University Students

This is more aimed at science students - but it applies universally.

I'm going to give you a series of logic that I learned from a univesity lecture.

The question was: How do we solve the problems in Africa?

The lecturer kept pushing education. And so That's my start point.

1. We educate
2. Who do we educate?
3. To educate the Africans first we have to educate ourselves.
4. Who educates us?
5. Teachers
6. So does that mean the teachers are biased?
7. Yes
8. In what way?
9. They have a bias that says educating to educate Africans to help them out is right. In fact the first question was secondary to do we help out Africans?
10. That fundamentally means this teacher believed it right to educate Africans

Right or wrong isn't the point here. If you want to do anything the real lesson is that you have to stand somewhere. And question where it is the people who are eductaing you stand - even in the most unlikely places. Especially in the most unlikely places.

I think you're right that the problem is education (and education of yourself) but not for the same reasons. I see plenty of idiots at my college who attend just to get by, not for the knowledge in itself. This I think is caused by the grading system we've adopted over the years. Hear me out.

If there were no grades or some degree to get then there would be no reason for you to be at college other than to learn. People with no real interest in the subject they're studying would slowly start to do less and less of the work, attend fewer classes and eventually not go at all because the class will inevitably get harder and the interest of the student will most likely be completely lost. Because there are no grades the student will in essence flunk himself out which is probably the best thing that could ever happen to him because he won't be wasting his time anymore. He'll be devoting more of his energy to the things that are most important to him like his job or web design or car maintenance or whatever.

The interesting thing about all of this though is that most likely the person will get very good at whatever it is he's devoting his time to and eventually want to explore more in depth the trade he's in. If it's car maintenance he's been working on perhaps he might find an interest in mechanical engineering and actually want to learn about it to expand his knowledge (and not just try to earn some superficial grade). The knowledge he's most likely gained through hands on experience will help him see where the class is going and enrich his and probably the rest of the classes learning experience.

More questions would be asked. The teacher would have to be on his toes. This would also destroy the problem of incompetent teachers because if the teacher can't answer the questions that the students (who are there to learn) are asking then the college would probably have less and less students actually choose to take that class. At that point the teacher would either have to learn their shit or get fired.

Making sense?

Yes Chris, thats very pragmatic; and I like it.

I've pretty much always had that feeling; that somehow, by aiming to be good at somthing; to spelcialise; you ask your own questions; and if the answer isn't there; you find a way to get one.

I always tired learning endless diagrams; which I knew someone once had seemed necessary to achieve his purpose. I always wanted to be on that side of things. Now I'm finally on that side

Of course; at a higher level; where you have to answer questions where there isnt a book or a manual to follow; as in car mechanics in today's world there has to be some schooling before work - law is an easy example, though a boring one. Most of the work is modelling too - so you may have to understand what to put in, what to use, where and when.

My post relates to trying to see past the motives behind problem solving; and indeed asking whether this problem is one worth working out in the first place; but over and above this; having your own purpose so that you can ask your own questions. But remember, you have to serve something, somebody.