the american embassy, God curse its presence and its superiority, used to basically degrade people applying for a visa. you used to have to start waiting at 12AM the previous night to be one of the 40 lucky applicants admitted that morning. you would wait outside in the cold in hunger and curse your luck of having to apply. now, of course, there is an appointment system, but it took them 6 months to suffering to realize it.
i was always under the impression that european countries are more civilized, but i learned otherwise this morning. i went to apply for a shengen visa from the germany embassy, and you can't get close to the embassy. you have stand outside, around 30 meters away from the entrance, in the street, like a beggar, and fill out the forms and shit. you have to go through an arab who despite being extremely nice and helpful does patronize you. you have to prove over and over again that you're not going there to bomb them to hell and to never leave. i hate how we're treated, i hate that fact that we're second class countries, and above all, i hate that we have to be treated like that.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
horrors of education
"It used to be that the whole purpose of education was to give students a working knowledge of how the world works. We have since opted for "educating the whole child"meaning that we teach people nothing. Unless you have an atypical modern education, you'll have no choice but to teach yourself."
this quotation is from an article about how to create plausible worlds in science fiction books. written in '84, more than 20 years ago. at that time, modern education had already started dictating that learning was not something forced but something that people do on their own by experiencing things.
modern education focuses on asking questions that start with "how" and "explain" instead of "who" and "when". that means that the emphasis is based on cause and effect rather than hard facts. anyone with a history book can quote dates of wars, but only smart students can understand their effects and apply that understanding to modern situations. i finished school around 8 years ago and i can still explain most of the physical and chemical issues we faced then, but i can't remember the names of scientists or the dates of discoveries to save my life.
i was very fortunate to attend a school which focused on these modern approaches. the rest of the country, however, is still stuck in the spoon-feeding method of teaching, or as the quotation names it, atypical modern education. that is, "dear students, the earth is flat, the stars are shy gods and i'm a less shy god". i've had MANY fights with teachers in my old school in which they would not even entertain the idea that they might be mistaken (i still remember them clearly, the idiots) and that i might be correct. of course i was correct, i was blessed with the ability to think critically.
but aside from my petty fights, the horrible status of our country (indeed, our nation) is not because we watch tv's and have cell phones and enjoy going out and like to ogle hot girls like our sheikhs would like to think, but it is because we lack the ability to think critically. from school, where information is forced down our throats, to university, where being active means voting and being a member of the student council without having any real influence, to real life where if you disagree with the status quo you are an enemy of the state. this isn't a political article, but it is a critical one: the status quo is that we live our lives as sheep, with no chance to think on our own. i'm not saying we should start a revolution. i'm saying that if things were done correctly we won't need a revolution. we need to start embracing the "learn for your own approach", where one is put into a real "learning" environment, not a mimicking one.
so yes, education in our world is rather horrific, and the only chance we get to think is to think of what to have for lunch.
this quotation is from an article about how to create plausible worlds in science fiction books. written in '84, more than 20 years ago. at that time, modern education had already started dictating that learning was not something forced but something that people do on their own by experiencing things.
modern education focuses on asking questions that start with "how" and "explain" instead of "who" and "when". that means that the emphasis is based on cause and effect rather than hard facts. anyone with a history book can quote dates of wars, but only smart students can understand their effects and apply that understanding to modern situations. i finished school around 8 years ago and i can still explain most of the physical and chemical issues we faced then, but i can't remember the names of scientists or the dates of discoveries to save my life.
i was very fortunate to attend a school which focused on these modern approaches. the rest of the country, however, is still stuck in the spoon-feeding method of teaching, or as the quotation names it, atypical modern education. that is, "dear students, the earth is flat, the stars are shy gods and i'm a less shy god". i've had MANY fights with teachers in my old school in which they would not even entertain the idea that they might be mistaken (i still remember them clearly, the idiots) and that i might be correct. of course i was correct, i was blessed with the ability to think critically.
but aside from my petty fights, the horrible status of our country (indeed, our nation) is not because we watch tv's and have cell phones and enjoy going out and like to ogle hot girls like our sheikhs would like to think, but it is because we lack the ability to think critically. from school, where information is forced down our throats, to university, where being active means voting and being a member of the student council without having any real influence, to real life where if you disagree with the status quo you are an enemy of the state. this isn't a political article, but it is a critical one: the status quo is that we live our lives as sheep, with no chance to think on our own. i'm not saying we should start a revolution. i'm saying that if things were done correctly we won't need a revolution. we need to start embracing the "learn for your own approach", where one is put into a real "learning" environment, not a mimicking one.
so yes, education in our world is rather horrific, and the only chance we get to think is to think of what to have for lunch.
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