Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


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Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  .This section is about educaton.  Topics include: ( ) Ideal.  ( ) Problems.  ( ) School.  ( ) Teaching.  ( ) Techs.  ---  1/24/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) A surprising number of adults fallaciously reason the following: Kids go to school and learn.  Adults do not go to school and learn.  They are adults, therefore they don't learn.  (2) Another way to phrase this idea:  Kids do a lot of learning, and therefore kids do a lot of thinking (acquiring information by finding out and figuring out).  Adults do little learning, therefore adults do little thinking.  Most adults live in a slow fog of random memories and short-term wants.  ---  12/13/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Best hope for education.  Natural curiosity.  Thinking.  Questioning.  (2) Biggest problem in education.  Curiosity squashed.  Despair of individual through loss of hope by thinking that education won't help.  Denied opportunity and access; told not to think.  Convinced not to care; apathy.  ---  10/20/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Breadth-first education.  (2) Depth-first education.  (3) Breadth-depth optimal combination education.  ---  7/11/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Comprehensive, cumulative (year by year) tests of all material from all previous grades, in all subject areas, for grade school, high school, college and graduate levels.  (2) Test methods: true or false, multiple choice (including multiple multiples), fill in, essay (short or long).  (3) Teaching methods: lecture, Socratic dialogue (nice vs. adversarial), team work, hands on active learning.  (4) Homework methods: reading, reports, case studies.  (5) Curriculum choice: what ideas to teach (where in knowledge pool).  How abstract vs. concrete, general vs. specific, roots vs. branches.  Curving vs. not curving grades.  Tracking vs. not tracking.  I am against research papers (waste of time after you have done it once).  ---  11/28/1993


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Education "broadly" is about growing people up to "maturity" or optimal psychology.  It is about raising kids.  Development and health.  (2) Stuff people can not learn from books: What it is like to hang out with healthy, ethical, smart people.  What it is like to love and be loved.  Social skills.  Could you learn these things from a computer?  Using a virtual mentor?  ---  02/28/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Education as learning.  Student centered education.  (2) Education as teaching.  Teacher centered education.  (not).  ---  7/11/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Education defined as access to information.  Education defined as access to ideas.  Three problems.  (A) What if all you have access to is fluff, like the gossip newspapers, unimportant trivial celebrity gossip.  (B) What if all you have access to is lies and propaganda due to censorship.  (C) What if  you have no access to information at all.  (2) Education defined as access to information as opposed to education defined as development of thinking abilities.  ---  12/1/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Education defined as everything you know at point A.  That is more like knowledge.  (2) Education defined as everything you learn between point B and C.  All the ways you grow, develop, improve.  (3) Education defined as everything you forget between points C and D.  Or rather, the remainder after forgetting.  ---  6/20/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Education defined as the search for good books and web sites.  Finding good books and web sites is a good first step in education.  (2) Education defined as the search for good conversations.  One can argue that thinking has a tendency to stop when conversation stops.  Finding good conversations can be difficult.  ---  5/29/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Education in what areas, to what level?  It is not just school subjects that are important, but also education in life.  (2) What is education?  Education is about shaping attitudes, persuading, convincing, changing minds.  Education as therapy.  (3) Another viewpoint.  People's mental powers gain strength regardless of (A) What ideas you put in them, or (B) What thinking exercises you give them to do.  Thus school and education in general (other than self education) is bullshit.  ---  02/28/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Education to produce generalists. vs. education to produce specialists. I am for generalists.  (2) Education to produce people who figure-out things vs. education to produce people who find-out things.  ---  7/11/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) First look all over and decide all books to read till end of your education.  Then start reading.  That's what I should have done, and quick.  ---  05/01/1993


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Formal education: school.  (2) Informal education: anything else.  Teaching self or just living.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) How much can we learn?  How healthy and smart can we become?  How much can we grow?  And once we grow, how much can we accomplish?  (2) Let's say we have a computer shrink.  And let's say we have a computer mentor.  An avatar we can have a dialogue with.  A personal tutor who is always one level of development above us (the "next step"), but capable of going as high as we can.  (3) From age 15 to 20 we can spend 20 hours a week with it for school.  From age 20 onward we can spend five hours a week with it.  Instead of watching commercial television 2 or 3 hours tonight, we can watch high-quality Internet television.  Let's say we can have any book read to us by computer, text to voice.  We can learn at our own pace.  We can pursue subjects when they interest us.  We can learn academic subjects plus learn about life, i.e., the stuff they do not teach in school.  ---  12/26/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) How to motivate, inspire, and give hope to the masses in order to get them to lifelong self-education?  How to create a sense of urgency, that they need lifelong self-education to be healthy?  How to create a sense in themselves that they can do it, and that it will help, and that it is important in order to save themselves and save the world?  How to accomplish the above, as opposed to other tactics such as (A) Taking action in society like being politically active, and (B) Creating greater ease of access to information by using technology like the Internet, and (C) Pumping money into schools.  (2) What about those who are limited in mental capabilities.  What percentage are they?  What percentage of people have the mental capability to self-educate themselves?  (3) How much can you learn, absorb, and grow at any given age.  From age 13 on you can self-educate yourself about everything.  (4) How to avoid forgetting all?  Lifelong Notes.  (5) Problem: They say "I know it all" or "I know enough" when they do not.  What and how much do they need to know as adults (information), and what level of thinking do they need to reach (mechanism), in order to be able to think well for themselves?  (6) Does one need to know high-level philosophical and psychological concepts in order to be healthy, or to be a good citizen?  It is not book knowledge people need in order to develop (mature), but rather they need emotional growth, social development, and ethical development.  ---  3/30/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) How to transfer knowledge from universities to the rest of society?  (2) What can academia figure out that a group of dedicated amateurs connected via the Internet cannot figure out?  That is, what is the Linux-style equivalent of academia?  ---  1/1/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Imagine a national level test, or even world level test, for continuing adult education.  (2) Imagine a cumulative test that tests everything you've learned in every grade.  ---  8/14/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Is college about what you know?  If so, you should be able to take a test to place out of college if you are smart enough.  (2) Is college about what you learn?  What you learn is the difference between what you know when you enter college and what you know when you leave college.  ---  4/14/1999


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Learning styles.  There are an infinite number of learning styles.  Each student has their own distinct learning style.  You can approach anything from any direction.  So do it your way.  (2) Teaching styles.  There is an infinite number of teaching styles.  Each teacher has their own distinct teaching style.  Thus, you could keep taking classes forever.  So do not get hung up on teachers.  ---  2/10/2001


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Make people curious.  Make people want to learn.  (2) Teach people to teach themselves and each other.  Teach people to read and write.  Teach people to find out.  Teach people to find good books, websites, music and movies.  Teach people how to organize the ideas they find out and figure out, by using pen and paper, or index cards, or computer databases.  Teach people to figure out.  Teach people to think.  Encourage people to spend time thinking, talking, writing, publishing.  ---  4/1/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Parents cannot adequately raise kids alone.  Not today, not ever.  The community helps raise (socialize) the child.  School is a major agent of socialization.  (2) How, and how well, does school currently socialize kids (teach culture and social skills)?  How and how well does it socialize kids at any level (elementary, high school, college)?  (3) How can we improve schools to help make psychologically healthy and advanced kids, rather than just teach kids the three R's (reading, writing, arithmetic)?  (A) Should each kid get an hour of therapy a week?  Yes.  (B) Should they teach more basic psychology, sociology and philosophy early on?  Yes.  (C) Should they do more exercises in team problem solving?  Yes.  (D) Teach conflict resolution skills.  (E) Teach self assertiveness skills.  (F) Teach ethical reasoning.  ---  4/15/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) Related terms:  Information.  Critical thinking.  Reasoning.  Media.  Information technology  (2) Related issues:  No censorship or propaganda.  No excessive corporate influence on media.  Freedom of speech.  Freedom of press.  ---  12/12/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) The argument for national educational standards, or any educational standards, be they at local, state, national or world levels.  Everyone has a right to an education.  There is basic information that everyone needs to know.  (2) The argument against national educational standards.  To avoid totalitarianism, the government should not determine what everyone learns and thinks.  The counter-argument is that in a democracy the people are the government.  Another counter-argument is that if there are no educational standards then some people would be learning nothing.  ---  12/12/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) There is a need for access to information.  There is a need for media like books, newspapers, television, radio, Internet.  There is a need for public libraries and free access to information.  All information should not be 100% privately owned and controlled.  (2) There is a need that information not be subject to censorship and propaganda.  (3) There is a need that people get a certain amount of basic information.  That is, there is an need for no cost, mandatory, public education.  (4) There is a need for keeping corporate influence out of public education and public libraries.  (5) There is a need for keeping religion out of public education and public libraries.  (6) There is a need for keeping censorship and propaganda out of public education and public libraries.  ---  12/12/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  (1) What order to read books: (A) A single volume general encyclopedia.  (B) A multi-volume general encyclopedia.  (C) Single volume encyclopedias in specific subject areas.  (D) Multi-volume encyclopedias in specific subject areas.  (2) The above is my method of learning.  It is a "breadth before depth" method of learning.  And I consider it better than "depth before breadth" learning because it is faster, more balanced, and more holistic.  (3) Many schools usually teach by using the less ideal "depth before breadth" method.  These schools will make you read a series of monographs.  But you usually only have time in school to read two or three monographs per subject per semester, and thus your view stays narrow, and your breadth stays limited.  (4) Better to know one sentence (or one paragraph, or one page) about 1000 ideas than to know 1000 sentences (or 1000 paragraphs, or 1000 pages) about one idea.  The latter is the kind of narrow state of mind that occurs when people do not pursue lifelong learning, and when they forget most everything that they know.  The latter is also what happens when people specialize (see Philosophy, specialization and generalization)  ---  5/18/1999


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  A free education (minus the degree) is available at the public library.  The key is to make people want the education enough to go get it.  ---  6/18/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  A major tactic of power abusers is to deny people education.  Three examples:  Slaves in the United States were denied education based on race.  Women are denied education based on being female.  Poor people are denied education based on income.  ---  7/31/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Academia is a muzzle for ideas as often as it is a venue for the expression of ideas.  ---  6/1/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Academia.  A defense of academia.  (1) Academia claims to be pursing truth rather than money or power.  More accurately, academia claims to be pursuing truth more so than money or power.  (2) Academia is cooperative more than it is competitive or conflict.  ---  1/1/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  All education is about the question, "Are you ready for it yet?", which is a tricky question.  It can involve the following issues:  (1) What they want.  What the student desires.  In this respect they can  sometimes behave like little addicts, wanting what is not healthy or useful to them.  (2) What they need.  (A) What they need and know they need vs. what they need and don't know (understand or realize) they need.  (B) What they need and already learned about vs. what they need and haven't learned about yet.  (3) What they are ready for vs. what they are not ready for.  ---  6/28/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  An over emphasis on science and business leads to an education biased towards numerical learning.  By keeping the humanities in the curriculum, one keeps writing itself in the curriculum.  Writing is essential to thinking.  ---  5/3/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Argument against education.  Traditional education builds a category system (ex. Categories of arts, humanities and sciences).  That category system is supposed to reflect reality.  That category system is supposed to provide maximum creative freedom.  That category system is supposed to be the best category system.  However, it is not the only category system.  And thus it is a limiting category system.  People should be free to create their own category system.  There are many healthy and productive ways of looking at the world.  ---  7/8/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Asking teenagers to read is likely to result in low compliance.  But teenagers love watching television.  If educational materials could be put in enticing television format, then much more learning would take place.  One way to do this would be to have cable or direct (satellite) television channels devoted to education.  Another way to do it would be to stream audio/video over the Internet, so that it is available to those who want it when they want it.  Either way it would have to be free like television, and thus commercial.  Could enough sponsors be found to advertise on a show that does not have a huge audience?  Audio/video media does have tremendous educational potential though, although some material is difficult to make interesting.  Ways to absorb information: you can read it, listen to a lecture in person, or listen to lecture via audio/video media.  ---  6/18/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Cheat sheets, crib sheets, are examples of information management.  Education itself is an exercise in information management.  Education is about how we store, organize, catalog and abstract information, and how we do so on paper, on computers and in our heads.  ---  4/25/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  College is a scam.  Colleges are businesses that get rich by  saddling young people with massive debts.  ---  5/29/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  College is supposed to be about learning to learn.  Higher education is supposed to be about teaching yourself.  Therefore, a college could really have no teachers, only tests.  ---  1/4/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  College should be free.  If college is required to get a good job, then college should be free.  Preschool should be free also.  Child care should be free too.  Continuing adult education should be free to.  Lifetime Education should be be available at no cost to the user.  ---  5/29/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Continuing education for adults means, in part, reading a good newspaper everyday, in order to find things out.  Continuing education for adults means, in part, setting aside time everyday to think and talk, in order to figure things out.  Doing these two things is part of being a responsible adult.  To not do these things is irresponsible.  ---  12/18/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Criticisms of college.  (1) College should be free, that is, available at no cost to the student.  High school is free.  High school is available at no cost to the student.  College should be too.  (2) College is not that much different than high school.  In fact, the first two years of college are often a repeat of the last two years of high school.  (3) College is too expensive.  Charging students $50,000 a year for college is a rip off.    (4) Another problem is that there is no guarantee of a job when you graduate college.  (5) A college degree is required for most good-paying jobs.  ---  2/15/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Current debates in educational theory.  (1) Standards and standardized testing.  (2) Privatization vs. public schools.  (3) Computers for kids.  (4) Letting students pick the direction of their learning.  (5) Letting students pick the speed of their learning.  (6) Uniforms.  (7) Segregation by sex.  (8) Tracking.  (9) Rote learning.  (10) Home schooling.  (11) Internet schooling.  (12) Lifelong schooling.  (13)  Length of school year.  ---  1/1/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Definitions of education.  (1) Education meaning formal learning, i.e., school.  (2) Education meaning including any conscious, intentional learning (a wider definition than 1).  (3) Education meaning including unconscious, unintentional learning (a wider definition than 2).  (4) Education meaning formalized teaching, where learning may or many not occur (related to 1).  ---  1/1/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Education by mode of organizing information.  (1) Historical based education.   Organizing information chronologically.  (currently overemphasized).  (2) Logical based education.  Organizing information based on the logical relation of the ideas.  (good)  (3) Importance based education.  Organizing ideas by how important they are. (good).  (4) Alphabetical based education.  (silly).  ---  7/11/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Education defined as communication of information.  Defining the concept of education in terms of the concepts of information and communication.  ---  1/2/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Education defined as knowing:  (1) What is going on (current events).  (2) What happened (history).  (3) Where are we headed (future trends).  (4) Where should we go?  ---  2/16/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Education is as key to democracy as a free media.  The public school system is a good thing, a functional necessity.  ---  5/21/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Education is just another word for learning.  Many animals can learn, not only humans.  ---  6/10/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Education should be done alone, without class or teacher.  Teach yourself.  Go at own pace.  There should be better incentive for knowledge progression.  School should pay for higher grades.  Mornings should be free for creative work.  Class should be in the evening.  ---  06/30/1993


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Education sum up.  (1) Education for Gardener's eight types of intelligence. (2) Education by the basic modes of experience: science, philosophy and art.  (3) Education as gaining a body of knowledge vs. education as developing thinking skills.  (4) Education for social development, moral development, emotional development, and other types of development.  (5) Education to develop: (A) Study skills for school.  (B) Work skills for job.  (C) Living skills for life.  (6) Education as figuring out vs. education as finding out.  (7) Education as "learning to learn" (whatever that means).  Learning how to learn.  Learning why to learn.  Learning what to learn.  (8) Education as motivation to learn.  (9) Education by subjects.  Education as typical subjects in school: math, science, history, etc.  (10) Education as information management.  (11) Education as (A) Self education.  (B) Lifelong education.  (C) Anytime, anywhere education.  (12) Education as child raising (baby sitting) vs. adult education.  (13) Learning as behavior modification, regardless of mental content (i.e., behaviorism).  The opposite view holds that learning is entirely about mental content, regardless of behavior.  (14) Learning as repetition.  Memorization is not learning.  Or is it?  One view holds that memorization is not learning.  Learning is greater than memory.  An opposite view says that learning is nothing but memory; and to learn is to memorize.  A third view says that learning has an understanding component and a memory component, and both are necessary.  If you understand but forget immediately then you have not learned.  If you memorize without understanding you have not learned.  (15) Learning as imitation.  Mimicry is not learning.  Or is it?  ---  6/10/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Factors in education.  (1) Freedom vs. indoctrination, rule following, and fact memorization.  (2) Book choice.  (3) For leaders or followers.  (4) Role of parents, home teaching, self teaching.  (5) Teaching values vs. facts.  (6) How much a culture values education vs. hollywood, sports etc.  (7) Comprehensiveness (depth, breadth).  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Finding out (from outside sources) is only half of education.  For the other half, figuring out (for yourself), people need to do their own notes.  Notes can be done by computer, typed, or handwritten.  ---  6/18/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Four types of bad education.  (1) No formal schooling.  (2) Illiterate.  Cannot read nor write.  (3) Learned only lies and false information.  No truth.  (4) No knowledge at all.  ---  8/8/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Getting the truth.  Getting rid of ignorance, lies, or sub-optimal views.  (1) Getting your hands on the right books (list them) (up to date, comprehensive, in depth, well out lined, concise) (quote books, college intro texts, dictionaries and encyclopedias).  Conceptual and historical layouts.  Read them, take good notes, memorize the notes.  (building a giant mental logical and historical outline).  Quickly.  (2) Figuring life out, in all subject areas, theoretically and practically.  ---  01/01/1993


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Grade school education is not just a legal right.  It is mandatory.  Internet education should be a right and a legal obligation as well.  ---  8/10/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Great books way of education should be dropped.  Why read Aristotle on politics when you can read 20th century experts on politics.  Why walk to California when you can fly.  ---  9/30/1996


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  (1) College has higher standards of work.  (2) College is more self directed.  You learn to learn.  (3) College involves more participation, more talking.  Grade school involved silence of student with teacher talking.  ---  8/20/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  College discussions are more adult, mature, sophisticated and complex than high school.  ---  8/20/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  College involves less dictation by the teacher, more of the students contributing their own ideas.  ---  8/20/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  High school is more about absorbing factual information.  College is more about getting students to think.  Develop skills in thinking and writing.  You are old enough to think for yourself now.  ---  8/20/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  In high school they just told you what was true and you wrote it down.  In college you see the process by which that truth was agreed upon.  That there are arguments being made for and against many views.  ---  8/25/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  One difference is in the standard of work.  College requires a higher standard of work than high school.  More rigorous thinking.  Longer works.  More complex thinking.  More sophisticated thinking.  ---  8/20/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  Standards of work.  (1) Whats the different between high school, college and grad school, in terms of levels of work?  (2) What's the difference between colleges of various levels?  Community college versus Ivy League.  ---  8/16/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  Standards of work.  Levels of complexity.  In high school, writing was fact-gathering and presentation, that is, research.  In college, good writing is thinking of new ideas that the individual has never thought of.  In graduate school, good writing is thinking ideas that no one has ever thought of.  ---  8/16/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  High school versus college.  Teacher and student.  In high school, the teacher spoke and the students listened.  In college, there is less of a gap between student and teacher.  The students talk, the teacher acts as a guide.  In graduate school, the teacher and student are almost equals.  ---  8/16/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Home schooling.  A criticism of home schooling is that if everyone decided to home school then it would dismantle the public school system.  Dismantling the public school system is bad, because a robust public school system is important for democracy.  ---  1/1/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Home schooling.  How easy is home schooling to do?  How much time does it take from the teacher, per day, week, month, year?  How much does it cost?  Cost of books.  Cost of time spent.  How effective is it in producing happy, healthy intelligent children?  What are the drawbacks of the current school system that makes people want to home school?  How does access to information on the Internet make home schooling more appealing?  Is there a cost in terms of not developing socialization skills?  ---  12/27/2003


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Home schooling.  Promotion of home schooling is being used as a way to dismantle the public school system.  Dismantling the public school system is a bad idea, and thus home schooling should not be supported.  ---  1/14/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  How cheaply can you educate?  Give them pencils, notebooks and carbon paper for them to do their notes.  Give them a single textbook that covers everything, cheaply printed, like an almanac.  Total cost $10 a year.  ---  9/2/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  I loathe school.  I always loathed school.  School is a jail.  School is a perversion.  School is forced learning.  You get an A for agreeing.  School is not learning, it is agreeing.  ---  7/10/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  (1) After teaching them the 3 R's (reading, writing, artithmatic), it is up to them to teach themselves. (2) Teach them about pathological-ethics and crime so as not to fall prey to it, and so as not to commit it.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  Best education system: structure, mechanism.  Knowledge pool: breadth and depth.  What teach: subject, issues, views, arguments.  How teach it, and how fast teach it.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  Education by computer.  Computer would break down all subjects by logic, history, and importance.  It would list all ideas, who held them, and state all alternate views.  It would answer your questions interactively.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  Give out books to keep so they can take them home and write in them.  Avoid endless repetitive notes.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  Government issue books, government issue reading lists.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  How they should run school.  Books and notes or outlines should be given out for keeps.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  Philosophy of education.  Teach them to read and write.  Then give them big notes outline and books.  No reports.  Review big picture often.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  Philosophy, psychology, and sociology should be taught much earlier.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Ideal.  What would my formal education system be like?  Who goes, when, where, for how long?  What subjects, views, and arguments learn?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  If someone bright never went to school or never even learned to read and write, how much would they learn about the world, and what would they learn about the world?  ---  2/28/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  If you start learning what you like, natural curiosity takes over, and it goes much faster.  ---  04/22/1989


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Instead of educating people about facts we should educate them about attitudes (thought and emotion) because every thought has an emotional component.  (2) We should start with a set of basic attitudes.  (3) We should always provide alternative attitudes and argue for which ones are best.  ---  6/24/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  It is tough to understand all of past, and stay on cutting edge of actual world and world of theory, in all subject areas.  ---  02/24/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Keys to education: motivation, values, mental health.  Strong foundational core (philosophy, psychology, sociology).  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Learning facts vs. learning attitudes.  We don't learn facts only.  We start with facts and develop attitudes.  ---  11/21/2003


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Levels of educability.  (1) Some people can figure things out for themselves if they simply make the effort.  But many people can not think things out for themselves.  (2) Some people can teach themselves by reading a book.  But many people can not teach themselves from books.  (3) Some people can understand reasoning if a teacher explains to them the reasons behind facts.  (4) But many people can only memorize facts.  ---  02/28/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Liberal schools, an argument for.  Elementary and high school are usually neutral in terms of politics, due to pressures on teachers to be apolitical.  College may seem liberal, but college is only four years.  Then its forty years of the work world, the business world, which is conservative.  Ten times as long a time is spent in the conservative work world than in the liberal college world.  And yet there are conservatives who decry even four years of mildly progressive education.  ---  8/16/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Me:  I would have been much better off without school, on my own.  I had a constant creeping desire to learn.  School destroyed that desire totally for years.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Middle ages: no school for anyone.  1800: grade school for many.  1900: high school for many.  2000: college for many.  2100: grad school for many.  ---  8/20/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Most important ideas.  (1) Education for a job vs. education for life.  Both are needed.  (2) School is necessary for a diploma, but it does not teach you all you need to know.  (3) Self education and lifelong education are both important.  (4) Learn to learn.  Learn to think.  (5) Find the best books.  Keep a record on a computer of found and figured notes.  ---  10/30/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Most important ideas.  (1) Self learning is key.  Writing down what you have learned is key.  (2) Lifelong learning is key.  (3) Developing judgment of choice of what to read and learn is key.  ---  10/05/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Most important things I can tell you.  Lifelong learning on every topic.  Self-directed learning on every topic.  Figure out and find out.  Lifelong thinking and writing on every topic.  Information management.  ---  4/2/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Negative sides of education.  (1) Academia:  There is much competition.  A lot of attack and defense.  People form gangs for power.  Academic gang violence.  Turf war.  Character assassination.  (2) High school:  Community pressures on teachers.  Teachers narrowly restricted by subject and view.  ---  2/15/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Objections to education.  At some point in your school career the following objections to school occur: (1) Unimportant information.  (2) Useless information.  (3) Wrong.  False.  Factually inaccurate.  (4) Suboptimal attitudes.  Suboptimal values.  (5) Objection to the teaching methods.  ---  7/15/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Objections to learning.  Attitudes toward psychological change that inhibit learning.  Personality types who refuse to learn because they do not want to change.  (1) Rigid, dogmatic, tradition bound.  (2) Weak ego, defensive, overly self-protective.  (3) Highly repressed.  Won't think of anything.  (4) Obsessed, pre-occupied, won't think of anything except x.  (5) Fear, anger, depression, and other forms of emotional interference.  (6) Lazy, apathetic, demotivated and other drive related problems.  (7) Poor attitude about life in general.  (8) Know it all attitude.  (9) Us vs. them, bunker mentality.  (10) Hedonism.  Thinking is too much work.  (11) Ostrich.  Head in sand.  (12) Staying in one's safe and secure little world.  Provincialism.  (13) Its too much of a blow to one's ego to admit and face one's ignorance.  (14) To painful to face the problems of this world.  ---  4/8/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Objections to learning.  Three common objections to learning.  (1) It is to hard.  I cannot do it.  (2) It will not help.  It's not worth it.  (3) It's no fun.  It's a bore.  ---  6/18/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Objections to learning.  What discourages people from pursuing education?  Education defined as lifelong information gathering.  And what discourages people from applying their education?  Applying education defined as lifelong problem solving, which is just as important as information gathering.  Some of the sub-optimal attitudes people take towards education: (1) I can't do it.  (2) I do not like it.  It is boring.  (3) I just want have fun.  (4) I do not have time, due to job or family.  (5) I forgot to do it.  (6)(A) The world is against me in particular, for whatever reason.  (B).  The world is hopeless in general.  (7) I am easily discouraged.  (8)(A) Education will not help me in particular.  (B)  Education does not help in general.  (9)(A) There is no good knowledge out there.  (B) I'm afraid of getting my hands on the wrong books, and my mind on the wrong ideas.  (10) I do not want to face the world.  Head in sand.  Willful ignorance.  (11) It is not my job.  Someone else is handling it.  (12) The person is a believer of propaganda, and not a critical thinker.  ---  12/20/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Once the final mile problems is overcome, and we have high speed fiberoptic lines or wireless connections everywhere, the next big problem becomes the final yard from monitor to brain (i.e., getting knowledge into brains).  One solution may be digitized lectures free to anyone, anywhere.  Another question is what to learn?  The old curriculum was trigonometry, algebra, etc.  The new curriculum should be environmentalism, social justice issues, health issues, philosophy, psychology, and sociology.  Another big problem: how to convince or persuade people to learn?  ---  3/11/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  (1) School interferes with learning.  (2) School stifles exploration and creativity.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  (1) Some schools teach you to conform and obey.  (2) Some schools teach you to think for yourself.  (3) Avoid "1".  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  (1) The spirit of learning is liberal.  Change, progress, curiosity, mystery.  (2) The spirit of institutions of formal education is conservative.  Order, stasis, inertia.  (3) When curiosity enters stasis, the spirit of learning suffers, and they hate it.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Contra: education at its worst is brainwashing; it creates wimps, clones, and drones.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Current US school system: why does it suck in general, and why did I hate it specifically?  (1) No freedom: to choose what learn when, how long.  (2) Too slow.  (3) Many areas left uncovered.  (4) They don't present subject completely (depth, breath) from logical and historical outlines, moving from basic to complex concepts, and from roots to branches.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  First two years of college are a waste review.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Formal education can impede your development, uses up time and energy, and keeps you from confronting important personal problems.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Formal education does not mean you are knowledgeable if you learned nothing, or learned lies, or learned unimportant, or if you forgot it all, or if you learned but can't use it.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Great books (classics) way of education is b.s.  It takes too long.  Boil it down to one big outline.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  I love learning but I hate school.  School interferes with learning.  It is so slow.  It wastes time and energy on useless stupid papers.  It destroys natural curiosity and diverts attention from most needed directions of discovery.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Illiteracy is too simple a name for the lack of education.  It is not just that people can not read.  People have stopped thinking.  They have narrow, parochial minds.  They have closed minds.  Wasted time, wasted brain power, and unused brains.  People could be helping themselves and helping society.  People are abusing and neglecting their minds.  These conditions go way beyond not being able to read, and so illiteracy is too simple a term to describe what ails us.  ---  3/29/1999


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Pessimistic view of the educational system.  They are not teaching, they are just weeding.  ---  4/6/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Preaching, propaganda, and indoctrination.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  School destroys curiosity, and desire to learn and think on school subjects or any subject.  It destroys natural interest directions.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Schools proves who has ability and motivation to do much boring work for long periods of time, under pressure and time limits, just like survival work.  School also proves who will obey.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  They told us what subjects to think about, what views to take on it, when to think about it, and how to think about it (modes of thought).  It was brain washing, mind control.  We were mental and physical prisoners.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Problems.  Too often school makes kids hate thinking, learning, reading, and writing, by forcing them to do things they don't want to do, when they don't want to do it.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Progressive education.  Conventional education has a tendency to de-politicize and distract people from Progressive activism.  Conventional education has a tendency to de-politicize people by taking a politically neutral stance on all topics.  Conventional education has a tendency to distract people by making them take courses that have nothing to do with Progressive activism.  So one must pursue a Progressive education alongside one's conventional, formal education.  ---  5/29/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Progressive education.  Educating people to be better progressives.  Understand the entire world from a Progressive political standpoint.  ---  3/15/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Public education available to anyone.  Public education should include preschool.  Public education should include college.  Public education should include adult education.  Public education should be no cost to the user.  Public education should be available free through the Internet.  The public education system should be expanded, not dismantled by mistaken conservatives.  ---  11/13/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Purpose of education.  (1) To exercise mind (puzzles).  (2) To learn to learn.  (3) To learn important ideas to deal with life.  (4) For degree, for career.  (5) For interest.  (6) Know how to survive.  (7) Occupational skills.  (8) Know how to think (function).  (9) Have a body of knowledge (content, structure).  What exists: metaphysics.  How we know: epistemology.  What to do: ethics.  (10) Develop right attitudes (emotion + thought) on all subjects.  (11) Education for workplace, citizenship, and life philosophy.  (12) Motivations for education.  (A) Fear punishment vs. want reward.  (B) Self motivated vs. other motivated.  (C) Self directed vs. other directed.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Raising kids vs. adult education.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Related subjects.  (1) Politics of education.  Education of the public is necessary for the form of government known as Democracy.  Democracy is based on education.  (2) Economics of education.  Education is needed to get oneself out of poverty.  Education costs money, though.  (3) Technology and education.  Pencils and paper.  Chalk and board.  Language, writing, printing, computers.  (4) Psychology and education.  Education is needed to develop the mind, in order to avoid the problems of ignorance, mistakes, emotional pain, and psychopathology.  (5) Sociology and education.  The school is a social situation.  One learns social skills in school.  ---  8/8/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Related subjects.  Philosophy (ethics).  (1) Any attempt at education imposes values.  What values should we impose and how?  (2) Teaching motivation and values in school.  Can it be done, should it be done, how?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Related subjects.  Politics and education.  (1) Life is political, so how can education not be political?  (2) Of what value is an apolitical education?  Apolitical meaning non-political.  One can argue that an apolitical education does a disservice to a person.  (3) Is it possible for education to convey the importance of politics, without education being politically biased?  That is the challenge.  (4) And yet, in schools in the United States, civics class is an attempt to impart the political values of the United States on students.  And so on, every nation imparts its values on its citizens.  (5) There is a set of political ideas that are accepted, core, foundational.  And there is a set ideas that are in dispute, debate.  These two sets of ideas usually change over time, hopefully in the direction of progress.  ---  7/31/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Related subjects.  Politics.  Political influence over education.  Who picks what is taught?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Scholarship as jazz.  Riffing off your work and other people's work.  Spontaneous improvisation.  Variations on a theme.  ---  09/20/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School burnout.  Sick of school.  (1) Sick of professor.  (2) Sick of subject.  (3) Sick of the particular coursework.  (4) Sick of the school in general, or the administration, or the curriculum.  (5) Any combo of above.  (6) Sick of fellow students.  (7) Depressed about life in general.  (8) Depressed about some extra-school aspect of your life that is affecting your schoolwork.  ---  06/20/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School is like swimming under water.  You try to pass the final before you run out of air.  After the final you can breath again.  ---  07/08/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School is masochistic.  You pay for pain, and the potential of failure and loss of money.  Will it pay off?  ---  10/15/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School should be free if you fail, plus a consolation prize.  Pay only if you pass.  No use piling up humiliation on top of monetary loss.  It demotivates people from pursuing an education.  ---  09/26/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School.  (1) First 6 years of school (age 6 - 12), they are teaching you to read, write, and do arithmetic.  Learn how to use the library and the web.  You learn how to learn.  (2) The next 6 years (age 12 - 18) you are in jr. high and high school.  Busy with growing up.  You should also be teaching yourself.  Finding out and figuring out.  (3) From 18 on, including college, you are an adult.  ---  05/10/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School.  In grade school, jr. high, and high school.  There should be one class a week in psychology, sociology and work/career.  Questions like: Who am I?  What do I want to be when I get older?  What are the jobs like?  So much is wasted because school is just way off the mark.  You can teach kids skills while teaching them about the current real world.  The way to teach is not just by using abstract theory or history.  ---  08/30/1996


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School.  Is a class easy or hard to you?  It depends on (1) Your pre-existing knowledge.  (2) How attracted or repulsed by the subject matter you are.  (3) How long and hard you study, and how well you study.  (4) How intelligent you are.  (5) How good you are at school (in other words, it is tough to say).  (6) How your life is going outside of school.  ---  10/30/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School.  It all depends on time and effort.  If you stay ahead of the game, the class (or your co-workers at work), then your school (or work) experience will be a joy.  If you fall behind it will be hell.  If you stay even it will be neither.  I want my life to be joyful.  I produce more and better work in that emotional state, and have more fun too.  ---  06/10/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School.  Learn the material before you enroll in the course.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  School.  Three problems.  (1) A lot of the stuff you learn in school is irrelevant and useless.  (2) A lot of the work you do in school is useless and does not contribute to society.  Busy work.  (3) You don't get paid for going to school.  ---  02/22/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Schools segregated by sex, school uniforms and curfews are sub-optimal.  ---  02/15/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Self taught vs. taught by others.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Sitting in a cafe at an expensive, private, ivy league school, watching the smart, rich, motivated kids wending their way through life.  Meanwhile, what of the poor, aimless, confused, distracted, disenchanted, scattered, frazzled airheads?    ---  1/12/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Some people value grades.  Some people value knowledge.  Some people value both.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teach kids:  (1) How to teach themselves.  (2) Why to teach themselves: motivate them.  (3) What to teach themselves: give them an outline guideline.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching methods.  (1) Lecture.  (2) Dialogue.  Question and answer.  (3) Lab.  (4) Discussion of readings.  ---  8/4/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching methods.  (1) Which teaching methods are better for which age groups?  (2) Which teaching methods are better for which subjects?  (3) Which teaching methods are better for which individual students?  (4) Which teaching methods are better for which individual teachers?  ---  8/4/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching methods.  Courses with assigned text readings versus courses with no texts.  ---  8/4/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching methods.  Homework.  (1) How much homework to give?  An equal amount of homework for each class.  Total amount not to exceed four hours a day.  (2) Whether to assign a paper or project.  ---  8/4/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching methods.  Individual work versus group work.  People should be able to work well with others and work well alone.  ---  8/4/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching methods.  Which books would you pick to teach the subject?  How would you teach the book?  What would you say about the book?  Have a set of lecture notes.  What would the syllabus or course outline look like?  ---  8/4/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching spectrum.  (1) Will go out of way to teach.  (2) Will answer questions: gladly vs. grudgingly.  (3) Will not answer questions.  (4) Will lie and screw you up.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching yourself.  Self learning, auto-didactic, keeping at it, learning the material.  (1) Finding the good stuff.  Figure out what to learn.  Cover all areas.  Recognize good books.  (2) Reading fast.  (3) Taking good notes.  Organized, concise, clear.  (4) Remembering and applying the information.  (5) Keeping up with changes in the field.  ---  03/20/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching: Is it molding young minds or is it making young minds moldy?  ---  7/25/2001


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching.  Best way to teach is to motivate and inspire.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching.  How best to teach individuals or groups?  What to teach to who?  Degree of force or freedom (choice).  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching.  How do you teach six billion people?  You get them to teach themselves.  There are two ways how.  The first way is to get people to figure out stuff themselves.  The second way is to get people to find out stuff themselves.  The above two methods as opposed to having to hire teachers for everyone, which is much more expensive.     The issues involved are the following: (1) People need free time to learn.  (2) People need access to information to learn.  (3) People need the tools to record and share information.  (4) People need to be motivated.  (A) They need to value knowledge and learning more than they value money and stuff.  (B) People need to value critical thinking and debate more than they value blind belief and blind obedience.  (C) People need to value energetic industriousness more than they value laziness and apathy.  (4) What if people figure out the wrong things?  What if they do not want to teach themselves?  What if they are clueless?  ---  8/6/1999


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching.  One philosophy of education at the college level is that education does not involve the teacher telling the student what to think.  Rather, education involves the teacher getting the student to think, to generate ideas, and to critique ideas.  ---  4/24/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching.  Teacher, three views of.  (1) Teacher as someone who knows everything.  Teacher as someone who knows all the right answers.  That is a fallacious view of teaching.  (2) Teacher as anyone who is one step ahead of the student.  Therefore, anyone can be a teacher because there is always someone less knowledgeable.  (3) Teacher as a fellow learner who guides class inquiry.  Any student in the class can be the teacher if motivated to lead a discussion.  The class as a group of learners.  ---  3/18/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching.  Two teaching mistakes.  (1) Allowing anything.  Every one gets an A.  No one fails.  (2) Allowing nothing.  No one gets an A.  Every one fails.  (3) A counter-argument: One can imagine a situation in which an entire class gets A's because every student works hard.  One can imagine a situation in which an entire class fails because no student works hard.   ---  3/22/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching.  You can't teach anyone anything.  All you can do is show them what you do, and then they can decide if it works for them.  ---  01/24/1989


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Teaching.  Your teaching style does not suit my learning style.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  (1) Public vs. private (religious and non-religious) education.  (2) American vs. European vs. Japanese systems.  (3) Local vs. national vs. world control.  (4) How long day and year.  (5) Tracking.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  All formal education should be aimed at survival work and or practical life.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Books vs. computers vs. lectures.  Electives vs. no choice.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Case method = problem solving = application solving.  Cases: simple vs. complex, clear vs. muddled.  You should have the theory down first.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Case study is for people who already know the theory.  It emulates real life examples, problems, and applications.  ---  10/20/1993


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Developing unhealthy slaves and drones vs. developing healthy free thinkers.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Education spectrum.  (1) Encouraging them to memorize.  (A) Facts, or principles, or both.  (B) Explanations.  (C) Alternate views and arguments.  (2) Encourage them to think for themselves.  (3) Make them come up with questions as well as answers.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Methods: wrote memorization, Socratic dialogue, case method, group learning, historical approach, theory vs. applications.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  There should be high school classes in (1) Physical health.  Not gym, but rather communicating the importance of sleep, diet, and exercise.  (2) Psychological health.  Types of problems, causes, therapies, and preventative techniques.  (3) Economic health.  Career search.  Jobs.  Budgets.  (4) Social health.  Importance of social relations.  Friendships.  Assertiveness (sticking up for oneself).  (5) Environmental health.  Taking care of the environment.  A green education.  ---  07/02/1997


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Two education theories.  (1) Show kid nothing vs. show kid everything.  (2) Pros and cons of each.  2nd is right.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Two philosophies of education.  (1) Allow them no freedom.  (2) Allow them total freedom.  Pursue whatever you want whenever, at whatever pace, to whatever degree.  (3) Do we want to create drones or creative types?  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  Ways to do it.  Force, threats, propaganda, psychological persuasion and coercion vs. reasoned argument.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Techniques.  What works best in education?  Slowly building for long time, vs. heavy and quick immersion, and then moving onto something else.  ---  04/30/1993


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Test types:  True or false.  Multiple choice.  Essays.  Problem solving puzzles.  Math questions.  Logic analogies.  Verbal vocabulary tests.  Spatial, object rotation tests.  ---  11/21/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Tests.  It seems most graduate level standardized exams do not test, and are not meant to test, how smart you are (how much you know).  It seems most graduate level standardized exams test, and are meant to test, how hard you are willing to work at studying boring material (high school vocabulary and math).  ---  12/30/1995


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Tests.  Testing knowledge of facts vs. testing problem solving ability.  ---  02/01/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  The "great books" method of learning is bogus.  (1) In 2000 years we have made a list of 1000 great books.  At that rate, in 20,000 more years there will be about 10,000 great books.  Nobody will have the time to read 10,000 great books.  (2) Or, alternatively, if you keep the list length at 100 books then in 20,000 years 90% of the current great books will no longer be great anymore.  (3) Either way, the great books method of learning is bogus.  The better way to learn is to abstract and outline the great ideas and just work from a logical outline of great ideas.  ---  9/22/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  The best argument for education is that public education should be available for everyone, at any age, any place, at no cost to user.  There should be standardized tests that anyone can take for free, and that are universally recognized by the rest of society.  ---  1/1/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  The big questions about education.  (1) To what degree are humans educable?  That is, is it 100% nature, 100% nurture, or somewhere in between?  I say it is 50/50.  (2) How do you define education?  Behaviorists would say that education means effecting a change in behavior.  Others would say education means changing thought, both thought content and thought mechanisms.  Others would say education includes emotional development and attitudes.  Yes.  (3) Who has effects on educating a person?  Parents, teachers, peers, community, the person themselves?  Actually all are important.  (4) How does the most effective educational methods change with the age of the learner?  And when is it too early or too late to learn something.  (5) Ways of learning.  You can learn by seeing the world (travel).  You can learn by interacting with people.  You can learn by reading a book.  You can learn by doing.  You can learn by imagining.  ---  8/18/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  The only effect of education is to make people think they are credentially qualified to do jobs for which they are not mentally qualified; and to make people think they are not credentially qualified to do jobs for which they are mentally qualified.  ---  10/31/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  The real world?  Some people think the world of work is "the real world".  Some people think school is not "the real world".  Some people denigrate school because they think school is not the "real world".  That is a mistaken view.   (1) School is real.  You are not imagining that you are in school.  School is not an hallucination.  (2) The "work world" created schools.  (3) The work world is not all its cracked up to be either.  (4) In this class you have the freedom to create.  You have what film makers call "creative control".  (5) Think of school as your job.  Its your job to learn.  They are not paying you, its true.  (6) College is a golden age of thought.  College lets you use your recently developed abstract thinking ability.  Gathering knowledge about the world.  Four years to ponder, wonder, sort things out.  ---  8/16/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  The schools have been depoliticized because schools are afraid to alienate their customers the students.  Afraid to teach politics.  Afraid to take political stances.  As a result of attending depoliticized schools, the populace has become depoliticized.  A depoliticized populace is a danger to itself.  ---  7/7/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  The variables in education are (1) Who you teach: children vs. adults.  (2) What you teach.  What views you believe are true and false.  (3) Scope.  Breadth and depth.  (4) How you teach.  The methods that you use to teach, be they lecture, textbooks, etc.  (5) Whether you address only raw fact data vs. the whole person.  That is, in addition to building a person's knowledge base, do you also address a person's thinking-skills development, emotional development, social development, ethical development, etc.  ---  2/1/1999


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  There are many types of learning.  (1) Learning to avoid pain and get pleasure.  (2) Learning to avoid predators.  (3) Learning to get food.  (4) Learning to fight and to love.  (5) Learning a physical activity.  (6) Learning a piece of music.  Learning to recognize a piece of music.  Learning to play a piece of music in your head.  Learning to play a piece of music on an instrument.  (7) Learn a fact.  Learn a lie.  (8) Learning to be creative vs. learning to obey blindly.  (9) Learning to be honest vs. learning to be a criminal.  (10) Learning to be brave vs. learning fear.  ---  6/10/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  There are two types of schools:  Schools that teach creativity vs. schools that destroy creativity.  Problem solving and decision making are forms of creativity (?).  ---  12/30/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  There is a difference between (1) What you need to know to get the degree.  (2) What you need to know to do the profession  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  They key is to convince people to educate themselves, in their free time, for fun.  Otherwise, they will just forget all they learned in school, and spend their time vegetating or consuming bullshit entertainment.  So education is really about motivation.  ---  02/28/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Things they didn't or couldn't teach you in school are most important.  They couldn't teach you experiential knowledge.  They couldn't teach you everything if they tried.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Three must haves.  (1) Access to information.  (2) Motivation to take in the information.  (3) Judgment to direct studies.  ---  5/15/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  To what extent does raising your kids involve educating your kids?  Some would define raising a kid as educating a kid, meaning one is synonymous with the other.  An opposite view holds that raising a kid means providing food and water, much like growing a plant.  Raising a kid defined as merely keeping them from getting killed is a minimal conception.  If raising a kid means educating a kid then to what extent can one abdicate this task to the school system?    PART TWO.  If the majority of raising or educating a child is up to the parent then how are they to do it?  With books?  With computers?  What if the parent has to work 8 hours a day away from the child?  How to raise or educate the child in terms of ethics, social skills, emotional knowledge, etc.?  How to educate in terms of practical knowledge vs. theoretical knowledge?  ---  7/11/2002


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Two different ways of teaching.  (1) Breadth (broad scope) vs. depth (narrow details).  (2) Principles (roots or foundations) vs. the leaves (what word?).  (3) These two pairs (1&2) are not the same.  And in both cases it is better to first focus on the former (breadth and roots) and then the latter (details and leaves).  ---  7/16/2000


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Two ways of learning and living.  (1) Old way of life and learning: Get a degree in a particular subject area.  Then get a job in the same subject area.  (2) New way of life and learning: Self-directed learning via the Internet.  Be an activist in your free time.  Support yourself with odd jobs.  ---  3/3/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  We must make philosophy of education part of the curriculum, because kids ask "why am I here in school?"  School is the problem.  Every year explain to them (1) The importance of education for job, life wisdom, and enjoyment.  (2) Importance of life long learning.  (3) Importance of self education on their own.  (4) Problems of learning "just for grades only".  Grades are important, but only half the story.  (5) Importance of thinking for themselves (figuring out vs. finding out).  ---  06/17/1994


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  What are we to make of the situation where an "easy college" can seem like high school recapitulated, and a "challenging college" can seem like graduate school?  ---  2/18/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  What is education?  (1) Education defined as developing a set of attitudes (thought and emotion) on all topics.  (2) Education as developing a set of arguments (reasons) on all topics.  (3) Education as developing a set of thinking skills for all topics.  (4) Education as developing the motivation to think on all topics.  ---  12/11/2005


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  What school often does is make students think that learning is unimportant and that learning is not fun.  We need to transmit to students that learning is important and that learning is fun.  In education, motivation (drive) and emotion is at least as important as thinking.  ---  12/5/1999


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  What to teach a person.  (1) Teach them WHY they should pursue lifelong self education.  Motivate them.  (2) Teach them HOW to pursue lifelong self education.  Teach them how to spur yourself to keep thinking.  How to record found and figured ideas.  How to write figured ideas as Notes (one idea per paragraph, and sort paragraphs by keywords).  For found ideas, teach how to pick what to read (i.e., choose foundational ideas of wide scope), and how to take notes on it.  ---  7/21/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  When you educate yourself by reading a book should you consider yourself self-taught or taught by the author of the book?  ---  1/26/2004


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Why are we here in class?  Of course, to get a degree.  But also, because we have made a commitment to knowledge, thinking, reason, information, curiosity, questioning, and inquiry.  ---  4/2/2007


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Why does college suck so bad?  It is to prepare you for the world of work, which sucks even worse.  ---  7/24/2006


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  Why I think teaching sucks.  (1) Usually you have to tell someone something ten times before it sinks in and a light bulb goes on.  (2) People seldom thank you for enlightening them.  Usually people have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the truth.  (3) Learning is growth, and growth is change, and people resist change because they are comfortable where they are.  (4) Learning takes work, and people are lazy.  People conserve their resources.  ---  10/11/1998


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  You are responsible for your own education, no one else is.  ---  12/30/1992


Psychology, thinking, education.  ---  You do not want to spend your entire life reading books; and yet, you want to read a little every day.  ---  5/10/2007




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Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.