news
so, I haven't posted an entry in quite a while... and thats not really news. rather, its life as usual. I suppose its as it should be... Its not like I've been having experiences worth recording... not many anyway. A few blips of life here and there, but mostly, just recovering. I'm getting close to 34. I'm not young anymore. When I was young, I was pretty arrogant, and thought I had reason to be. Not loudly, but quietly arrogant. I thought that by the time I was this age, I would have created something that had never been before. When someone said some meaningless confrontational words with the intention of making me angry, that image would take the place of words. I have discovered many things, and I have dug deep into the depths of me, and learned quite a bit. But I have created nothing. But. I have had many dreams, things that I wanted to do, that I thought I could create that would change the world. Some of them linger in the back of my mind. One of them has been with me for many many years. Well, 10 or so anyway. For me, I suppose that is many. For a while, I poked around with talking to people... in person, on the net, friends, strangers, academics, clergy, about religion, sprituality, belief, about mystery and how we respond to it, about dogmatism and its effect on us, as individuals and as a culture. Specifically how it makes us vulnerable to manipulation, and how that vulnerablilty is exploited. Recently, I was watching my favorite political pundits, Rachel Maddow, and Keith Oberman... one or the other of them had a guest who had written a book on the subject. He was a self proclaimed ex religious nut, who was blasting republicans for the way they cater to just this kind of manipulation of these people. He was very angry, and although a few of his points were valid in identifying a problem, it seemed that as fueled by anger as he was, didn't come up with much of anything constructive to do about it. When Keith(I think) asked him how he thinks we should deal with this sort of thing, the answer he gave was to ignore it. Do nothing. Don't acknowledge them and give them credibility. Well, I have to admit, this kind of thought, and the fact that it leaves a large percentage of this country's population open to manipulation by any who are willing to use those tactics to achieve their own ends is a very serious problem with respect to a democracy actually operating as a democracy... or even a republic like us. And I suspect the rest of the world is pretty much the same in most respects. Ok, problem identified. What now? How do you change this? How do you reason with someone who is taught from birth that the way to choose their actions is through faith? For these people, in day to day things, they make choices back on reason and expereince but when the tough choices come, they believe. I suppose the first question is why should we? After all, its a personal choice right? If they want to believe, who am I to say they can't? Seems like a fairly straightforward question, but the answer it kindof tricky. Because faith isn't the problem. Faith isn't really anything. Faith is the absence of something. Specifically, faith is the absence of reasoned decision making. It is VERY important that my fellow citizens reason. And that is the answer to the question. It is very important that my fellow citizens reason for themselves, and for me, because as a society, we are not separate. we are all parts of a whole. What I do affects the rest of us, and what the rest of us does affects me. Specifically in the case of current politics, health care reform, to which opposition is being drummed up among people using statements and arguments that have no attempt at backing, let alone proof. It happened when we went to war, and these things certainly affect me. That makes it my business. So the next question is how. Ignoring it is not the answer. Ignoring a thing is an effective solution only in the rarest of occasions. In most it spells disaster. This kindof brings me full circle. Because, as I was saying before, for a while, I talked with people from all walks about the issue, asking hard questions, proposing possibilities, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I figured that truth has power, and a little truth dropped into the bucket would spread all by itself. And I suspect that it did, somewhat. But that isn't enough. That doesn't last. People forget. Priorities of economy and survival push these questions to the background, and out o consciousness. The real, complete answer is to fill the void with reason through education. That begs the next natural question... but we already have an educational system... how could lack of one really be the problem? There isn't a teacher or professor in this country who will not give you a two hour speech if you ask him about the flaws in our educational system. Well, I do tend to gush in my well-spaced posts... and this has started to become a long one. The point I was making, was that the highlight of recent events in my life, is the conversion of a bit of acedemic playtime into a dream, over a period of 10 yrs or so. Somewhere along the way, I realized both the necessity and the real possibility of not the repair of the educational system, but rather the building of a complete new one. I think this will be a good place to order my thoughts on the subject, so you all should set your filters accordingly:) I want to change the world. I want to make education free, competitive, and accessible to everyone, and thus, create a country, and a world of people who are better able to create a better country, and a better world. I want to create an educational system stripped of all the things that make it expensive, leaving only the elements of education: the student, the information, and a test by which the student and prospective employers can gauge the skills and knowledge of the student. This can be accomplished simply(note that I did not say easily) with the creation of a series of tests that a student can pay to take at any time that become his educational record, making the test independent of the education, thus becoming a test both of the student and of the college, creating a standard by which all universities, colleges and educational systems can be judged. Separately the creation of a multimedia website, including online textbooks, eventually interactive educational programs, and videotaped lectures. This will mimic the quality of most campus educations, as the level of interaction in most classrooms is small, while having the cost of an online magazine. The cost of maintaining such a website is an order of magnitude smaller than that of maintaining a faculty and a campus, as well as having the additional benefit of being tailored by the student to his or her own needs and pace. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, this medium will allow for an incredible amount of competition. The simplicity of a website and database makes educational research the largest expense. Geography will no longer be a factor. Consider now the online colleges of today. For the most part, they follow the same paradigm of education as the physical colleges before them, and the same expenses. It is a move in the right direction, albeit a very slow and piecemeal one. But colleges today are built upon reputation, and the online colleges are no different. THERE IS NO OBJECTIVE WAY TO MEASURE THE QUALITY OF A SCHOOL. Today's online colleges are no different. Colleges that have a good reputation charge high tuitions, pay large salaries, hire the best teachers and attract the best students. Do they provide the best education? maybe. Its probably pretty good given the money spent. Are the students the most successful afterward? Probably... considering they accept the best students to begin with... We have never considered the possibility of a test measuring the capability of a professor or a college in general because when a test is written by the professor of a class, it is as a matter of profession modified in content and difficulty to maintain a bell curve among that individual class. How could we possibly consider a score on such a test to be indicative of the effectiveness of the professor, material, or college... but whats more, how can we consider it to be indicative of the skills and knowledge gained by the student? This is why America's system is below par, because it cannot be objectively measured, and in the absence of scrutiny, we all get lazy. So, to sum up. 1. Utilize technology to make education cheap, by removing the unessential expenses, and making the student ultimately responsible for his own education. 2. Separate the test from the system of education, allowing the effectiveness of educational systems to be measured, and thus allow for competition, which will in turn drive quality up and price down. There are details and questions of course. Collegiality. Lab work. Art, music, debate and philsophy. The very critical thinking education that fueled this idea is accelerated with interaction, but does not require it. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT EDUCATION NOT BE PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE. There is much room for other niches... independent tutors, mentors, educators of all shapes and sizes to provide their services at prices that they may determine for themselves. Some colleges may be come more specialized in just those things - labs, art, music, debate, tutoring and mentoring. This is the thing I want to build. This is the one thing that, when I am on my deathbed, I can be content knowing I have built something.