TED Talks – Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

I was sure I had blogged about this, but couldn’t find it . . . so here we go.

Sir Ken Robinson gives a short and entertaining talk about how schools kill creativity, why they do it, and why that’s a problem.

Creationists Infest Public Schools

A new study suggests that 18% of US science teachers are creationists and:

Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in U.S. schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science — and especially evolutionary biology — tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles…

We need to get these nutjobs out of the schools – although I wonder how many highschool students buy into their crazyness . . . .

Homeschooling – Putting the FUN back in Ignorance

I heard NPR say today that one of the reasons Huckabee won the Iowa caucus is that he had help from “home-schooling networks”.  And I thought to myself, “homeschooling?  WTF?”

I guess here is the idea of homeschooling:

It is the ignorant leading the ignorant with the added bonus of no social development in the child.  Wow.  That sounds great.  If you want your child to know nothing about everything than homeschooling might be for you.  Why trust your child’s education to professional teachers?  That doesn’t make any sense.  No, for the family on the go there’s nothing better than stupid, socially inappropriate children.  And let’s face it.  There are dangerous ideas out there that you can’t risk your child being exposed to!  Evolution, Philosophy, and the existence of dodecahedrons are all things your child is better off not knowing about.  Besides, there is no school out there that can as effectively distort history to fit your agenda as you can.  You’ll find that multivariable calculus is a snap to teach as you blunder your way through subjects and ideas that you know nothing about.  And in the privacy of your own home, you can feel free to beat your pupil for any wrong answer!  All this dysfunction and more can be yours – just pull your kid out of school today!

I’ve only known one person who was home-schooled (and yes, his parents were very Catholic).  Let’s just say that I think he would have done better to be exposed to the social atmosphere and hierarchy of an actual school.

Here’s a pro-home-school site that lists 10 common problems of home-schoolers: 

10.Fear of the Internet
Let’s face it—the Internet can be dangerous! There is so much out there that we do not want our children to see and so many people out there we do not want them to meet!

Also, The top fifteen problems with homeschooling.  Including, “Sex education with Mom consists of nothing but gardening metaphors.”

And you know you’re going places when you get one of these: