[LINK] Al Gore on democracy, TV and Net neutrality

[Adam Todd]

At 02:12 PM 5/06/2007, Glen Turner wrote:
> > a decline in education standards in the west over the last 3 or 4 
> decades, or
> > if there's a different cause.
>
>You are pulling my chain, right :-)
>
>My eldest is in Year 12 in South Australia. Her tasks for the weekend:
>to write a short essay evaluating the pre-Revolutionary reforms
>in France and Russia; revise DNA variability and self-repair;
>collate and analyse the survey she conducted on social attitudes
>and behaviours towards charity and social justice.
>
>
>Two decades ago, we still learned about the Estates General, the
>Tennis Court, Rasputin, the Sealed Train and so on. But we didn't
>have to complete major works on them the following week, before
>their significance in view of later events had time to sink in.

Glen, you seem to over look that 99% of kids now simply "google" the 
topic and "cut and paste" into their assignment.

Education isn't about producing a report on your interpretation, it's 
about showing you can find the information and regurgitate it.

My wife, when she was teaching, got into trouble for actually asking 
the students to create their own interpretations, rather than simply 
express that they can find the information.

Go figure.

It's all about control of the population.  If you want people to do 
something, you tell them, for example.  If you say "I can't tell you 
about your account because of the Privacy Act" most people go "Oh 
yeah Ok"  but how many have read the Act, and more importantly, how 
many making the statement even know what the Act is!

(sigh)