Article #3
Degraded Condition of Life
in the USA and the World Will Continue Until We Revolutionize Public Education
Humankind currently exists in the
degraded condition that should be expected for a species dwelling as infant
born in just 200,000 BCE in a universe 13.8 billion and on a planet 4.5 billion
years old.
>>>>> All but
a few nations have GDP per capita above $15,000 per annum.
>>>>> The
dominant forms of governance follow historical trends in which ruling elites
have such vacuous lives and so little cultural mettle that they can think of
little more creative to do than to seek territorial expansion and personal
material gain at the expense of abused citizens.
>>>>> And
those citizens have such low information bases pertinent to history,
government, and economics; and such little sense of personal power;
that they are ever at the mercy of such low-life power-holders.
>>>>>
Further, the populace even in putatively advanced nations dwells in such
ignorance and cultural degradation that the beauty of life in quality literature,
musical genius, visual art, and Nature's splendor is missed as people
>>>>> kill
themselves with opioids;
>>>>> leave
people hungry and dirty on the streets;
>>>>> murder
each other on urban pavements out of desperation, in the context of lives
without meaning;
>>>>>
barricade themselves in gated communities in retreat from the urban horrors
that they have created;
>>>>> eat
carelessly, live unhealthily, and die young due to reckless living;
>>>>>
abuse the bestowal of Nature's bounty so badly that the life of the planet and
therefore their own resides at the brink;
>>>>> and dwell in
such ignorance and moral vacuity that they think that this is life as life must
be.
But this is not life as
life must be, nor Life as Life can be when we muster the courage to
revolutionize K-12 education for knowledge-intensity and ethical content after
deep introspection and prescient consideration as to who we want to be and what
we want to recall as valuable and meaningful at that point at which we shall
die.
Consequence of Abysmal
Education for the Individual >>>>> An Earthly Sojourn
Lived in Abject Ignorance (Part One)
The typical individual lives out
her or his one earthly sojourn in abject ignorance.
The beauty and intricacy of
mathematics remains a mystery. With foundations ill-established by
math-phobic K-5 teachers, for many people fractions remain perceptibly higher
mathematics, decimals are dimly comprehended, percentages are vaguely grasped,
and long division is a lost art. Ill-prepared for advance even to algebra
or geometry, the typical individual never enters the splendor of higher
order reasoning developed through experience with advanced statistics, trigonometry,
calculus, differential equations, and beyond. The typical individual
makes all manner of ill-considered decisions in the course of a lifetime left
ignorant as to mathematical probability and higher order reasoning.
The typical individual has little
understanding of biology, chemistry, or physics. She or he has the barest
grasp of human anatomy, physiology, diet, nutrition, and physical
training. The typical individual has little sense of the age of the
universe, evolution of life, the nature of the cosmos, the scientific
principles that undergird existence. Such an individual proceeds on the
basis of supposition and superstition, a world of ignorant conjecture rather
than factual analysis.
An individual going forth from
wretched K-12 education has no comprehension of the sequence of world and
American events over time; any detailed knowledge of political theory or
practical governance; the geographical fundamentals of the globe on which she
or he dwells; international economic systems, macro and micro economics,
monetary and fiscal policy, the Federal Reserve or World Bank or International
Monetary Fund; the psychological principles that predict, determine, and
as ongoing reality govern the individual life.
The typical person reads at a
grade 7 level, has little knowledge of musical composition, dim appreciation
for musical genres, no ability to play a musical instrument, is bereft of
knowledge and appreciation for the literature, painting, and sculpture
produced in magnificent diversity across civilizations.
The individual of most common
encounter is inept at manual tasks and the fundamentals of skills practiced in
vocational trades, unable even to ask intelligent questions or to follow
rudimentary explanations.
The typical person knows little of
any language not of her or his nativity, more likely to resent or fear an
unfamiliar language than to assuage her or his ignorance.
The typical individual is more
likely to cling to crude, ego-aggrandizing forms of religion and to live
without a consistent moral code than to grasp the transcendent concepts and
ethical precepts of world religious and humanistic traditions.
...............................................................
Such an individual lives out her
or his one earthly sojourn bereft of knowledge, skill, analytical reasoning,
higher culture, and morality. Such a person is ever susceptible to
manipulation by demagogues and to her or his own irrationality and
immorality.
And because such individuals
dominate the earth, we bear the consequences--- despite the presence of
counterexample in the lives and achievement of those who have ascended to
intellectual and cultural heights--- of the resulting violence,
cruelty, and debased avocations observable across a world in which most people
go to their graves never remotely aware of the ascendant potential of the great
gift of
Life.
Consequence of Abysmal
Education for the Individual >>>>> An Earthly Sojourn
Lived in Abject Ignorance (Part Two)
Given a knowledge-bereft,
skill-deplete, ethically vacuous K-12 education, the typical individual lives
out her or his earthly sojourn in abject ignorance, responding to the world in
the absence of information pertinent to mathematics, biology, chemistry,
physics, history, government, geography, economics, psychology, quality
literature, English usage, visual art, music, world languages, diverse manual
skills, and personal health.
Lacking knowledge of behaviorally
determinative genetics and environment, she or he never understands the causes
of her or his behavior or perceptible decisions. She or he rides a life
wave the origin and direction of which are dimly comprehended.
Grasping little of science and
possessing meager analytical training, she or he relies on emotion,
superstition, and supposition. She or he seldom lives creatively,
following well-worn tracks trod by family and acquaintances, never venturing
beyond the familiar. likely in the extreme to remain lodged in a comfort zone,
whatever the actual degree of fulfillment or satisfaction.
The unsatisfactory nature of this
sort of life is seen in high rates of alcoholism, drug addiction, obesity,
clogged arteries, high blood pressure, digestive maladies, violence, illogic,
and self-focus that bodes ill for nature, climate, electoral judgment, justice,
and societal concordance.
Typical individuals in the
aggregate produce a society mostly living in ignorance, illogic, immorality,
insecurity, and discord---
which is to convey the quality of
life in year 2021.
Societal Consequences of
Abysmal K-12 Education
Given the quality of the populace
produced by wretched systems of public education, life in 2021 ensues in a
degraded societal context created by an ignorant aggregate
citizenry.
Lacking understanding of the
genetic, developmental, and environmental determinants of behavior, society
fails to design knowledge-intensive, ethically substantive curriculum for
students of all economic descriptors.
Families mired in poverty at the
urban core tend to remain in that circumstance, so that their children go forth
to mean streets leading to psychic or physical death, or to prisons.
Having created the environmental context for behavior resulting in
incarceration, we fill prisons disproportionately with those abused by history
and current circumstance.
As poverty and associated
behaviors persist at the urban core, those at the urban periphery, in the
suburbs, and within gated communities dwell in their own psychic poverty,
themselves the victims of limited education.
Very few citizens comprehend the
constituent components of an excellent education. The great bulk of the
populace, lacking adequate knowledge of mathematics, natural science, social
science, and the humanities, make poor decisions pertinent to government,
public health, community well-being; and to their own health, vocation,
and avocation.
Feigning interest in their
children's education and life prospects, parents instead seek personal
aggrandizement in sending their offspring forth to colleges and universities
for pecuniary advancement rather than excellent education likely to sustain
individual happiness and societal welfare.
Lacking comprehension of people
across the economic and cultural continuums, citizens are typically atomized,
often antagonistically. In the absence of adequate knowledge bases,
emotion, superstition, and supposition guide personal and ethical decisions,
rather than facts, analysis, and ethics.
Even those deemed well-educated
tend to be merely professionally specialized. Technological proficiency
supersedes universally beneficial application of technology. Personal
gain as goal is the paramount value, rather than the universal good.
Failing to comprehend linked destiny, even those individuals considered most
fortunate suffer under circumstances in which the general and therefore
personal welfare suffers.
In this situation, despite
isolated accomplishments in science, technology, industry, commerce,
literature, music, and visual art, much of life proceeds in caprice, violence,
and immorality.
A society that lacks understanding
of the determinants of human behavior, ethics, and transcendent purpose cannot
design systems of excellent public education. Wretched public education
produces an ignorant and immoral citizenry.
A vicious cycle abides.
Only when, upon one of those
epiphanies observable at rare historical junctures, that cycle is broken, so
that the design of excellent public education becomes possible, will we be
positioned to realize the potential beauty of Life and leave behind the
degradation witnessed
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