This is not a scholarly white paper or a scientific report. It is an opinion based on some observations.

99% of the data about education comes from psychological based findings.

Psychology, while it has created quite a position for itself over the years, is not a valid scientific study.

It is based on the theory that Man descended from mud and has no spiritual component.

It has never cured anything.
It speculates all over the place.
It has no standard nomenclature.
It has no standard technology.
It is not quantifiable.
It is not repeatable.
It is not testable.

Anybody can stumble across some workable methods. It’s just a mathematical certainty that, after thousands of hours of investigation, one would discover some things that work (some say 22% of the population will recover if you just say hello to them). What is it they say; 10,000 monkeys on 10,000 typewriters will eventually type some Shakespeare over some amount of time. It’s the same for psychology; anyone can acidently find something that will help people if they just look long enough. Shamans, witch doctors, Voodoo sorcerers - all of them have stumbled into some workable processes - it’s usually just some form of communicating to people. Outside of these “accidental” discoveries, psychology has never developed anything useful.

Psychologist have not been able to settle any of their axioms or nomenclature for more than 150 years. There has never been agreement on what it is or what it should be called.

They are self-proclaimed experts and authorities. If you don’t believe them, just ask them. They will tell you how authoritative they are.

Lacking any scientific foundation, psychology has been used by people who only wish to create wealth and power for themselves. In Russia, in the Eighteen Hundreds, psychology was used to vilify opposition, condemn them them and then imprison them where they could be broken or killed. It was further developed in Germany and then refined to “brainwashing” during the next century. Socialism, communism and Marxism are all products of the same system. What does any of this have to do with education?

There have been a lot of “developments” in education in the last 150 years.

The majority of educational findings are based on psychology concepts using the following formula. The mechanics are fairly simple. Define a problem (real or imagined), propose a solution (that also furthers your cause) and then implement it. Be sure to take credit for it and make sure people know how smart you are.

The only problems is: Most of the principles, concepts and precepts are made up. They are invented, not observed. The American Psychology Association even has a voting process where it decides, by majority popular opinion, not science, what new mental manifestations should be adopted.

Often, the wrong target is selected or the wrong solution is found. The wrong significance is assigned or the wrong similarity, difference or identity is identified. Saying something is important when it isn’t produces a solution that is false, misleading and usually unworkable.

In short, the education community, apparently in partnership with psychology, is offering a sea of explanations based on fictitious ideas. The concepts and methods that make up classic and traditional education have been under development since Greek and Roman times. They are tried and proved methods.

John Dewey, who fathered much of the educational “development” over the last 150 years, was an extremely prolific writer with a knack for constructing complex sentences that sounded intelligent, but yielded little workable know-how. Did he discover anything useful? Yes, based on the principles above, if you talk long enough, you’re bound to say something correct. Probability.

The education community fell in love with Dewey and psychology. They were either misinformed or they saw this “new way of thinking” as a vehicle to advance against the establishment to gain control of the educational process - or both. Dewey was a gifted and smart guy, but he never said anything that was scientific or proven. It was just his comments and speculation wrapped in very ornate prose. But, the educational community has adopted everything he said as if it was gospel. And they’ve added layer upon layer of the same untested and unproven theory making education unworkable today.

PhDs, authorities and experts will scream to high heaven about the suggestion that they are wrong and will tell us they are the only ones who know about education.

But let’s look at the statistics. The US has declined on the world stage in almost every category. Reading, math science. We’re losing the battle. If we continue down this road, we’ll lose the war. Time to shed this “new thinking” and return to traditional methods of teaching.

Footnote: School nurses should not disburse drugs and teachers should not prescribe or recommend treatment or drugs. School nurses should be limited to handling emergencies or sick students who usually need to go home where they can receive appropriate care. It is not the province of schools and school personnel to get involved in a student’s mental or medical condition. They are there for a specific academic function and should only be involved when the child needs first aid or needs to be sent home, to a doctor or to a hospital.

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This post contains the following tags:

#31 - Psychobabble

#32 - Sound Smart

#30 - Transparency