Stop messing about with the way teachers teach!

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Scientia potestas est – knowledge is power – is an idea so famous that it is known by even those with very little of it. Yet too many on the Left disregard it. Like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who held that teaching children knowledge corrupts their innate values, they view the teaching of facts as “right-wing, regressive and redundant”. All facts and figures, as they see it, are subjective, open to debate, and of their age; it’s far better to arm children with skills such as critical thinking that can stand the test of time.

Wrong. With no respect for what’s actually the case, everything “is up for grabs”. No wonder there’s been a surge in conspiracy theories in recent years; no wonder Donald Trump can lie with impunity. The sidelining of knowledge erodes faith in experts and accredited sources of information, leaving people vulnerable to manipulation by dangerous populists. The Tories’ education policy is flawed in many ways, but let’s at least applaud them for their championing of a knowledge-based curriculum. (Richard Russell, The Guardian)

The fact is that we need children both to absorb facts and to develop critical thinking. The two are not mutually incompatible. But we keep dickering with the way teachers teach. Every new Minister of Education wants to make his or her mark with new curriculums, additions and exceptions. The fact is that you can have a knowledge-based curriculum that also allows for critical thinking. Here is a rather obvious example in European history, if you want to get pupils to write an essay:

Fact: Napoleon and Hitler both invaded Russia.
Critical thought: why have successive Tsars, Putin included, been paranoid about Western “plotting”? Use your knowledge of geography, American politics, the expansion of the EU and NATO etc to illustrate your essay.

Good point – any answers?

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To The Sunday Telegraph
There must be something seriously wrong with Britain’s education system if we have shortages of doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, electricians, plumbers and bricklayers when nearly 50% of our teenagers are going to university. What are they all studying?
Professor Ronald C. Denney, Sevenoaks, Kent

Arming the police

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One of President Obama’s better decisions, says Adam Bates, was banning the federal government from distributing surplus military equipment to local police forces. The move followed the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, where the police were condemned for their heavy-handed military response. The bad news, though, is that the Trump administration has now rescinded that ban, freeing the police once again to stock up on high-calibre firearms, grenade launchers, bayonets and camouflage uniforms. The all too predictable consequence will be more violence and more casualties. A study earlier this year unambiguously showed that, after receiving military gear, police departments were more likely to kill civilians (as well as dogs). Law enforcers always justify their need for this kit by citing rare cases such as terrorist attacks and mass murders, but the problem is that they inevitably resort to them in other situations, too. Witness the way that Swat raids have “ballooned from hundreds per year to tens of thousands”; or the way officers have slipped into using mobile phone trackers, bought with counter-terrorism grant money, for everyday police work. “It turns out that having a hammer really does make everything look more like a nail.”. (Adam Bates,  Newsweek)

This report is true and justified, but in a sense tends to trivializes the problem.  There are far too many – 712 this year – unprovoked deaths of (mainly) innocent people, most of whom are black, hispanic or mentally ill.  Instead of using a Taser or manhandling a suspect, all too many policemen reach first for their guns.  The other day I wrote something sympathetic about the fear all too many jittery policemen must feel, given the number of guns in circulation.  Thus does the notoriously misinterpreted  Second Amendment have the effect to putting guns in the hands of too many crazies and idiots while simultaneously taking away our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  America is in danger of becoming a police state where someone exceeding the speed limit can be gunned down.  The police are losing the support and respect of the public and seem to be totally indifferent to the fact.  Indeed, their mindset is defensive- aggressive, if that isn’t a tautology. It does not bode well for the furure.

Nation Down To Last Few Grown-Ups

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“According to recent data, the grown-up population has plummeted dramatically since 1950, when a Census count found that more than 24 million Americans could both admit when they were wrong and respect a viewpoint other than their own. Today, only one in three million citizens can provide thoughtful advice to a fellow human being instead of immediately shifting the topic to endless chatter about themselves, or what they had for lunch.

“Experts confirmed that the mass extinction of grown-ups has coincided with the rapid expansion of other demographic groups, including people who seek medication for every problem they encounter, 33-year-olds who play endless video games on their cellphones, personal injury litigants, and parents who try to become friends with their own children.

The endangered demographic, which is reportedly distinguished from other groups by numerous unique traits, including foresight, rationality, understanding of how to obtain and pay for a mortgage, personal responsibility, and the ability to enter a store without immediately purchasing whatever items they see and desire, is likely to disappear by 2050.

“The Census Bureau chief commented “Unfortunately, we’ve only recently noticed this terrible trend, perhaps because of this group’s unusual capacity to endure hardships with quiet dignity instead of whining loudly to draw attention to themselves. If nothing is done, these individuals, with their special ability to consider the long-term consequences of their own behavior and act accordingly, will be wiped-out completely”.

“Anthropologists who have lived among level-headed adult populations and documented their lifestyles have found that mature adults occasionally put the greater good ahead of their own interests and remain calm when something doesn’t go their way.  “Imagine confronting a problem directly instead of pointing a finger, cowering in fear, or pretending it just isn’t happening,” one added. “This is how these people actually live, if you can believe that.”

“Many of these social scientists have called for a complete record to be made of the declining population’s customs, worrying that knowledge of how to dress for a job interview or when to rotate one’s tires could soon be lost to civilization forever. Future generations, they soberly note, will likely go their whole lives never knowing a grown-up person.

When contacted for comment, Colorado resident Ray Vogel, a grown-up, told reporters he was resigned to his group’s fate.  “We recognize that our time has come and gone, and we’re prepared to let nature run its course,” said the 54-year-old, who has a well-funded 401(k) and has never taken out a high-interest loan to purchase a Jet Ski. “I’m just grateful my two children didn’t turn out patient and considerate like me. They’d never be able to get anywhere in today’s world.”. According to Vogel, the nation’s remaining grown-ups have drafted a letter to be read by the rest of us when they are gone that implores us to make “good decisions” in their absence and explains how to reignite the pilot light on the hot-water heater should it go out. The note is also said to include some money, which we are firmly instructed to use only in case of a real emergency.  (Originally written years ago, shortened now for the benefit of us all with short attention spans, and as relevant now as it was then).

We don’t have the capacity to arrange 40 free trade agreements

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The British government has been caught on a petard of its own making, a total inability to think through the implications of Brexit. Only now is reality dawning: if you want to maintain the support of industry you have to keep all the 40 Free Trade Agreements arranged by the EU. Britain does not have the capacity to negotiate new free-trade agreements . It doesn’t have the experienced negotiators, for a start and hasn’t struck an independent trade arrangement for forty years. And, in any case, it takes an age to negotiate an FTA.

The obvious answer, viewed with a shudder by the Ra-Ra nationalists, is to stay in the single market and the customs union (or don’t leave at all!).  But if you do that you have to accept hordes of young, educated, trained Continentals who, guess what?, take British jobs.

But unless trade is fixed and arranged the corporations, which support and fund the Tory Party, will lose confidence, all the more so if well- trained young people are expelled or not allowed into the country.  But if they are allowed in then the rank and file Brexit voter will be furious.  Thus has the right-wing. zenophobic crowd positioned themselves,  totally voluntarily, between a rock amd a hard place.

Epicurus believed in moderation as a guiding principal in life.  Those who are advocating Brexit at all are, in my opinion, misguided, but those who want to throw caution to the winds and advocate a hard Brexit (just getting out. Period) are dangerous and immoderate.  Spoiled children is a more unkind epithet.