Too much time...

There are some people in this world who have ideas. Often, those ideas never come to fruition, unless the person with the idea has an inordinate amount of free time as well. And a whole bunch of legos; those help too.

Oh yeah. Merry Christmas.

Show me the money...

"A recently reprinted memoir by Frederick Douglass has footnotes explaining what words like 'arraigned,' 'curried' and 'exculpate' meant, and explaining who Job was. In other words, this man who was born a slave and never went to school educated himself to the point where his words now have to be explained to today's expensively under-educated generation."

-from a column by Thomas Sowell

Work in Progress

I'm thinking the title is going to be "Not mine, Oh Lord, but Thine"

The life I thought was mine to lose
Was never mine to live
The things I thought I had in life
Were never mine to give
The cross I thought I had to bear
Was not my crux to own
The death I thought I must embrace
Is Christ's and not my own

What then, this phrase, "Take up thy cross"?
What then, "Deny thyself"?
Should this life die once just begun
(Need to write a line here)
I am no dying sacrifice
But one that still must live
For me One has already died
And has my sin forgiv'n

What then, this phrase, "Take up thy cross"?
What then, "Deny thyself"?
Something must die, some part of me:
That thing I call my "Self"
This life's not of my own accord
Each breath solely God-giv'n
The life I live yet in the flesh
I live by faith from heav'n

My life is not that which must die
Lest His death be in vain
It is the "me", the "my", the "mine"
That need to thus be slain
It is not merely saying no
To some things I desire
It means I fling all of these mine's
Upon the flaming pyre

When I survey the wondrous cross
And upon Christ I dwell
HIS praises therefore must be sung
HIS glories I must tell.

Leave a comment; let me know what ya think.

Education (According to Other People)

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete.
G.K. Chesterton

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Oscar Wilde

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.
Ezra Pound

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Rene Descartes

All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
Sir Walter Scott

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
Mark Twain

Bad Business

Random thought and the gratuitous Seinfeld tie-in...

(Random disclaimer: I'm a teacher. I know many people who are teachers. Certain comments have hopefully been qualified with terms like "often" or "most." I'm not trying to say "always.")

Episode: The Heart Attack
Tor Eckman (the "healer" or "spiritualist") tells George that the problem with the medical institution is that getting people well is bad business. What they're looking for are repeat customers--basically, it's profitable to keep people sick.

The same is true of the tutoring/teaching gig. I can do one of three things:
1. Teach them exactly what they need to know in order to get by.
2. Teach them how to teach themselves.
3. Teach them incorrectly, but do so in a manner such that they think you're being helpful and such that they don't know you're screwing them over.

Now, it stands to reason that the most profitable situation would of course be option number 3. It leaves them in a continual state of necessity. (Fill in your own situation of seeing where this idea blows up, apart from the lying, the deceitfulness, the lying...)

It's necessarily bad business to do number 2. They no longer need the assistance, for they can do it for themselves. No necessity means no demand, supply goes up and price goes down.

That leaves you at number 1. And I'm wondering what other people's thoughts are. Does this extrapolate into the entire educational profession? Through high school though, you're pretty much working with (for the most part) a captive audience, a guaranteed "consumer"--they're going to be there whether they learn anything or not. Which leads either to the "ahh, who cares" reaction or the "alright, guess I'll teach them what I can" reaction.

Teachers and schools are needed as long as the students aren't smarter than their teachers. Therefore it is good business (even if the financial aspect of the model doesn't hold true) if students remain stupid. If students are continually in the need of instruction, it means that instructors are necessary; in other words, keeping students dumbed down continues to affirm the necessity of their teachers, thus stroking the fragile egos and boosting the "self-esteem" of those holding degrees in education who are more and more frequently the "scraping the bottom of the barrel" college graduates.

Second thought for the day: Sometimes, hanging out in the teacher's lounge at lunch makes me want to homeschool if I ever have kids. Make of that what you will.