tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post2104095673960675413..comments2024-03-29T04:34:05.185-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: The Only Road to HappinessPeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-15316622132934684322014-12-01T23:47:26.189-05:002014-12-01T23:47:26.189-05:00You have such an interesting blog. Thanks for shar...You have such an interesting blog. Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading your posts. You have an expressive, conversative writing tone. All the best for your future blogging journey.Sridhar Chandrasekaranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01721452527795471802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-48126713830086685032014-09-02T01:09:59.676-04:002014-09-02T01:09:59.676-04:00Wow. This really resonated with me. This attitude ...Wow. This really resonated with me. This attitude of One Right Way sounds like a throwback to the 50's and Leave it to Beaver. I heard it a lot in the late 60's, people bemoaning how things were changing and it was horrible and how everything was better before. When I was a child in the late 50's and early 60's in a rural elementary school, I always thought there was One Right Way to do things and I just had to figure out what that was. It was very frustrating because, even living in this time when supposedly "everyone was on the same page and life was better," I never seemed to be able to figure it out. (I admire creativity so much but I've never felt I was very creative and I've always wondered if what little natural creativity I had was smashed out of me by my school. I also think it made me fearful of trying things because I was afraid I'd get it wrong and not do it the One Right Way, and that it also made me not trust my own judgment because the Authority had dibs on the One Right Way.) When, because of teaching, I became interested in the way the brain works, and started reading about left and right hemispheres, and then different learning styles and preferences, then multiple intelligences, then ADD and ADHD and Asperger's and autism spectrum (and also from teaching foreign languages and living abroad,) it became clear that even though people think that everybody's brain works the same way, it really doesn't. Each person's brain is wired somewhat differently. And at last (but it took a long time) I realized that I could trust my own judgment because I don't think like other people and I don't have to. I like the way I think. For me it makes sense, but I don't expect other people's brains to work just like mine. Obviously believing in the One Right Way doesn't work for education. I wonder if the recent resurgent dominance of this type of thinking has to do with our obsession with technology and thinking that it solves all problems. Since with computers everything can be broken down into binary functions, which is pretty simplistic at the core, maybe people think everything has to be that simple. And data are the most important thing, because gee, we have to use our computers. Interpretion of data, not so much, because that can involve using people's confusing brains. The Humanities aren't important, because they don't involve numbers, and aren't important in any measurable way for specific job training. Our world has been taken over by numbers and the people for whom numbers are a religion. If it isn't measurable, it doesn't exist. Or shouldn't. Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.com