Quote:


Apologies......it seems I have inadvertently involved myself in a domestic.

Do carry on.

Aussie wrote on Oct 1^st, 2008 at 9:06pm:


It is not a capital t and double ll.
I suppose they don't grow in Queensland?

Education encompasses both the teaching and learning of knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency. It thus focuses on the cultivation of skills, trades or professions, as well as mental, moral & aesthetic development (Wikipedia)

Reading should be a compulsory activity at school, but with broad choices. At primary level they should be especially broad and gradually moving toward the more complex and meaningful literature as levels of education rise. Many children will develop more complex tastes on their own, some need to be encouraged. Start kids with comics I reckon. I still read comics and MAD . It is not unusual for my backpack to have in it History of the Peloponesian War and a Silver Surfer trade paperback and a magazine on organic gardening.

The classics are chosen for a reason, often very good ones. If you read nothing other than the complete works of Skakespeare then I would have to say you have read the very best. An author who covers with incredible insight human psychology and the human condition, who covers ethics and consequences, racism and mercy, love and villany. But kids usually don't see much value in Shakespeare and this has a lot to do with the choice of play we are introduced to. On first introduction I hated Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. Who wants to read all that flowery language. etc etc teenage boy attitude even though I was a reader. Now when we did Julius Caeser and Henry V that change completely and I went on to read many of his other plays. There are more appropriate quotes from Shakespeare to suit the multitude of everyday situations than any other body of work ever written.

There is also another Australian book that should be compulsory reading and that is Albert Facey's " A Fortunate Life". A book that moved me tremendously (I normally hate biographies or autobiographies unless they are about military persons). It is written so simply but with such elequant honesty that you are left wishing you could have met him and thanked him for sharing. After all his loss and heartbreak when he finishes is story with how lucky he counts himself, I can't help but seek a silent place for a short while.

These are the types of works that are IMPORTANT to broaden the individuals world view, to let them know that they are not alone, to appreciate the empathatic sharing of experience, and be invited to the community man beyond their own family predjudes'.

We have all met the person who boasts how they have never read a book in their life. My immediate internal comment is usually along the lines of "Yeah, and it shows dickhead", you just know that these are the people that have formed a world view in their teenage years and will have that same world view when they are old men or women. Only ever collecting the events that reinforce that view, never the ones that broaden it.


However, in terms of education, don't get me started on why universities should not be offering business degrees. I'm old school and think university should be about improving humanity and the world, not exploiting it. It's an attitude not popular with many of my friends.

Yes FD, I think along with citizenship education at high school as a compulsory subject, economics should also be a compulsory subject at some point. At least macro economics as a single semester for junior and then again and more advanced for senior and undergrade would be a good idea. I think logic/critical reasoning would also be a huge benefit to everyone regardless of whether they continue to further education.

Macro Ec. is a subject that I wish I knew more about. Especially when I just know some pollie or captain of industry is full of BS, but I don't have the background knowledge to pinpoint the lie/s.

If anyone can recommend a pedestrian or basic introductory book on macro economics I would appreciate it.

I spent a year at UCSD. The university was divided into 5 colleges. Which college you signed up through affected how many extra subjects you had to do and from which academic area. I don't see any need to recreate that in any detail, just the basic concept of a broader education.

An undergraduate degree should be seen as more than training for a 'trade' (eg medicine, engineering, accounting etc). There is too much focus on delivering what future employers want and not enough on what is good for the community as a whole.

locutius wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2008 at 12:07pm:


I think that attitude is not enough. For example someone wants to be a mathematician but but despite of years of training he or she will never become one unless the person have an aptitude for such a vocational call.

But anyway, back to topic. If your child needs a microsurgery to save his or her life would you trust a person who'd read so many wonderful fiction novels and even had written some him/herself or would you prefer a person who studied medicine but never read or write any so call non technical literature and who is specialist in microsurgery?

freediver wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2008 at 9:16pm:


I would prefer a specialist who concentrates at his job rather then distractions of a fiction.