Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-L] Bethe's dictum --> students' off-the-wall questions




On 2017/Jan/07, at 14:50, John Denker <jsd@av8n.com> wrote:

This is a problem, because supposedly
one of the major purposes of the educational system as a whole is to
prepare people to do well in the real world. Teaching them to rely on
tricks that only work in ivory-tower busywork situations defeats the
purpose of the whole system.


In a “just” society, yes. This is partially true in the US, but principally for those who profit from the society, e.g. the upper classes.

For the exploited classes this definition is more accurate:

“Education is a wise and liberal form of police by which property life and peace of society are secured.” Daniel Webster

Probably earliest reference: http://www.jstor.org.oca.ucsc.edu/stable/pdf/2761605.pdf (1900 refers to his address

More recent: “Biological Determinism as a Social Weapon” in “BIOLOGY AS A SOCIAL WEAPON” p17 Richard Lewontin (1977)


bc can’t find in Plymouth Oration (1820) apocryphal?