Real education, from the past, especially for today

Somehow I found this 1925 book, a reject from Oklahoma City libraries, "Sonata and Other Poems" by John Erskine, especially applicable today when this state and everybody else emphasizes training for a job.

   I didn't know he was an English professor and more at Amherst College and at Columbia--responsible for the Great Books movement. Most influential was his "Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent."

   You probably knew all this. My education is still continuing.

Terry

Here's the poem: "Modern Ode to the Modern School." Enjoy

 Just after the Board had brought the schools up to date

To prepare you for your Life Work

Without teaching you one superfluous thing,

Jim Reilly presented himself to be education.

He wanted to be a bricklayer.

They taught him to be a perfect bricklayer.

And nothing more.

He knew so much about bricklaying

That the contractor made him a foreman.

But he knew nothing about being a foreman.

He spoke to the School Board about it,

And they put in a night course

On how to be a foreman

And nothing more.

He became so excellent a foreman

that the contractor made him a partner.

But he knew nothing about figuring costs

Nor about bookkeeping

Nor about real estate,

And he was too proud to go back to school.

So he hired a tutor

Who taught him these things

And nothing more.

Prospering at last

And meeting other men as prosperous,

Whenever the conversation started, he'd say to himself

"Just wait till it comes my way--

Then I'll show them!"

But they never mentioned bricklaying

Nor the art of being a foreman

Nor the whole duty of contractors,

Not even real estate.

So Jim never said anything.

Color for a gray day

Where footsteps and time blur...5 by 7 watercolor, 140# d'Arches

Yes, the sun was out, and bright on the snow.
But around the world and in Oklahoma, it was a gray day. And more winter weather is coming.
 We're about to see Russia swallow an independent Ukraine, with Putin using the same tactics Hiter did in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. And the world is powerless. Putin is the new Hitler.
And in Oklahoma, the narrow-minded legislature and puppet governor Fallin are attacking the arts, science  and education, cutting funds, stifling creativity, gutting the quality of life and future for normal people, and the good of the state as a whole. They are the new  "No-Nothings," sending us back into new Dark Ages.
It's hard to be anything but disturbed or depressed. 
We need color in our lives more than ever, and thus today's painting, where the colors run together and our footsteps and time blur.

The pages of constant change

I'm reading Friedman and Mandelbaum's book, "That Used To Be Us" about "How America fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back."
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/that-used-to-be-us

It's one of those slow read books that make your brain hurt. A chapter a night is about all you can take, because it's heavy food that takes time to digest.
On top of that, since so much depends on education, I keep comparing what they're saying being disconnected to the functioning of higher education, especially at UCO, and realizing how many people know this, but more alarmingly, how many people don't get it, or won't get it, or don't care. I'm referring to the need of creativity and leadership versus a system that demands lots of forms and standardization, with more and more rules coming down everyday.  Consider this comment from a business CEO:  "More and more, innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb. Innovation that happens from  the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart."

Other points  I underlined: "So sometimes you need to inject chaos into the classroom." ""Challenging the status quo is the most critical thing," for employees if a company is going to survive.

At any rate, it's been five years since Friedman wrote the landmark "The World Is Flat, "and there's been so much change since then. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2BguxRSyY
The authors say the merger of globalization and the IT revolutions (specifically the mobile IT revolution) is what America is not adapting to. Consider this  from one of the book's chapters about education:
"In 2005 Facebook wasn't even it it. It had just started up....'twitter' was still a sound, the 'cloud' was something in the sky, '3G' was a parking space, 'applications' were what you sent to college, and 'Skype' was a typo."  And the iPhone didn't exist. They write about one new businessman: "His head office is an iPad."

It's not a gloomy book, but a disturbing one. Consider this conclusion, quoting a businessman, "Once all the technology is evenly spread, "all the old-fashioned stuff will start to matter even more....the only advantage you can have is the human self....How good is your school system?,,,"The technology everyone will have."

"Powerpoint makes us stupid"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html

Headline:  "We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint"

Great article in today's NY Times about the military's problem with Powerpoint. Besides wasting lots of time and therefore money by relegating junior officers--called Power Point Rangers-- to spending most of their time making up the programs. The use of PowerPoint  "stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision making."

"Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable," said one General who banned power point presentations. A Marine General said, "Power point makes us stupid." The bulleted points are referred to as "Dumb-Dumb Bullets."

Still "death by PowerPoint seems here to stay," used to describe the numbing sensations that go with a 30-minute slide presentation. Of the 30 minute presentations to the media last 24 minutes with five minutes for questions. Those sessions  are called "hypnotizing chickens."

General McCrystal, in charge of the forces in Afghanistan, gets two PowerPoint presentations  per day, plus three more during the week! We're in trouble folks.

Higher ed folks, are you listening?