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[rayzentz AT aim.com]

You and I are  <gasp> in pretty much total agreement here.   Ever since I was 
required, in eighth grade, to memorize who invented the cotton gin (which , 
incidentally, I have never forgotten - Eli Whitney), when I realized we spent 
no time whatsoever on why this was important.   I  realized then at least one 
weakness in the PS system.   There are many others.   
 
You may recall the time Henry Ford sued someone for calling him an ignorant 
bigot.   He didn't contest the bigot part, just the ignorant.   During the 
proceedings, he was asked many detail-oriented questions, which, of course, 
he could not answer.   His response was to the effect that he had at his beck 
and call men who knew those answers, who he paid well to know those answers, 
which freed his mind to concentrate on more important matters.
 
Personally, I have spent many years trying to instill the desire to learn in 
my students.   Many times, it has been quashed out of them by earlier 
teachers and schools.   Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.   I feel it 
is important to know how to think, not spout back answers.   I like students 
who are capable of forming a cogent argument, especially when it is in 
conflict with what I have been presenting (devil's advocate stuff).   
Information is readily available, concepts are a little more difficult.
 
Incidentally, my brother teaches in a public school (German), and yet his 
wife homeschools their 5 children.   In my opinion, a bit hypocritical...
 
Despite all the problems inherent in ps systems, which many of you have 
presented, accurately, I still feel that I am more effective as a "radical" 
voice within the system, than as an outsider.   Also, homeschooling is still 
not yet a viable replacement, despite successes of an effective minority.   
There are many reasons for this.   The Bottom Line, at least to me, comes 
back to active parental involvement in a childs education, whether public, 
home, or un.   Until our society reaches the point where all parents see this 
as important, I will remain a very squeaky cog in a cumbersome, imperfect, 
machine, that perhaps, if enough other cogs squeak, will finally see repairs.
 
Ray
 
 
<snip>
I'm going to go you one better here, Ray, and say it is far better to feel 
that the knowledge and answers are never far from one.  You don't have to 
have 
had a college course in this or that math, or this or that subject, else you 
are doomed in ignorance all of your days.  Schools instill in the child the 
feeling of hoplessness that unless the adept opens the gate to knowledge, he 
can 

in no wise expect to take part in it.  Unschooling dispells this myth and the 
unschooled never feels that whatever knowlede or skills he/she needs are not 
right at their elbow.
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