The poster-child for what’s wrong with postsecondary education is the computer science program. Despite the enormous need for competent programmers, database administrators, systems administrators, IT specialists and a host of other technical professionals, computer science programs seem to explicitly ignore the professional skills of which western society has growing deficiency and proceed with materials and [...]
Posts Tagged ‘education’
The Central Theme of your Thesis (comic + comment)
by Kavan Wolfe
If you’ve gone to grad school, particularly for a PhD, this may ring true for you.
The strange thing is, grad schools seem to be constructed around the assumption that grad students are desperately inept and have no idea what they want to do for their thesis or beyond. This premise has so profoundly affected the [...]
Abolish Universities?
by Kavan Wolfe
Here is an interesting editorial calling for radical restructuring of universities. The basic point is that “universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no [...]
Many adults do not understand human rights – what they are, why they’re important, how their presence or absence affects the well-being of society. As far a I can tell, the reason adults don’t understand human rights is that they didn’t learn about it in school. What’s worse, even if human rights issues are covered [...]
The Crisis of Competence in the Medical Professions
by Kavan Wolfe
A crisis of incompetence has infected the medical professions. I’m not talking about that bullshit the scientologists spew about treating your own diseased kids or that religious nonsense about not taking a life-saving blood transfusion because it will somehow steal your soul. I’m talking about the silo-fication of medical education.
Suppose you have a sore shoulder [...]
Four More Reasons Why Your Kids Might Be Stupid
by Riley Firth
After a week or so of computer woes, I’m back, ready to take aim at the American education model once more. A couple of weeks ago, I observed a few fundamental flaws in the way we teach our kids. Here’s a few more crucial ways we make our kids, and our adults, stupid.
4. Not everyone is [...]
3 Reasons Your Kids Are Probably Stupid
by Riley Firth
Ever notice how ninety percent of the people you meet on a daily basis are fucking morons? It’s kind of a no-brainer to assume most of society will be functionally retarded if your entire educational system is broken, designed to produce perfect citizens, instead of developing a love of learning and fostering intellectual growth in [...]
The American Way: Three Absolutely Backasswards Practices
by Riley Firth
Have you ever watched the news, read the paper, or sat through a high school class, and wondered why the hell people in America seem to do everything completely backasswards? I suppose it’s no surprise that we do things backwards in a country whose administration thinks an unprovoked invasion is a form of defense, but [...]
For Their Own Sake, Let Them FAIL.
by Kavan Wolfe
Many of my friends are teachers – some high school, some junior high, a couple in primary/elementary education. Lately, they have alerted me to a very disturbing trend: in Canada, students are no longer allowed to fail. Students don’t repeat grades anymore. This is causing a serious problem.
Some high school seniors lack fundamental skills. While [...]
Why The World is So Screwed Up
by Kavan Wolfe
Why is the healthcare industry hemorrhaging money? Why is the military being used to fight ideas, when ideas can’t be killed by bullets? Why is the legislature unable to make laws that make sense? How can 12 years of basic education produce an unthinking populace? How can a man believe in his god, but not [...]