Rockefeller: The Source Of The USA's Education Problems?

"The American educational system, a cornerstone of societal development, has undergone numerous transformations over the years. One influential figure in shaping the landscape of education was John D. Rockefeller, a name often associated with wealth and industrial prowess. However, as I delve into the annals of history, a disconcerting truth emerges — one that raises questions about the true motives behind Rockefeller’s educational endeavors."

Click here, and on the link below, for an enlightening view of a basic problem with USA education.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1412003936836149

If you think that there is no problem with US education after partaking of the above, the link below will help you to understand how sheepish humans are without critical thinking skills:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?mibextid=wwXIfr&v=630867306389189&rdid=ERcLkK6IRiEJmNYq

Attacking Misinformation With Exposure To It

"Misinformation and logical fallacies lurk in almost every corner of social media, so it can be tempting to shield kids entirely. But new research from UC Berkeley suggests that exposure to misinformation in a supervised environment can help kids become more diligent fact-checkers. Banning social media and other digital platforms might not be the best way to equip children with long-term media literacy.

"I will begin an overview of this study and then offer some suggestions of how educators can use controlled online exposure to strengthen students’ critical thinking and digital literacy skills while minimizing the risk of harm."

Click on the link below for the details of this study:

Turning Misinformation Into Education

MAGA Attacks On Education

 Click here for an expose of the Republican/Trump plan to destroy US universities.

Emotional Intellence Education For Children

If you have children, there is NO better time to introduce them to critical thinking than NOW. Below is one example of developing Emotional Intelligence within the context of critical thinking. For more information, here is her web site: https://critikid.com/

https://www.facebook.com/reel/988722160020706

The USA And Education: It's Not Great

Click here for a brief video that should embarrass the USA (but won't unless or until anti-science thinking is marginalized.

Understand What The US Department Of Education Does

"During his campaign, Donald Trump promised several times that he would dismantle the US Department of Education. So today we wanted to explore what such a dismantling would look like, as well as what the DoED does in the first place.

"Turns out, while the Department does an awful lot of things, there is much for which it is criticized that it does not do. Taking us through its creation, its history, and its powers is Adam Laats, professor of Education at Binghamton University."

Click on the link below for the details:

What is the Department of Education?

Barriers To Public Schools Teaching Critical Thinking

" - - - While teachers do encourage critical thinking, there has never been a way of formally integrating teaching this skill into existing curricula. Apart from a few teachers who do train their students in this art, most teachers do not for one simple reason — there is no time."

There it is. The most important skill that needs to be taught is pushed aside because of time constraints. Click on the link below for the details:

Three Reasons Why Public Schools Don't Teach Critical Thinking

Waldorf Schools: Let the Buyer Be Aware

"Private schools of all types abound. Many are religious, a few are secular, some are intended to be intensely academic, some allow free play and the students can do whatever they like. Then there are some like Montessori schools that follow a certain method. And then there are the Waldorf schools, which have a reputation for being not only the most expensive, but also hippyish. They grow crops, they dance and paint, they learn practical skills like building, they shun vaccines, they follow astrology. It's how you'd imagine Silicon Valley elites would alleviate their white liberal guilt by putting their children in touch with holistics and nature and spiritualism and the evils of capitalism and screen time. Turns out that reputation is pretty well deserved; most of the stereotypical things you might hear about Waldorf schools are pretty accurate. Much of what's not so public is far weirder than you could imagine."

Click on this link for the details.

Conservatives Hate Education

"Last week, West Virginia University (WVU) announced a plan to raze some of its core programs. The public land-grant university intends to eliminate 9 percent of its majors (32 programs total), all of its foreign language programs, and 16 percent of its full-time faculty members (169 in total). The departments targeted for these massive cuts count Truman, Marshall, Fulbright, and Rhodes scholars among their alumni. These cuts were recommended by the consulting firm rpk GROUP, and there’s every reason to believe they’re a trial balloon for doing this elsewhere. Anyone who cares about higher education should be alarmed about what this portends for public universities."

 

Click on the link below for more information reflecting on another target by the anti-education/anti-critical thinking conservative/Republicans/MAGAs:

The Evisceration of a Public University

Attacks On Education: The Base Of Dictatorships

"With democracy under threat around the world, author Jason Stanley warns that the fundamental danger lies closer to home: in the schools. In his latest book, the American philosopher argues that attacks on education empower authoritarian regimes by reshaping our understanding of the past. Stanley joins the show to discuss."

Click on the link below for the history of dictatorships in recent decades:

Russia, Nazi Germany, MAGA: The Dangers of Weaponizing History and Education

School Lunch Programs Help Society

"John Oliver discusses school lunch programs in the US, and why giving kids free lunch is in all of our best interest."

Click this link for information supporting the need for school lunch programs and their improvement:

How To Be An Informed Voter

If you are like me, you are overwhelmed when you vote and don't know how to vote for local and state offices. Click on this link for a video presenting 3 reliable sources (you will find the links within the video narrative under the video itself) to help you become a more informed voter regarding the important local and state races.

Socrates And Democracy

"We’re used to thinking hugely well of democracy. But interestingly, one of the wisest people who ever lived, Socrates, had deep suspicions of it."

Click on this link for a frank look at the soft underbelly of education in the USA. THIS is the reason why the disinformation and gaslighting of the Republicans are so successful. Even if the Democrats win in November, our democracy will be tentative for decades unless the USA changes regarding education and critical thinking.

School Vouchers

"A recent Washington Post story highlights the growing and exorbitant cost to taxpayers subsidizing vouchers paying for private — nearly always religious — schools. In addition to reporting on the dramatic expansion of voucher programs in states throughout the country, and the eroding line between state and church, the Washington Post article documents the astronomical sums going to religious schools."

Click on the link below for the details:

New Wash. Post exposé discloses huge cost of religious school voucher schemes

Math Education: It's Not Easy

"Dr. Jo Boaler is a leading math education expert and one of the writers of the California Mathematics Framework, a set of guidelines focused on improving equity in California's math classrooms. We first talk about her upcoming book, Math-ish, and the beauty of pursuing more "ish" in our lives. Then, we discuss a recent anonymous complaint that was filed with Stanford University, accusing Dr. Boaler of misrepresenting research to serve her own agenda."

Click on the link below for an example of a new approach to mathematics education that is not well-received in some academic circles:

Dr. Jo Boaler Tried To Improve Math Education. Then An Anti-woke Mob Came For Her

The Need For Appealing To Emotions When Communicating Science

"Although it’s of course always better to frame an argument or present research in an objective, rational matter, people have a tendency to respond well to appeal to emotion. In this sense, presenting scientific research as something that can be evocative, powerful, and emotional is, in my belief, a good tactic to get the general public invested in science. Getting people to care about our research, our study species, and our findings is a difficult task but one that is absolutely necessary for the longevity and development of science at both the national and global levels.

"Pretending the science is emotionless and apathetic is counterproductive to the very things that drove us to do the science in the first place. Although we should attempt to be aware of, and distance, our emotions from the objective, data-based analysis of our research, admitting and demonstrating our passions (and why we feel so passionate) is critical in distilling science into the general population. Science should be done rationally and objectively but driven by emotional characteristics such as wonder, curiosity, and fascination."

Click on the links below for more insight into the need to use emotion to enthuse the general public about science. After all, humans first evolved by surviving using instinct, intuition, and emotion. Science shows us that these processes are BASIC within our psyche and science-based thinking is a late development that is more difficult and many times presents uncomfortable results:

Emotional science: passion, spirituality and curiosity

Confessions of a Real Life Scientist: The Thrill of Learning

https://www.ecrea.eu/page-18206/7356944

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2002484118?doi=10.1073%2Fpnas.2002484118

https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/view/168

Financial Literacy: A Basic Education Need

"Financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively use various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. When you are financially literate, you have the essential foundation of an intelligent relationship with money, and it will serve you as a starting point to a lifelong journey of learning about financial matters that are more advanced. The earlier you start, the better off you will be financially, because education is the key to success when it comes to money."

Click on the link below for the details:

Financial Literacy: What Is It, And Why It's So Important

Homeschooling: It's Diversity. Threat, And Warning

"Homeschooling has become America’s fastest-growing form of education, according to a Washington Post analysis. This form of education, which largely has roots within evangelical Christian households, has grown into a broader movement, especially since the pandemic. Laura Meckler is a national education writer at The Washington Post and is co-author of a series for The Post called “Homeschool Nation,” which takes an in-depth look at the surge in homeschooling in the U.S. and motivations for its rise, which include concerns over school shootings, curriculum ideologies and more. She joins WITHpod to discuss how this mode of education has evolved, the forces that have driven its growth, recent declines in public school enrollment, the increasing popularity of micro-schools, and more."

Click on the link below for the details of this important presentation signaling major issues in US education:

"Homeschool Nation"

The Most Important Book I Ever Read

There are uncountable great books. However, this one book, that I was required to read as a Freshman in college in the 1960s, was my introduction to critical/science-based thinking and it stuck. What a shame that formal education never has really adopted this simple philosophy:

"We destroy the disinterested (I do not mean uninterested) love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards — gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked to the wall, or A’s on report cards. In short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else. We kill, not only their curiosity, but their feeling that it is a good and admirable thing to be curious so that by the age of ten most of them will not ask questions, and will show a good deal of scorn for the few who do." ~John Holt

(Book: How Children Fail [ad] https://amzn.to/47wCJvA)

(Art: Photograph by Bernard Hoffman)

The Republican War On Critical Thinking

"History has shown us repeatedly what happens when tyrants take education away from the public. Can the Republican led war on public schools turn generation Z, from Doomers to dumber? OR, will we learn from history so as not to repeat it?"

Click on the link below for the details of the Republican effort to end public education so that ignorance, unsupported ideology, and autocracy reigns in the USA:

The Frightening Reason Behind the Republican War Against Critical Thinking in Schools