Thoughts on education

Some relevant tweets involving education. The one referencing China, while a hyperbolic, resonates with my personal experience comparing my Chinese with my American college students.

As always, I don't care who said what. I'm interested in the merits of the observations per se. But no doubt my critics will focus on who said what and compete to see who can be the most deeply offended in their outrage theater.

:)

_____

Prof. Feynman

@ProfFeynman

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4h

One of the signs of intelligence is to be able to accept the facts without being offended.

Team AOC

@TeamAOC

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Mar 28

"Strong communities talk to each other." -

@AOC

Thomas Sowell

@ThomasSowell

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6h

Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.

Kelley Paul

@KelleyAshbyPaul

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2h

Chinese third graders are learning multi-variable calculus. Our third graders are being taught that “men can have babies.” This will not end well.

"The closer you are to the truth, the more silent you become inside." @naval

"People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom." @naval

Ed Latimore

@EdLatimore

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6h

When you try to be all things to all people, you end up becoming nothing to everyone.

https://edlatimore.com/

Blog post about why I am not an intellectual

I saw this on the Times and Seasons blog and thought it made a good point.

Why I am Not An Intellectual

2. Intellectualism does not make you generically competent

Gradually I came to realize that specializing in an area just means that you are really knowledgeable in that area. The research on “transfer of learning” is highly debatable, but my reading is that learning a skill in one area does not help your generic abilities as much as one might think. I gradually realized that the mathematics genius doesn’t necessarily have more sophisticated political opinions....

Of course, it is wonderful that we have specialists, but being an intellectual in one area doesn’t tap you into a generalizable divine-like wisdom for multiple areas. If you want to be an “intellectual,” that does not give you a right to speak authoritatively on anything that you haven’t actually studied, whether it’s politics, ethics, or social issues; it doesn’t make you some wise uber-human. 

https://www.timesandseasons.org/index.php/2022/02/why-i-am-not-an-intellectual/

Temple in Rio

In May Elder Stevenson will dedicate the temple in Rio de Janiero.

https://www.deseret.com/faith/2022/3/21/22989289/rio-de-janeiro-temple-joins-christ-the-redeemer-statue-as-second-witness-of-gods-love-elder-soares

When we were in Rio a few years ago, we were surprised that there was no temple there. It's a fabulous, and enormous, city. It's wonderful to see the temple there, with the dedication coming after two years of delay due to covid.

While we were in Brazil on that trip, we visited the temple in Manaus. It's located on the Amazon river, which is pretty cool. 

Some time ago I spent some time in Iquitos, Peru, on a filming project. Iquitos is also on the Amazon. There are many LDS there, so someday they'll probably get a temple, too.  

Evaluating evidence by M2C and SITH intellectuals

This reminded me of the way M2C and SITH intellectuals approach the issues.

https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1505567233480671236

Scott Adams

@ScottAdamsSays

It’s hard for the public to evaluate scientific studies, so I created this guide to make it easier.