the fallacy is unrelated, in the notion that students must receive their entire education in four to eight years. This principle core to every modern institution presents education like a bootcamp wherein the development of knowledge is static and students won't need to acquire new knowledge throughout the remainder of their life
Not to mention, institutions do not take into consideration the pace, methodologies, motivating factors, self-directives of varying learners
no specific requirements outside your major
"people who label themselves open-minded are only open-minded to those things which they wish to be open-minded about."Joseph Klunder
"You must still complete a concentration, which restricts what can be studied. So, even if I was a history or international relations major, you still must complete courses within that department, and equivalent courses from other schools are not accepted by the university unless special circumstances." Joseph Klunder
"Most public schools accept transfer and study away credits from community college. However, Brown (and many private schools) do not. Is that not elitism, versus open-mindedness about accepting credits from an accredited institution." Joseph Klunder
" Yes, you can design your own concentration or create your own group classes. Yet, you must get approval from the Curriculum Council Committee (CCC). At least when I was there, not a single one of them had any work experience outside of academia. They chose to approve classes in a haphazard way, never returned phone calls to ask for clarification, etc." Joseph Klunder
"What is the answer if you bring these things up? Trust me, it is never “let’s make these changes” it is “if you don’t like it, you never should have gone somewhere else” or even “get out”. That is pretty close-minded to me." Joseph Klunder
designated classes taken by every student distribution requirements: a required number of credits in several different academic areas
Grades: Pushing for Excellence?
"When human beings are spoken of as learning the lessons of God or of life, two things are inferred, namely; (1) A state of ignorance on the part of the learner, and (2) that there is some definite knowledge which he has to acquire. This is seen plainly in a child at school. Its lessons imply that there is a permanent principle of knowledge towards which it is progressing. Without such knowledge there could be no lessons. [...] he infers, whether he realizes it or not, the existence of a permanent basis of knowledge towards the possession of which all men are moving." Men and Systems by James Allen
"If this were not so, if we could have effect without cause, or consequence unrelated to act, experience could never lead to knowledge, there would be no foundation of security, and no lessons could be learnt" Men and Systems by James Allen
"According to Chomsky, in order for knowledge to be retained, there must be previous knowledge already present for the new information to be associated with. He typically refers to this process as "building" on prior knowledge, but it has obvious parallels with the "networking" described by IPT. Particularly in the process of taking in information initially, generative grammar has direct parallels with the ideas put forward for information processing theory (Miller, 1956)."
" In a bit of a twist on the initial networking concepts of Information Processing Theory, Chomsky postulates that, once integrated into a network, some knowledge, specifically procedural knowledge, becomes irreducible in complexity (Chomsky, 2000)."
"Once something is known and successfully networked, it is possible for it to become intrinsically tied to its immediate network in the mind of the learner."
"Notice that similar considerations show that knowing-how - for example, knowing how to ride a bicycle - cannot be analyzed in terms of abilities, dispositions, etc.; rather, there appears to be an irreducible cognitive element." - New Horizons in the Study of Language and the Mind, pg 52 (Chomsky, 2000)
"Chomsky's view of knowledge is heavily cognition-centric, as one would expect from a linguist. His theoretical framework approaches the concept of "knowing" as a purely cognitive phenomenon, separate from one's ability to apply that knowledge directly to the world." New Foundations
"Notice finally that an account of knowledge in terms of ability, taken in anything like its normal sense, has proven utterly unproductive." - New Horizons in the Study of Language and the Mind, pg 52 (Chomsky, 2000)
"In some ways, self-pacing and independent learning might be considered facet of advanced placement. The student can, indeed, move ahead rapidly and complete a program more quickly by completing individual courses more quickly, a process that usually involves testing at specified points. Naturally, the reverse is also true that the student may proceed more slowly, learning at his own rate and either taking lighter course loads or continuing in the same courses for more than one semester or quarter. The slower process is more established than the acceleration aspect, although not completing a course in the prescribed time has usually called for an "incomplete" grade, to which are attached a whole set of rules and regulations." Open Curriculum Vol. 74 No. 12 Pg. 2235
"The demands on both with respect to intellect and time are great. The institution must also ease its rigid bureaucratic rules. Keeping records on a multitude of students in various stages of various courses is considerably more complex than recording a simple grade at the end of a uniform period. Still, the possibilities are exciting, and an increasing number of schools are developing some variation of self-paced, independent learning better to meet the needs of a diversified student population." (Pg. 2236)
"If legislative or community pressure is strong, some open-curriculum project may emerge, but it is too often hastily conceived and unenthusiastically delivered-and both faculty and students suffer. The same is true when an enthusiastic administration struggles with a foot-dragging faculty, or vice-versa. a. Even in those programs that have accepted the general philosophy of open curriculum and are developing a specific program, there is frequently some insecurity as to the best way to provide opportunities for students and at the same time maintain high standards." (Pg. 2238)
"basic distrust of testing as the sole evaluation of an individual planning to enter as sensitive a career as nursing. Even the development of a complex, and expensive, test of clinical competence possibly covering several days of actual care given to selected patients and evaluated by a team of clinical experts has not eased the distrust."
Theory of Transmission: Who is to teach? By what methods? What will the curriculum be?
According to Chomsky, the goal in teaching is to help cultivate growth and to help the students become interested in learning. He states that students New Foundations
"Typically they come in interested, and the process of education is a way of driving that defect out of their minds. But if children's normal interest is maintained or even aroused, they can do all kinds of things in ways we don't understand;" (Chomsky, 1992) New Foundations
In other words, the teacher's role in the transmission of learning is to keep the children engaged in the learning process and interested in exploration and independence. The focus is on the students learning rather than the teachers teaching. New Foundations
In an interview with Lillian R. Putnam in the Fall of 1987, Chomsky was asked, "If teachers from primary grades were familiar with your work, what kinds of changes or emphases might they make in reading instruction? What general suggestions would help them?" To this Chomsky replied, "I'm hesitant even to suggest an answer to this question. Practitioners have to decide for themselves what is useful in the sciences, and what is not. As a linguist, I have no particular qualifications or knowledge that enables or entitles me to prescribe methods of language instruction. As a person, I have my own ideas on the topic, based on my own experience (in part, as a teacher of language to children), introspection, and personal judgment, but these should not be confused with some kind of professional expertise, presented from on high. My own feeling, for what it is worth, is that at any level, from nursery to graduate school, teaching is largely a matter of encouraging natural development. The best "method" of teaching is to make it clear that the subject is worth learning, and to allow the child's -- or adult's -- natural curiosity and interest in truth and understanding to mature and develop. That is about 90% of the problem, if not more. Methods of instruction may influence the residue."; Accordingly in an interview with Gary Olson and Lester Faigley, Chomsky states that teaching is mostly "common sense"; It does not matter what is covered; but how much you develop the capacity to discover (2007). New Foundations
If one is to examine Chomsky and his writings, they would be able to find an underlying concept that illustrates one of his biggest claims to human rights.; It is this.; People are to be free and should have the freedom to express themselves in cooperation with others, and this freedom should not be oppressed by a governing body.; According to Edgley (2005) Chomsky argued: "If humans are essentially creative with an "instinct for freedom" to pursue cooperative ventures, then states and capitalism must work against human nature, because both concentrate power into the hands of a few, thereby denying the many necessary conditions for cooperative, creative humanistic productive activity." This is enough to support that Chomsky would support education for all who want education, that no one should be exempt from the opportunity, while at the same time, no one should be forced into it either.; The key to his idea is that it should be up to those who want, and not those who are forced.; Chomsky's idea of who is to be schooled follows the same pattern as who is to be educated; those who want to be.; What Chomsky would suggest, is that the school follow a very democratic way of instruction without the use of indoctrination.; As Chomsky (2000) comments on his own style of teaching: "I don't try to persuade people, at least not consciously. Maybe I do. If so, it's a mistake. The right way to do things is not to try to persuade people you're right but to challenge them to think it through for themselves." New Foundations
If one is to examine Chomsky and his writings, they would be able to find an underlying concept that illustrates one of his biggest claims to human rights.; It is this.; People are to be free and should have the freedom to express themselves in cooperation with others, and this freedom should not be oppressed by a governing body.; According to Edgley (2005) Chomsky argued: "If humans are essentially creative with an "instinct for freedom" to pursue cooperative ventures, then states and capitalism must work against human nature, because both concentrate power into the hands of a few, thereby denying the many necessary conditions for cooperative, creative humanistic productive activity." This is enough to support that Chomsky would support education for all who want education, that no one should be exempt from the opportunity, while at the same time, no one should be forced into it either.; The key to his idea is that it should be up to those who want, and not those who are forced.; Chomsky's idea of who is to be schooled follows the same pattern as who is to be educated; those who want to be.; What Chomsky would suggest, is that the school follow a very democratic way of instruction without the use of indoctrination.; As Chomsky (2000) comments on his own style of teaching: "I don't try to persuade people, at least not consciously. Maybe I do. If so, it's a mistake. The right way to do things is not to try to persuade people you're right but to challenge them to think it through for themselves." New Foundations
Theory of Consensus: What is Consensus? Why Do People Disagree? How is Consensus Achieved? Whose Opinion Takes Precedence?
Chomsky's believes, in very broad terms, that consensus is the mutual agreement of mankind when they assume the responsibility of managing and governing themselves in communities, workplaces and society.; A given society reaches agreement or consensus through a cohesive collaboration that aspires to find mutual agreement among members of the community; The goal is to represent the ideals and concerns of the society versus the self-interest of any one dominating person, group or organization.; Obviously, this is an extremely broad and idealized treatment of the phenomenon.; Chomsky seems to think in very broad terms, though, even as he approaches specific societies. A true society considers the ideals, concerns and freedom of society as an entitlement.; These entitlements if challenged by an authoritative governing body in a society will lead unnecessary constraints and disagreement.; Society will disagree when their ability to cooperatively manage its own ideals, concerns, and financial viability is infringed by an outside authority. "He speculates that constraints on human freedom that are not required for survival in the particular state of history will tend to be sloughed off." as a result of the moral nature of human beings, the 'instinct for freedom', and the 'control effort to overcome authoritarian structures and to expand the domain of freedom 'that results from that instinct" (Cohen and Rogers, 1991). In terms of consensus, Chomsky's view is that people of power within the United States have traditionally used the media as a form of propaganda to leverage consensus through the masking of facts to their own benefit.; This was the case in many instances when the United States government and various European governments have exhorted their power to leverage economic control whether it was a hungry for land, oil, or any other commodity of value as a means for an end (Chomsky and Herman,1988); New Foundations](view-source:http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Chomsky.html)
"Quite typically, intellectuals have been ideological and social managers, serving power or seeking to assume power themselves by taking control of popular movements of which they declare themselves to be the leaders.; For people committed to control and manipulation it is quite useful to believe that human beings have no intrinsic moral and intellectual nature, that they are simply objects to be shaped by state and private managers and ideologues-who, of course perceive what is good and right" (Arnove, 2005). New Foundations
Somewhat ironically, Chomsky's admonition of the intellectual comes in the face of the fact that he is himself viewed by many as a prime example of the term. For reasons related to his outspoken criticism of the policies of the United States' government and the media that he views as supporting those policies, Chomsky is seen by some as anti-American and he is often used as an example of "liberal intellectualism".; His theories on consensus are indeed rather collectivist and represent an idealized democracy, where each member of a society has equal (or nearly equal) say in how that society moves forward.; It would seem to be this view that has fueled much of his criticism of United States government policy, both foreign and domestic, over the years. New Foundations