RE: Educatiion and Presidential Candidates

["Lyle, Dan B." <DBL@CDRH.FDA.GOV>]

Deming: promote joy in work.  Why?  People will contribute more of
themselves, be better fulfilled themselves, learn more and share more, serve
customers better, and (in sum) be more productive.

I was struck by Myron's ultimate AIM for schools: (10/6/2000 post): Promote
Joy in Learning.  (With the "aim" that most of us, including me and possibly
the general public, felt should be #1 being relegated to a lesser "goal" of
"prepare kids to be productive members of society.")

In his 10/8/2000 post Myron agrees with Richard White that the existing
educational system is based upon a faulty paradigm.  Which is?  How about:
Motivate Students Through Fear (losing, passing standardized competitive
tests).

I tie those points to Neil Davies' 10/15/2000 post stating that the teaching
of mathematics is an example of dysfunctional education, based on
competition, which he describes as a "perversion."

I guess in my many years of formal education I hated math the worst of any
(as compared to subjects I actually liked, which themselves were made into
torture due to the competition and fear).  Math was the worst of all.  And
yet today, I do experiments in the lab, get a whole bunch of numbers, then
work with them in excel to produce beautiful graphs and charts---and it's
one of the things I enjoy the most!  Amazing.  That which could have been a
tremendous joy for all those years was turned into poison by the
"educational" system.

Another friend of mine here at work for a hobby, just pure fun, at home
models the interior of stars.  He hunts down huge formulas and pumps in
numbers that crunch for days, on how the stars implode and such.  For fun!
If you were told to do that for an assignment at school, how would you
react?  And he isn't a mathematician, "just" an M.D.!

As usual, I think Myron hit the nail on the head---two times.  If you can
get kids to tremendously enjoy the learning process (which, yes, does
involve mastering skill-sets and basic knowledge areas---not just chasing
one's nose), they're prepared to become great contributors to society.  And
yet the prevailing educational paradigm is completely the opposite: to make
the learning process a tortuous, painful, horrible, competitive experience
where most everybody lose.  They may become great test-takers, but "dump"
the forced information quickly to devolve into learning-hating, rebellious
survivors.

You'd think our Presidential Candidates would remember when THEY were young,
and when THEY were in school...but time tends to quickly wipe out traumatic
pain (otherwise no females would have more than one child).

I've a lot of ideas on the subject, but I'd like to hear what others think:
For all of our "application"-oriented folks...HOW do you making learning (in
formal school settings) productive, meaningful FUN (with a lot of spill-over
into the job environment...)???

Now THAT'S a question I'd love to hear put to these "I've got the
educational answer all figured out
[competition/fear/external-carrots-sticks]" Candidates in their debates.

Dan.

------------------------
Dan Lyle, Ph.D.
FDA/CDRH
301-443-4049
DBL@CDRH.FDA.GOV