Does Your Education Fly?: A Personal Commentary On Education, Tubees and Ming

Most forms of math beyond the training of, say, the 8th grade (beyond pre-algebra) are perfectly useless to the vast majority of people; yet, the public education system inists on training people well in what they will never use, and when they could be spending their education dollars -- YOUR Dollars -- on something they might actually use later.

This excludes scientists and logicians, of course. But the average grocery shopper, once having mastered the infamous "word problem," can manage to balance the checkbook just fine -- if, that is, Americans were actually to do that. For the most part, they only save about 5% of their total income. It used to be 20%. We are going further into debt, and have (on balance) no savings at all in many cases -- even though the bank account says otherwise. This happens when your liabilities outweigh your total asset value.

401k's can -- we learned in 2000 -- easily compress into 201k's almost overnight -- okay, over year.

Bottom line: The excessive induction of students into the world of math like imaginary numbers does nothing to foster real education. It wastes time and money. Even if I believed in public education (an oxymoron for the most part) I would want the money spent better. Even medical doctors use very little math beyond passing their exams in med school. They just throw it at the labs, and let them figure out the math.

Little math is required to obey a "Speed limit 55" sign -- and Americans who can do math quite well pay no attention anyway. Let's be honest. If you drive, you know this. The New driving math is that "55 - police officer present + board meeting imminent = 75."

And that's on a slow day. In truth, the size of your car and gas prices figure into the equation, so that it's a little more -- but only a little -- more complicated than this. High school students taking calculus should be viewed as obviously excessive. Leibniz even had great trouble with calculus, which first recieved its formal (contemporary) shape at the hands of Sir Isaac Newton. See how fun the history of the sciences is already?

My argument is that math should be optional -- strictly taken as an elective -- by the choice of students after they have passed pre-algebra (which isn't necessary for most of them anyway either). Maybe after fractions and decimals, we should permit elective status to all math courses.

Students who enjoy it can continue; those who hate it can take more history instead, or skilled reading and writing courses. I have yet to meet a student who knows "too much history," while many suffer basic deficiencies in this area. If you still have to "explain" who Aristotle was to an eighth grader, someone has had way too much math when she should have been studying history.

Most adults probably cannot name one of the Holy Roman Emperors -- who influenced history at least as much as Christopher Columbus in many cases. Such men ruled over (by influence if not direct governance) all of Europe -- the world leader for the centuries covering the modern world. Here, "all" means simply the greater part.

In any case, the industrial revolution, Mercantile Capitalism, and many other aspect of western history having an extraordinary impact on our day-to-day lives receive cursory attention, while imaginary numbers (a phony math if ever there was one) -- what is the square root of a negative number anyway [this question amounts to a confusion of proper functions on my view, not a new math] -- recieve about as much attention as legal history of the U.S.

Brown v. board of Education and a few other high profile cases like the "Scopes Monkey Trial" make it into the history texts. These simply pepper the texts to help explain the cultural milieu -- if I can be so bold as to wax French -- of the time period under consideration, and nothing more. They are decorative, not investigative.

In any case, you get the point: less obscure and useless math training, and more history, especially history of technology (because it is anything but useless) and the sciences, legal history, and the history of the important ideas which shaped the Western World we live in, should occupy the space of high school texts.

Their reform is long overdue, and the pie-in-the-sky "let's have every kid be a scientist" Enlightenment view has got to go. Some will be, and most will not. Some will be lawyers, and some will not. The overemphasis upon the sciences is what lopsides public education in favor of specialized forms of math.

The operating assumption behind this -- scientific realism -- has long been falsified by the history and logic of the sciences themselves. We need to quit pretending. If students prefer music and the arts, they should be allowed to substitute courses in the history of art and music -- including listening to classical pieces or viewing many of the best paintings (classically understood -- someone has to set the standards), they should be permitted to follow their own skills, talents and interests.

No student should be allowed to escape high school without the practical knowledge of the local legal system, and how to get things done via legal means. For one, this would reduce the number of violent interactions from people who know no other way to accomplish the more unpleasant side of human interactions.

Litigation is not pretty, but neither is surgery. All students should know the PRACTICAL rudiments of: 1. The stock market (investing options) 2. wallet management 3. Ordering your life efficiently (time and resource management) 3. Basic math 4. Basic history of technology 5. at least one practical skill (auto-shop or electronics repair courses are examples). 6. CPR and what to do in various emergencies 7. Self-defense (crime rates are simply too high to ignore this) 7. Basic legal options (how to start your own business, prepare a will, and the like).

If this is starting to look like the "for Dummies" book series, that's only because "high school" ignores almost all this -- real world preparation courses -- instead living in an "enlightenment bubble" about 200 years out of date. This leaves high school students almost totally unprepared for the real world they will encounter when high school ends. Then what?

Then some go on to college and pick up some of these skills, others they learn on their own. By the time they finish college, they have the skills they could and should have had around 10th grade, and more knowledge in many areas than they'll ever use.

Some of the other popular myths common today are: 1. Older people know what they want from life [They just give up and settle for what seems "reasonable" given the ugly circumstances] 2. Most people are doing it right by the time they get older (most in America retire in relative poverty - about 96%) 3. The way the system is cannot be changed so you should just learn to get along with it and not try to change it (This is not stated but always assumed in your education). This is simply false, and more obviously so all the time. 5. History is relatively unimportant since it just deals with the past (old stuff). The truth is that no one area can better insulate one against lies and pop fads, and all manner of ideological mischief, except studying the Bible itself. This is because in history we see the way God orders life (providentially), and how nations rise and fall in direct relationship to how they handle -- accept or reject and in which ways -- God's law.

6. Logic classes are only for more advanced students, and should be left to colleges. [No, actually logic is inescapable and people argue from the time their are young. We are all doing logic LONG before college, we just need help doing it well, rather than poorly. Teenagers love to argue, and parents should take full advantage of this feature to teach them to practice well what they already enjoy. If you wait until college, chances are good they already believe so much nonsense, your job will have become unmanageable. Logic should replace math, with history, after 8th grade for most students. No one has ever been too logical, or handled history too well.

The Bible confirms both of these two last points. Josiah's rediscovery of Israel's past sparked the reformation of his time, and the apostles almost constantly reasoned from the Scriptures, proving that Jesus is the Christ. Apollos was over the top, and even his opponents knew it. A man well-schooled in the two topics only can learn with great insight any discipline, since every discipline has a history (developed over time to become what it now is) and has a set of logical basics and established ways of relating these basics one to another [rules of the game, so to speak].

These are the disciplines -- in addition to the basic listed above (which for the ladies might include home economics if their parents wish it -- everyone should know how to cook at least a few dishes) which the Bible affirms as most elemental to true education:

1. The Bible Itself. Every student should have a thorough understanding of HOW to read it properly; know what it is -- as a divine (transformative) international legal code which self-refers as the Gospel and Law of the Lord. Learning to read it well means learning the literary-canonical approach which will aid them in critical read of all historical documents.

Students should learn the literary hermeneutics appropriate to the Bible (given its genre), and the logic of the Bible's system of theology (Westminster Standards). Then they should learn the basic themes of each of the major books, and something about their contents.

2. History and Historiography (the philosophy of history and historical writing). This should emphasize studying the historical situation of the writings we have left to us from the ancient world (and medieval period), and how we learn what we know from them.

Then it should include elements of proper historical research, source usage, how to confirm or falsify evidentiary theories, critical reading of source documents, and cross-examination of sources in light of informal logic.

Students should also learn (over many years) the basic outline of the history of the West first, and electively later, of the other regions of the world.

3. Logic. This should include selected readings in systematic theology, emphasizing what was learned from informal logic studies. Specifically, students should learn to apply these principles to controversial topics of debate, with an eye to studying the Biblical viewpoint, and cross-examining would-be competitors.

Later, students should master an introduction to formal (propositional) logic, the biblical philosophy of logic, and the history of the development of logical systems in the West. This prepares students, together with their other courses, for the next academic discipline.

4. Rhetoric. This should introduce students to the elements of speech structure, preparation and delivery in light of the sermons of the Bible -- notably the rhetoric of Jesus and the apostles, but not excluding the prophets -- and several of the classic speeches of ancient pagan oratory. They should also have some introduction to the history of rhetoric as it developed in the West and its use in legal contexts today.

Legal rhetoric has particular uses in studying the sermons of the Bible, which is a legal or covenantal document. Practicing speech-making and delivery notoriously improves a student's personal confidence and ability to interact with others in a productive and discreet fashion.

5. The history and philosophy of the sciences should be studied separately when students are significantly advanced (late high school years). This would include many field trips to see, taste, touch and handle, as much of what they learn from their texts as possible. Science studies should not be done primarily in a lab, but observably in the environments native to the topic studied as much as possible or convenient.

Students should be encouraged to study the natural world (according to their current lessons in the history of this or that science), see gemstones in the rough, watch animals interact, flowers grow, bees pollinate, etc. This was what Solomon did. Lab work is not excluded; it is just more expensive. But an introduction to controlled experiments (of various kinds) should be part of this study. Making this as fun as possible is probably more important in the long run that what is actually learned. Enthusiasm is the best teacher.

Time would be the best teacher, except that it unfortunately kills all the students. Enthusiasm enlightens and "enlivens" them instead. Model rockets and propulsion rank high on my list. I can't get to excited about balancing equations no matter how hard I try. It isn't that difficult, but it's not much fun either. Now cutting an aluminum can in half and filing the rounded edge, that's SOMETHING because once you cut out the can's face after that (with a simple can opener applied to it's inside facial edge), you find out that these babies can FLYYYYYY.

That's right. It's Bernoulli's principle in a can, and basic aeronautics on a stick. And they really fly. All you need is an aluminum sprite can, or coke - whatever -- a saw which can cut metal -- a can opener and a student with a decent throwing arm and fast legs to chase it!! I call them "Tubees." There is no official name for this flying invention, and I am not sure who invented it first if it wasn't me. Caution: you may actually have to drink 12 ounces of a caramel-colored beverage known to eat a hole in the earth half way to China to begin this experiment.

Now THIS is science. No child should be without a flying coke can at some point in his academic career. Just watch out for the sharp edges. You can always wear gloves to toss them, which you can buy for $1.00 at the local dollar store. You need to put a football-like spiral spin on them upon the "finger release." This is what really sends them into a graceful and lengthy flight pattern. If they do not fly as well as you'd hoped, try shortening (filing down or sanding) the length of the body. It should be about 2/5 - 1/2 the length of the original can.

6. An overview of Legal history for comparative purposes with God's law should be part of the education of students in their later years of high school also. Comparing and contrasting should be required of students at every stage of education and all levels. This is the most basic way in which humans must reason to get along well in this world.

This amounts to studies in comparative legal systems and this history of how these systems developed.

7. History of economics. Students should learn the biblical view of free market capitalism, and its philosophical competitors, various forms of Socialism and Communism. This will necessarily overlap with legal history, with respect to property rights, landlord-tenant relations, estates and probate, wills and testaments, and the like.

This can be taught at a very introductory level when students are younger. This also can form the practicum on do-it-yourself legal forms. The students (with the teacher's assistance) could even start an incorporated business, limited liability company or some other project of like kind (depending on the laws in your state or country).

I have already posted articles and blog entries online to faciliate highly efficient reading, researching and writing to jumpstart your education. Do not forget to use the power of the net. Technology rules. Ming rules too. Do not forget the power of Ming (to outlive us all). He must be doing something right. Ming should be studied -- marine biology can form part of your history of the sciences curriculum. It's only a suggestion, but you could even start your own fan club -- with Ming Studies. If you do this with a straight face, you just might get a research grant from a nearby university, whose staff at once has an interest in sea life and has a fair sense of humor. In education, when in doubt, just Ming it.

Ming has the bling.