Re: Nat'l Education Commission on Time & Learning

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Posted-Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 09:56:52 -0400
Date: Mon, 16 May 94 09:56:23 -0400
From: shap () viper cis upenn edu (Jonathan Shapiro)
To: farber () central cis upenn edu
Cc: interesting-people () eff org
Subject: Re: Nat'l Education Commission on Time & Learning


A reaction and an anecdote:


It seems sad to me that so many parents take little or no interest
in the education of their children.  That they simultaneously destroy
all of the disciplinary mechanisms that schools might use to act
successfully "in loco parentis" elevates this to the tragic.


Perhaps we might add to the objective list:


9. All parents will take an active interest in and support the
education of their children.




Now for the anecdote.


I have a masters in computer science and am currently pursuing a PhD.
I've been working in the field for 14 years.


Yesterday I had some time to chat with my neighbor, Ernie, who is a
lineman for Bell Atlantic (formerly Bell of PA).  He never went to
college, and looking back he wishes he had.


This is a man who is bright and capable, and responsible.  He works
hard at his job.  He goes deep sea fishing when he can.  He has a deep
and abiding love for his daughter, and wishes that he saw his daughter
more often (the daughter lives in another state with his ex wife).
He's one of the organizers of the local block watch, even though he's
renting his house and doesn't plan to stay very long.


And he reads.  Somewhere along the way someone taught him a real
appreciation of books.  His favorite reading is of American History,
and in particular the civil war period.  He reads science fiction and
fantasy.  He follows the newspaper.  He's curious about this internet
thing.  If a person really wants to learn, the best education in the
world can't stop them.


My father was once a teacher of American History, which probably
accounts for why I am most interested in math and the sciences.  His
main areas of interest were the revolution and the civil war.  If you
grow up with a teacher, it's more or less inevitable that you
internalize some of their field.  Ernie and I spent some time talking
about Hamiltonian versus Jeffersonian democracy, and his views on why
Jefferson's approach could not have worked in an industrialized
society.


Now it happens that I disagree with him, but Ernie knows the topic
far, far better than I ever will, and he offered me some pretty good
arguments for why centralized government is a necesary consequence of
industrialization.  I'm not sure I agree with him, but I'm sure going
to think about what he had to say.


Ernie may not have a college degree, but I wonder which one of us is
better educated.








Jonathan