131 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
131 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
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Chapter 15
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EDUCATION AND GROWING UP
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The Chinese royalty used a disciplinary technique that would
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straighten out any modern kid. A prince would be raised along with
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another child. If the prince misbehaved, it was the other child,
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not the prince who was punished. A child might be willing to risk
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a spanking for outrageous behavior, but even a young kid would
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feel some guilt if his spanking was administered to another kid.
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"Whether a school has or has not a special method for
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teaching long division is of on significance, for long division is
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of no importance except to those who want to learn it. And the
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child who wants to learn long division will learn it no matter how
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it is taught." - A. S. Neill
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The famous philosopher, Socrates, was illiterate. Of course,
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this is no excuse for modern kids to drop out of school, unless
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you want to be a philosopher when you grow up.
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Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Thomas Edison and Andrew
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Carnegie never made it through grade school.
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Thomas Edison's total school education consisted of three
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months.
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When Martin J. Spalding was fourteen years old, he was
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appointed professor of mathematics at St. Mary's College in
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Kentucky.
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At the age of ten, Francois Auguste de Thou was appointed
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Chief Librarian of France.
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Sweden once had a supreme court justice who was nineteen
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years old. When he was ten, he could speak fluently in 12
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languages.
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Law professor Ericus Aurivillius at the University of
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Uppsala, Sweden held lectures for eighteen years, even though only
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one student ever showed up in all that time.
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Braille was invented by Louis Braille in 1824. He was
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fifteen years old at the time and blind since he was three years
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old.
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The United States spends $353 billion for education every
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year. That's $1,452 from every man, woman and child in America.
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And here's what we get for our money:
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Over two thousand random American adults were surveyed about
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their understanding of science. 21 percent thought the sun
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revolves around the earth, and 7 percent were unsure whether the
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sun goes around the earth, or if it is the other way around.
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The National Science Foundation conducted a study and found
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that only 33 percent of Americans know what a molecule is.
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Every year 700,000 students graduate, but when tested, they
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cannot read as well as fourth-graders are supposed to.
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Three out of every ten American kids drop out of school
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before graduating.
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It is tempting for American kids to drop out of school. Who
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would want to finish school if their plans are only to build race
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cars or marry somebody rich? But sometimes plans don't work out
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the way you expected. More importantly, in the United States,
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school is free, supported by taxpayers. It's free!! You might as
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well take as much as you can get.
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In parts of the state of Mississippi, 44 percent of the adult
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population is illiterate.
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In a recent Gallop survey, Americans were asked to identify
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America on an unmarked world map. 14 percent couldn't do it.
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According to the Oregon Department of Education: "...For
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every 100 pupils in the 5th grade... 99 enter 9th grade 88 enter
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11th grade 76 graduate from high school 47 go on to college 24
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earn a bachelor's degree"
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World wide, the figures are like this: For every 100 people,
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30 are literate, 1 goes to college.
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In Gujarat, India, school supplies are in short supply. The
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kids write on their thighs with sharp wooden splinters. The marks
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are good for about 12 hours before they fade away.
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There are 800,000 American children currently on Ritalin.
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That is approximately one out of 125 kids. This drug is
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prescribed to slow down "hyperactivity." Many doctors currently
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think hyperactivity is normal in some children and they should not
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be routinely treated with drugs. With other children, it has been
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discovered that by eliminating refined sugar and artificial
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chemicals from their diets, their behavior becomes much more
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acceptable.
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Seventy-five percent of parents never visit their kids
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school.
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There are 35 million step-parents in America.
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At graduation a child has logged 13,000 hours of school, and
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15,000 hours of television.
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Television sets outnumber bathtubs in America.
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If you paid $1 for every murder a child has watched on TV
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until the age of 18, that child would have $15,000.
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13,500 kids take guns to school everyday.
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Every day, 200 teachers are physically attacked by their
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students.
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Of the 156 women who are college presidents, 105 are nuns.
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Approximately 66 percent of average prisoners end up in
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prison again after release. In San Quentin prison where they
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teach some of the prisoners computer programming, less than six
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percent return to prison.
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