First Blog

Learning is the task of schools and us all.  Yet, learning has its own components: memory, understanding, application. The first step, memory, precludes all others.  A person with no memory of the “something” can never learn much about anything. From memory, a student has a chance of understanding through various mechanisms, not the least important of which is analogy through previously understood concepts.  Thus, understanding and learning are bootstrapping processes. But now comes the most important stage of learning, and that is applications or better known as problem-solving.  We  conclude… The greatest learning engine is problem-solving.  Give a lecture and only a fraction learn. Call for a group involvement and more learn.  Ask them to solve a problem, and all learn. Not solving a problem is a key learning experience.  It exposes gaps in understanding. It points to needs.  It is an essential component of growth. How many times has the teacher heard this, “I understa

A. “Hate has a taste all its own that fills your throat and chokes you.” --- The Perry Mason Show B. “There are a great many people who are more clever than intelligent.” --- Bruno J. Zwolinski C. For some schools, excellence is always on summer vacation. D. The loyalty paradox:   Uncommon loyalty favors neither good nor evil, neither the scared nor the profane, neither love nor hate.   E. Fundamentally, learning is as nonlinear as are the differences between students. If all were linear, teaching would be easy. F. Cosmologists are the ultimate optimists, believing a complete knowledge of the universe is at hand.   Yet each problem resolved reveals another with double the difficulty.

Let's honest about government and intelligence. 1. Why does the government want an intelligent population?  It doesn't. Too difficult to manage and govern. Therefore, it is acceptable to allow the schools to continue failing their mission.  It is fine for incompetent teachers to stay in place. A terrible curriculum is a strategic advantage. 2. Why does the government want an intelligent congress?  It doesn't. Too difficult to manage; to willing to compromise; to practical about human activities.  Too liable to do something of lasting value. 3. Why does the government want an ample and well trained military.  It doesn't.  This is too risky for its personal security.  The military lives mostly outside the walls of government and is clearly a threat.  The government fears it crossing the Rubicon. 4. Why does the government want efficient and fair federal agencies? It doesn't.   This increases the expectations of the population to fair and effective treat

The talking points nation.   We are faced with a huge population whose knowledge base, whose opinions, and whose operational guidelines are contained within a few sheets of talking points . Information is exchanged via talking points, and knowledge is conceived through talking points.   Sure, there is the talking points exchange from time to time, wherein some points are replaced by others, but the total number is conserved.   It is akin to the Malthusian, wherein when the number of talking points exceeds capacity to absorb there results a diminution and constriction of the whole.   Definitely not gestalt.  This may, under the most generous interpretation, be a consequence of modern information overload, dissembled national viewpoints, or highly crafted antipodal positions.   With less generosity it may be more simply disinterest, preoccupation, or depth of understanding, all as promoted by our schools. Political demagoguery is paramount in their creation of talking points

Recently on TV we've seen a number of young adults burning the flag, often in public places. To us old folks, we see this as rebellious youth or reprehensible or simply ungrateful.  We've seen the Eric Sheppard Challenge, which is to stomp on the flag as a sign of disrespect toward a symbol representing oppression, police brutality, or whatever else it the topic du jour .  This is disheartening for a person who for many years has loved that symbol of freedom for us and much of the world. Is this the new force in America, to reshape it into some utopian vision of all together in a new and totally fair order, with true equality? Makes one think of Lenin, who announced the same goals. OK, this brings up my ages old sense of anti-communism.  Maybe they think this time they'll get it right.  It was a sign of worry, to me anyway.  But then just by accident I saw on TV a recent flag burning where there was a protest by a number of folks disagreeing with the burning. These anti

The art of memory is ancient.  Why?  Because it was needed.  Indeed, the ancient world strummed along rather well without the use of paper. Imagine a world without paper, if you can.  There would be no textbooks, no notes, no crib sheets, no reminders.  None of those modern artifacts of our daily lives would be there to assist us.  Today, we rely 100% on paper, electronic or from wood pulp. Even into relatively modern times, students relied on their memory to recall long citations from the literature or even math.  Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the US, who was raised with hardly a book in his house, developed his memory to prodigious levels.  He was a surveyor in his early days - to make a living.  This came long before he studied law.  For his survey work he needed basic math skills. These included knowledge of the right triangle, oblique angles and triangles, azimuth, angles, bearing, bearing intersections, distance intersections, coordinate geometry, law of s

Bulletin:   School test scores are down.  Students aren’t learning math. Students can’t read very well.  Students come to college much underprepared.   The United States scores near the bottom at many assessments of math competence (e.g. PISA test*).  (Gee, even Washington politicians speak at the 10th grade level.) The alarm is raised.  Educators from the highest levels in Washington to the States, to the School Districts are concerned.  They are lost on what to do.  They are lost on how to repair these problems.  They suffer a decline in the number of capable teachers entering the field; they endure the exodus of teachers from their ranks; they embrace alternatively certified teachers hoping some of them will last.   All write scholarly white papers, convene meetings,  try to link the schools and colleges.  Nothing works very well.  They are truly lost. What does a huge infrastructure do when faced with insoluble problems, with conditions they don’t understand, with issues that k