Politics in Education

One of my greatest grievances about our modern political system is how destructive it has been in public education. Our kids get targeted by all the ideologues in both parties. Rather than having a kid focused educational system, where a love of learning gets fostered, we have created factories that churn students through. Our kids have no unions or lobbies. Even though teachers often get the raw end of the deal, our educational system is more catered towards teacher interests than kid interests.

And the factory system has been notched up a whole additional level in recent decades with emphasis on standardized tests as documented in the following infographic from the website Best Masters in Education. The infographic does a nice job documenting how education has just become a factory for producing kids who can do well on tests. But it also points out how this system has class biases (wealth). And because schools with wealthier families perform better on tests, the system is destined to perpetuate a class based education gap. There is also pressure on both teachers and students to cheat… because cheating, if uncaught, gets rewarded.

It is time for our educational system to become kid based, to focus on learning and natural curiosities, and to reward natural inquisitiveness. The current system is as mind numbing as a factory.

From: BestMastersInEducation.com

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Bloodiest Battles of World War II

War is a nasty thing.  And sadly it is something that the United States instigates far too often.  It is important for us to remember how atrocious war is and articles like this one highlighting the bloodiest of the bloodiest battles where millions of people die, are very helpful.

Read the full article:  10 Bloodiest Battles of World War II

What strikes me is that pretty soon, most people alive will not have vivid memories of the horror of the World Wars and may very easily put to sleep by an overly militarized government.  As long as we’re the ones imposing the terror, well then it’s not so bad.

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US Military and CIA Interventions since World War II

 

For anyone who ever doubted that the US is acting like an empire.  Click this map to see a larger version.

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