Can it count change?

We don't have any leaders in this country. So many of our elections are framed in the comment, "Voting is just a matter of choosing between the lesser of two evils." We don't have leaders and we don't demand leaders.

I call Home Depot and Lowes and any others like them "Almost stores". In other words, they almost have what you need when you need it. If they do have it then they almost have enough. If they have enough of it, then it almost works. And if you return it for a refund or replacement you almost get customer service. We have become an almost society. It did not happen over night. It was years in the making. We were quietly invaded. The invaders did not carry guns or wear military uniforms or arrive in groups. Instead, they landed on our shores one or two at a time dressed in business suits, speaking our language, looking like one of us and they carried attache cases. They gradually infilitrated the schools, the civil service, the churches, our public offices, our corporations our health care....and because we were being "educated" (indoctrinated with a host of training patterns not tools) and not educated we never noticed. We never bothered to think about it. We never bothered to ask why? We never bothered to look. And so here we are in one crisis after another and we don't know how to recognize the source of a problem or how to solve one. If only we could just take another pill...because obviously we are all sufferring from some new mental disorder. I'm sure we'll be seeing the new ads on our TVs after the election.

Have a look....

EDUCATION, n. [L.educatio.] The bringing up, as of a child; instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties. --Websters 1828 Dictionary

SCHOOL, n. [L.schola; Gr., leisure, vacation from business,...a place where leisure is enjoyed, a school.... This word seems originally to have denoted leisure, freedom from business, a time given to sports, games or exercises, and afterwards time given to literary studies.] --Websters 1828 Dictionary

In my early years of education I was lucky. For the most part I attended small rural schools and my teachers were old enough to have gray or white hair. Then when I entered sixth grade (in my sixth grade I attended the country's first totally underground school - ABO...pronounced Ah-bo.) where me and my classmates were more guinea pigs than people (talk about being tested) things really changed. Anyway, that is where my education ended and my new "education" began. In other words, I started being schooled instead of being educated.

I'm stepping off the soap box now....anybody else have more to add....?

Comment by Monte Smith on October 4, 2008 at 9:51am

I want to thank all of you; Pat, Gregory, Russell and Dan for taking the time to post your comments that this blog topic apparently incited. You are each a TREASURE in you're own right. I am very fortuante to have come to know you all to whatever degree that I have.

Regardless of what I may think or suspect about TBP or what disagreements I have with this site or what hidden agendas I may suspect in the operation of this site....I am very glad and thankful that it is here. Because if it were not for TBP and his Pickens Plan and this ning community I would have never made your aquaintance or that of so many other wonderful folks. That is worth a whole lot in my book.

I have to agree with Dan that whether or not what has occurred here on this site was intentional it is what it is. And it is awesome to me that it appears to have been (thus far anyway) allowed to develop organically. I do, though, perceive that this approach to the operation of the site is in the process of changing. In any event, for the moment, we have the shop, the tools, the lights, and the materials at our disposal...and they're free! While we help TB to push his plan, which has become our plan to varying degrees, we can also utilize what we have been given to conceive, launch and advance numeorus altrusitc movements/projects that will do nothing but better our physical and social environments for EVERYONE!

In closing...

Have you ever seen the Nautre show on PBS that takes place out in the ocean somewhere and the focus is on this incredibly huge school of fish (I forget what kind) that are massed together in this tight but enourmous moving ball. It's really wild! Anyway, word gets around and the sharks show up in mass to feed on this ball of little fish. Then the dolphins get wind of it and they organize in such a way as to invade the space and drive off the sharks and then have their turn at dining on this mass of little fish. And then whose next...? Well...guess what...yeah, we are the ball of little fish and the word has gotten out.

Monte

Comment by dan on October 2, 2008 at 11:19am

Pat,
I see the Pickens plan site as a beautiful expression of grassroots democracy. The Pickens organization has given us a forum to grow a intelligent and and informed movement. I am not sure if this was the intent, or just due to over site. Who would have know that so many brilliant, industrious people were out there looking for just this type of forum?
I can not tell you if they wanted to create what has happened, but bless him for it. We have a community which is really unequaled anywhere. I find very strong conservatives and very strong progressives all playing in the same rooms, and for the most part playing well together, due to the constant vigilance of the Ambassadors, to make sure we keep this non-partisan.
We do not have leaders here. We are WE, as in We the People....
I think the world of Mr. Pickens in that he is the progenitor of this site. If he leaves it alone and allows it to grow, he will benefit greatly for he is on the right path and a movement that has its eyes open will follow the path he is on. If he tries to take the reins, he may derail this movement. I see signs of other members getting a little nervous about this but I have a lot of hope that we will be left to grow and expand.

dan

Comment by dan on October 2, 2008 at 11:08am

Monte the Man,
it is a good thing to throw out the fundamentals of Critical Thinking. The sad thing is that in our society you actually have to do this.
Having grown up in California during the late 60s, early 70's I was exposed to a lot of experimental education. Some good, some bad. (My spelling is atrocious, thank goodness for spell check). But, and this is my take on this blog entry, I was taught foremost the process of thinking. At that time the educational system was focused on developing functioning minds.Today I see my coworkers as having to supplement the education of their kids, either at home or in private schools because the children are being "taught the Test" (yes Test was capitalized on purpose.)
Standardized testing as a way of "insuring" kids are learning is such a cop out. Educators know when a child is learning and if they don't, they should be drummed out of the educational system.
Your post is illustrating 2 separate deficiencies in our society.

1. We have underfunded education. this has many effects. Issues like class size, quality of text books, attention to detail in curriculum. All of these issues can be addressed by adding more money into the system and CAREFULLY watching how that money is administered, can fix this. We need to stop the administers from "controlling" things. Get rid of the MBA's and get teachers into the systems to over see education.
Once we actually slowly, methodically go through the educational system and retool it. We need to get back to an old fashioned "Liberal" education.

"Liberal education is termed "a philosophy of education that empowers individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills, and a stronger sense of values, ethics, and civic engagement ... characterized by challenging encounters with important issues, and more a way of studying than a specific course or field of study" Association of American Colleges and Universities"

Problem 2. The lack of engagement of Parents. Tough to fix in that often this is connected to both parents working their butts off just to survive. Not always, but I can think of my childhood when my mother and father both worked. He was an enlisted man in the Navy and she was forced to work at the minimum 40 hours to provide for us 4 kids. The school system was better then, focused on teaching me how to think so the "slack" on my parents side was picked up. But they, my parents rode me, regarding my studies.

So Monte, back to your excellent post. It is important that people THINK about everything they are told. It is very dangerous to take any piece of "information" you are given on face value. You need to turn it over in your mind, look at it, evaluate the information. Cross check. This is a fair amount of work but as time goes on and you gather more and more information, you have the ability, you GROW the ability to do this faster and more thoughtfully due to the amount of information and knowledge you will gain as you grow the wonderful thing called a brain.
Monte, thank you so much for posting this. It is important, as Pat pointed out, that we make sure we are very cognizant of the ideas we push. We have the potential of changing the the direction of the global energy economy policy. We must make sure that we think clearly and true. We must understand the implications of the policy we are pushing forward. Thanks Monte, again, you are the man.

dan

Comment by Russell James on October 2, 2008 at 8:28am

Thankl you for the words of sense Monte. While reading your blog i was reminded of a book written in 1980s by a New York Teacher of the Year. "The Dumbing Down of America". In 1848 the First State Board of Education was founded in Mass. The avoid purpose of the board was to separate the children from the influence of their families and church. Interesting enough the reading level of the states students went down the following year and have been getting lower every year. Our schools are doing more warehousing than teaching in many instances. In the mid in the mid 1800s the nation needed factory, mine, mill and rail road workers.
Schools started with the bell to accustom students to later go to work with the factory signal The teacher stands in front of the class like a forman and tells the students what to do as the factory formen did. The students were trained to be good loyal factory etc workers and not the factory jobs are being shipped overseas and the US job market has entered a new world for most. The public media encourages people to buy and not to think. That is a dangerous situation.
Thank you for your thoughtful blogs.

Comment by Monte Smith on October 1, 2008 at 7:41pm

Well put Sir Patrick.

Thus far I have not accepted anyone as my leader. I continue to see many of my peers leading but, as of yet, I have not seen any official leader emerge on this site. When there is an active LEADER around one knows it. When in the prescense of a TRUE Leader gold braid and title is not necesary. So far...nothing even close!

Comment by Gregory L. Smith on October 1, 2008 at 7:37pm

So I see you have met "Professor" Epps! LOL! I am so amazed that there are those people that do this intentionally, either out of need to misinform or out of darker agendas. I am a strong supporter of your viewpoint. I can evaluate your premises easily and if I have a question or disagree, you are prompt to offer a counter argument that sustains those evaluations. I am glad you exist. Gregor Smith gregors@att.net