Education In the 50’s when a child went to school he/she was exposed to some new knowledge and some knowledge that was also available on television. There was guidance toward making him/her study. Those few who could not keep up were allowed to easily retake courses. The burden of the courses was not hard. He/she may get a higher or a lower grade but no one cared to punish him/her for a lower grade or drive him/her for a higher grade. There were of course always those exceptions, parents and teachers who drove and punished. But the driven and punished child was in an environment of other children who were not driven and punished. There was less bullying. Discipline was taught through guidance rather than punishment. Beauty was promoted. Everyone was sick of war and the beast was put aside.
Discipline through guidance promotes consideration. In my high school in the 50’s the students kept order. Offenses were taken to a student court by student proctors that were empowered from an elected student president. An elected student judge presided over the court. A student jury convicted or found one innocent. Work punishment was assigned. We learned responsibility by being given responsibility. Some extreme cases were handled by the teachers and the guidance counselor with guidance. There was no vice-principal.
The student was taught to try to find answers. Classes involved talking about the different answers. There was time for this because there was not that much that needed learning. There was no public school homework before high school and the high school schedule had enough time for the student to do most of his homework before the end of school. It was the golden age.
Then that most destructive document “a Nation at Risk” was written, believed and (I didn’t believe it at the time) followed. It accurately noted that our healthy, freewheeling, thought inspiring education system produced students who scored lower on achievement tests than their Russian counterparts. It incorrectly assumed that this was bad. It recommended increased workload to increase achievement test scores.
Preschool replaced day-care. Large quantities of grammar school homework were added. To increase the amount of knowledge learned students were taught to accept the facts rather than consider them. To eliminate wasted time student order was replaced by authoritative teacher order.How our schools work.
Children go to an environment of preschool where they learn to conform so that they will be ready to accept what is told them in grammar school.
In today’s grammar school they get enough homework to keep most of them busy at home. They learn to accept this. This builds a good work habit.
When they have free time parents are ready with organized play called “quality time”. This builds a play habit through organized entertainment. This builds a healthy consumer.
In high school reward continues for accepting knowledge. Since your grade is determined by the amount of knowledge you accept, time spent on consideration is considered wasted time. In general more acceptance yields higher grades. The teacher spends much time presenting much knowledge.
Our teachers can teach more by controlling the student rather than giving the student responsibility for in school order. For this reason our high schools are governed by an adult structure enforcing discipline by punishing according to written specifications. The adults have complete authority over the students. Conformity to rule is learned. . They are told right and wrong. They learn to obey authority.
As the student progress’s he/she continues until his/her grades get low, then he/she drops out to his/her place in life. Usually he/she has a good work habit, a need for paid entertainment and a conforming behavior. Depending on how high he/she goes determines how many toys he/she has. The ruling class, professional class and labor class function smoothly through an acceptance of authority. This is how it works.How our schools don’t work.
Preschool.
A child’s mind is active. Left protected and undisturbed the child learns to self- entertain. The experience of self-entertainment, learned at the beginning of childhood is interrupted by preschool and a flood of toys and excessive attention called “quality time” from parents who know not what they do.
Our children’s curiosity is externally stimulated with material things, parents and teachers. They learn to conform in order to acquire external stimulation. It is candy to a baby. They conform in order to obtain stimulation. It is addicting. He/she loses the ability to entertain him/herself and with it the development of a strong free natural curiosity. Instead he/she develops obsessive compulsive behavior to maintain stimulation without the knowledge of his/her own taste. Self-knowledge and chosen creativity are reduced. Without this there is little chance for enlightenment. This results in a society with too few Brahmin to bring morality to the ruling class and too much addiction to power in the ruling class, to work in the professional class and to drugs in the working class.
When I meet a child of four years old who can and does write his name and this same child cannot play in an empty room it makes me sick, yet there is no blame.Grammar school.
Our grammar school teachers are under pressure to make children know more in order to increase the standardized test scores.
To meet the increased demand for knowledge our children are given homework in grammar school. To many of our children the result is to consume all of their time in study.
Giving more work than can be done is cruel. More work is given. They are pressured to do and are not doing. They accept that they cannot do. They learn to live with this anxiety by doing to others as is done to them. They become bullies. They accepted that it is proper to bully and to be bullied.
As adults they copy this behavior and pressure their children with out any expectation that their children will respond passing the abuse to the next generation. At work they feel driven to do more work than they will do. At home they drive others to do more then they are willing to do. They have critical demanding abusive temperaments. This group composes a large portion of our adult population.
If schoolwork and homework were considered labor, then our education system would be considered in violation of our child labor laws. We abuse our children trying to make them all they can be rather than protecting them so that they might develop naturally.
When I meet an abusive adult it makes me sick, yet there is no blame.High school.
Our teachers are under pressure to make students get higher grades. The quicker the student grasps the correct answer the better.
Our children are taught to accept rather than consider for the sake of efficiency in learning. The answer accepted from the teacher as right and quickly returned is treated as superior to the well considered answer. The child is pressured by a shortage of time and the demand for correctness until consideration becomes an unbearable burden. Then he/she learns to accept rather than consider. The result is a large population of adults accepting “ whatever “. They do not think for themselves.
To the creative student removing consideration removes imaginative speculation. If they act out we get artists. If their acting out is punished out of existence we get a depressed or bipolar adult. If the creative student receives no help (in self expression) or relief (from bullying) he/she lives as the isolated abused child, the hopelessly abused child without sympathy, the one who might commit suicide after mass murdering. It makes me sick, yet there is no blame .We remove the students from their roles as order keepers in order to give them more time to learn. As a result the consideration of right and wrong, is replaced by the acceptance of the righteousness of the rules authority dictates.
The only way to teach responsibility is to give responsibility. With their responsibility removed they are not responsible. Rather than responsibility the student learns to consider how to avoid punishment. This results in adults who consider that being caught is wrong and that being wrong is insignificant.
Without the consideration of right and wrong discipline must be established by punishment. If you punish someone and they are forced to live within boundaries then you discipline. Because the consideration of right and wrong has been denied them many people today mistakenly believe that punishment and discipline are the same things.
To some of our children punishment has been abusive. If you punish and fail to discipline the student considers the violence placed on him/her senseless for, because it doesn’t work it is senseless. Then your punishment is cruel. It is felt as vengeance. It is vengeance. He/she responds in kind. Beware the injured tiger. They kill. It makes me sick, yet there is no blame.When punishment is administered by the teacher at the time and place of the behavior that must be corrected it has a better chance of disciplining than punishment administered by a separate authority at a remote time in a remote place from the time and place of the behavior that is being disciplined. This requires trust in our teachers’ judgment. We have rules and specified punishments instead. It makes me sick, yet there is no blame.
What we can do.
In order to preserve the Brahmin class, end all preschool. Keep day-care simple and safe in order to promote secure self-entertainment.
Make the sole purpose of kindergarten socialization so that the students are ready to learn. Use an abundance of organized play. Disallow early age start.To end child abuse eliminate teacher given homework for people under fourteen years old. Discourage parents from promoting knowledge. Encourage parents to give the responsibility of home chores instead.
In grammar school limit the fixed curriculum to the following; 1) arithmetic; addition, subtraction, multiplication and the concept of fractions. word problems that use arithmetic. calculator use through linear combinations. 2) reading and understanding what is read .3) typing, writing and grammar.4) using the computer through searching on the Internet for knowledge.5) health; everything from how to safely cross the street to “this is how smoking will kill you “. Allow curiosity to dictate what additional knowledge will be learned and use the Internet to learn it.
Promote creativity and curiosity by observation and experimentation. Keep adequate playtime. Even when inefficient use students for chores. Frequently behave as parents rather than teachers.
It is also necessary to eliminate grammar school testing of achievement level. This testing has become an over powering motivator to achieve knowledge rather than consideration and judgment.In high school it is necessary to introduce enough competitive spirit and specialization for the child to survive as an adult. Therefore at fourteen years old we must begin placing value on and measuring the accumulation of knowledge.
To graduate from high school pass a comprehensive equivalency test or a group of small equivalency tests. Lower the amount of knowledge necessary to graduate but require greater mastery of it. Allow a generous amount of time so that our working class can graduate without suffrage. Do not require a student to leave school upon graduation.
To preserve the consideration of the facts above knowledge use CSK.
To end violence in the public school and to shape the students into responsible adults give responsibility for school order back to the students by turning our present high schools into “ public constitutional higher schools”.
A public constitutional higher school using CSK can deliver more education, better education and cheaper education than the combination of our present public high schools, vocational technical high schools and county colleges.What is CSK?
It is not necessary to force the acceptance of a mass of computer available knowledge. We need to change our high school focus from accepting the facts to considering what might be the facts. This builds curiosity rather than acceptance. With curiosity comes an increased ability to consider which increases self-determination. An increased ability to consider builds an increased ability to use facts.
CSK is an interactive program of material containing all the lessons necessary to learn a core of basic skill and knowledge to graduate from high school plus a correlated mass of advanced knowledge. The program also contains a mass of tests used as teaching tools that can be taken over and over again until a high level of competence is reached. The program assumes that you can read, write, do fundamental operations, and operate a computer. Many answers are incorrect. Many correct answers are missing. The interactive part of the program allows replacements and challenges to answers. Group action can replace answers. Answers must always be considered for they may be wrong. Sometimes answers must be created for they are missing. Therefore, you can always argue with the CSK teacher and your fellow students for the sake of “truth”.
A CSK module might ask a question and have a multiple-choice selection of answers. The student has the option of selecting one or more of the answers, or writing an answer of his own.
Next the CSK program operates. On occasion the program might insist that a wrong answer is right or a right answer is wrong. There is a classroom of seven including one CSK teacher to debate issues. Imagine the positive experience when the program seems confused over when one answer is right and when another answer is right. Since it is a branched program it can ask subordinate questions.
All unresolved writings will be reviewed by a professional teacher “expert” and the information forwarded to the students counselor who will give it back to the student during their daily private session or to the CSK class during its next session.
The professional teacher “expert” can be challenged as well. With luck there will be unresolved educational issues all the way up to crazy scientists living in Nebraska debating the same issues who are connected into the National CSK mainframe.
An aside about the program is that it is programmed to change its mind. If the whole class insists on a particular answer the program will investigate internally to see if it proposed a false answer.An aside
CSK will give home schooling, parochial schools and private schools equal knowledge through college so that they can have as much knowledge as the knowledgeable teacher has. It will mean that a good teacher without knowledge can use CSK to do a superior job of teaching possibly through a bachelor’s degree. It will mean that anyone with an Internet can get an education for free.
The same base model of computer design, i.e. designed with correctable error, could be used in law and medicine. In law the body of knowledge will be law with president cases in the correcting parameters. In medicine the body of knowledge would be the ambient conditions of the individual body and mind with stricter correcting parameters from a body of medical knowledge. After all what makes a lawyer and a doctor expensive are what they know which could be more accurately and efficiently stored in a mainframe. The base model humanizes the application of knowledge with judgment.What is a public constitutional higher school?
A public constitutional higher school is a free public school for grades nine through sixteen in which the students are responsible for maintaining order, maintaining the buildings and CSK teaching. This will require a school government including student court, student policing, school administration and a school legislature.
There is a principal who has veto power responsible to the Board of Education operating under the “Board of Education’s Systems Book”. He/she is also the chief administrator of a staff composed of adults and qualifying minors who are students operating under the school constitution.
Professional teachers deal almost entirely with subjective teaching. That is they correct subjective papers, and deal with individual students through specific advice. They are not burdened with classroom time except in special specific instances. These instances are to handle students who are removed from the mainstream to a special track by school court, or to operate an educational track created by the school legislature.
Professional advisors visit with minor students one on one. Every minor student sees his professional adviser every day. The professional adviser has computer access to every piece of work the student does as does the student. He/she shares legal confidence with the student and is encouraged to advise as a parent might advise.
CSK teachers will do the bulk of the CSK teaching. Every CSK teacher is a student who has previously mastered the material being presented from a CSK program.A proposal to change a free public school of 1200 students in grades 7-12
t o
a free public constitutional school using CSK of 1600 students for grades 7-16
with better verifiable performance
at an operating cost reduced by 35%.Goals
Improve the quantity of free public education by increasing the amount of years of education available at a cost decrease through the use of graduated high school students.
Improve the quality of education through the use of computer stored lessons.
Improve the creative and analytical ability of students by including correctable error. That is, there are computer fact errors and paths to change computer facts. There is always doubt.
Improve the quality of education through transferring all routine and mechanical teaching functions to graduated students and increasing the critical functions of teachers.
Improve the quality of life of the student by adding a parental education guidance function performed by the teacher.
Improve the quality of life in the school community by eliminating the abuse of work at home.
Improve the quality of order and citizen preparation through a dual order of constitution and educational systems manual that recognizes and preserves a due process for all community members.Improve the quality of presentation by changing the source of information from the teacher to a repetitious presentation of ten-minute VCR lessons with accompanyingOverview
objective and subjective work sheets.
Improve feedback by returning corrected objective work sheets the day they are done and criticized and analyzed subjective work sheets with written answers or references to written questions the next day.
Improve quantity of education by offering free education through an Associate Degree and limited free co-op education through a Bachelors degree.
Increase the variety of educational offerings by teacher created tracks via "The Board of Education System Book".
Improve the quality of order by shifting from authoritative teacher order to constitutional pier order with constitutional means for displacing students to special tracks.
Improve personal guidance by a daily individual conference with a teacher who has up to the day computer screen information of the students’ work and a private confidential record of the students’ socialization and maturation progress.
Reduce the total labor cost of this improved education by trading free further education through an Associate Degree over a three-year period for a third of their time to be served as a staff member.Startup Cost
300 computers $120,000
Computer components $20,000
30 recording cameras $25,000
10 editing units $I0,000
Portable walls $20,000
2 administrators for 6 years $480,000
Teacher overtime
Year 1 $80,000
Year 2 $320,000
Year 3 $200,000
Miscellaneous $10,000Total $1,285,000
The Program
5 months before first year
Form steering committee. Members are both administrators, board of Ed members, and superintendent of schools. The administrators are members of BESC (Board of Education Systems Committee) and the CC (Constitution Committee) and act as liaison. This committee selects the membership for BESC and CC.
An administrator designs the course for teaching CSK (Core of Skills and Knowledge).
Select teachers for semester 1 of the Associate Degree program.
Solicit students for the Associate Degree program from the senior class.
Design the CSK film making course, purchase a limited selection of equipment, and select a teacher.year 1
Write and adopt a School Constitution.
Write and adopt a Board of Education Systems Book.
Write and use limited CSK.
Teach year 1 of Assoc. Deg.
Begin using graduated students for order keeping in halls, study halls, grounds, and lunch room.
During second semester use graduated students to teach CSK written in first semester by CSK film making class.Year 2
Operate the school as a mixed body. Initially all students are track students. As the CSK library grows eliminate tracks, one at a time.
Establish tracks called for by the constitution through the means established in BESB.
Track all communications for future use in establishing computer storage and recall to replace physical communication.Year 3
Begin the transfer of responsibility for order and CSK teaching to the graduated students,
Begin the transfer of teacher duty to their new duty.
Design, develop and establish an accredited BA in Core of Skills and Knowledge Education in co-operation with a local University.Year 3 -6
Write full curriculum CSK.
Develop the full operation of the school under the constitution and the BESB.
The 2 administrators leave to be replaced by a programmer, at local expense.Year 6 -12
Programmer writes program for inner school communication.
Programmer transfers CSK from videotape to disk to mainframe.
Superintendent solicits other districts for main framing of CSK.Initially a set of videodisks and written assignments available in the school.CSK (Core of Skills and Knowledge)
Intermediately a set of video disks and written assignments containing all the information which can be learned by rote (knowledge) or repetition (skill) necessary for high school graduation, associate degree and BASK (Bachelor of Arts in Skills and Knowledge Education).
Eventually a hard disk set in a main frame of video and printout elements that can be called nationwide the truth of which can be disputed by high-speed cable.CSK lesson
A lesson consists of 4 10-minute elements. The next lesson is formed by dropping the first element and adding a new fourth element. In this way at normal rate of progress
The student is exposed to each element 4 times.Element of Knowledge
A precise statement of the lesson.
A statement of a point that uses past elements and illustrations as reference.
A question for which the point of the lesson is the answer.
Silent enrichment film runs while student selects from a list of answers.
Repeats the process with another point until all points are made.
Repeats the first statement and puts each point in context.Class preparation for element of knowledge
Match a written but segmented statement with individual points. On occasion errors are in the work that the student is to find. Errors need not be false but do not explain the points. There are always more answers than questions.
Element of Skill
Statement of task.
Example of skill.
Task assignment.
Example of skill without sound while student does task.
Repeat with slightly more difficult task.
Restatement of the goal with its solution.Monitoring CSK
A staff-student monitors the class and collects class preparation work. While the students are watching the lesson the staff-student marks wrong answers and returns work. If he has any question concerning element of skill he forwards work to teacher for critical analysis.
Takes role from preparation work.
Writes down questions of students and forwards to teacher.
Returns work of teacher to students.
The staff-student has previously been exposed to the material. Interplay between students and the staff-student is encouraged (including argument) between elements.Advancement
Course credit is obtained by passing a comprehensive test. Courses can be repeated when test is passed at lower than a mastery level. Courses are offered at different speeds.
High school graduation is granted to students passing a comprehensive test. 90% of required credits are required to take test. A student passing the test below mastery level can remain in school and retake the comprehensive.
An associate degree can be earned by completing all course work (including credits for student staff work), and passing a comprehensive exam or writing a major paper.
BASK can be earned by completing all course requirements (including major field courses at a cooperating local University).Student status and obtaining student status
Special track student must be constantly teacher supervised.
Students must be staff supervised. They have constitutional rights.
A graduated student must have passed the graduation exam at a mastery level and have a teacher sponsor. He/she is expected to keep order at assigned times and locations. He/she must complete the CSK teaching course in six months.
A staff student must have completed the CSK teaching course. He/she has the duties of keeping order, proctoring CSK classes, correcting papers, and keeping records.
A coop. staff student has an associate degree and a Board of Education contract to pay University tuition costs. He/she is expected to do teacher duties.Teacher Duties
8 A.M.-4P.M. and go home done.
Individual student reviews averaging 15 minutes. The same students discuss their life and school concerns. 2 1/2 hours
Teach custom class to selected students in need. 1 hour
Critical analysis of student work 3 hours
Course design, film review, communication, research and answer critical questions on tape. 1 hour
As a surplus of teacher time develops, they are moved to writing CSK. As teachers leave the system they are not replaced.Staff student and graduated student duties
Attend class 2 hours
Prepare for class 2 hours
CSK monitoring, order keeping, communicating records 3 1/2 hoursTracks
Potential dropouts needing socialization and enrichment. Maximum class size is 14. All day with same teacher in same room.
Students assigned by court. Maximum class size is 10. Same teacher all day in same room.
Incorrigible students. A housekeeping crew of 6 maximum with jailer type teacher.
Film maker. 2 students plus 1 staff student.
Creative skills (music, art, shop, lab, etc.) requiring a teacher.
Any track established by constitutional or BESB procedures.
Associate Degree Curriculum
credits
How to teach CSK 5
How to teach traditionally 5
CSK experience, 4 semesters 4
Math; 4 semesters of calculus or
2 semesters of computer, 1 of finite and logic 8
Psychology, 2 semesters 6
Personality 3
Sociology 3
Economics, 2 semesters 6
History, 2 semesters 4
Science; 2 semesters
Newtonian and Quantum Physics or
Biology, chemistry, physics, and geology 4
Composition and analysis
Literature and grammar 3
Report writing 3
Scientific writing 3
Analysis 3Constitution
Staff-student Administration
The business manager administers constitutional funds.
The housekeeping manager coordinates incorrigible track with maintenance department.
The programs manager directs non-credit programs.
The order manager directs the order keeping staff.
The sergeant at arms serves the court.The Court
An elected judge, prosecutor, and a recording secretary are the court. Every student has a teacher as advocate.
Punishment is to assign student to appropriate tracks. Trial is by a jury of piers.Legislature- 3 branches
Teachers' branch - Curriculum development, record keeping, non-credit programs, budget, due process.
Staff students' branch - order, non-credit programs, record keeping, budget, due process.
Students' branch - order, non-credit programs, due process.Order established by BESB
(Board of Education Systems Book)Professional Administration
Chief administrator is the principal with veto power of everything except due process.
Teachers contracted rights and responsibilities.
Civil liberties of students and teachers.
Process due teacher called by student or staff student.
College placement.
Special tracks methods and procedures.
Methods of CSK development.
Method of track formation.Operating Costs and Efficiencies
Staff Number
Tracks, special tracks and enrichment tracks 40
Daily guidance 15
Student papers evaluation 45
Updating CSK 5
Total Teachers and Coop Students 105CSK monitoring 65
Order keeping 25
Administration 10
Total Staff Students 100Costs in number of professional teachers’ salaries
Coop student tuitions 13
Teacher salaries 55
Total 68Present teachers salaries 135
Efficiencies
A cost reduction of (67/135) 50%.
Old student/staff was (1200/135) 8.8.
New student/staff is (1400/205) 6.8.
Staff increase is (2.0/8.8) 23%.
