On 10/06/2014 07:06 PM, "Ola Fosheim =?UTF-8?B?R3LDuHN0YWQi?=
<ola.fosheim.grostad+dl...@gmail.com>" wrote:
On Sunday, 5 October 2014 at 20:37:18 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
statement on unions in general, BTW) and the complete and total lack
of "logic" being part of the curriculum *they* were taught as kids
(which is still inexcusably absent from modern curriculums).
"logic" is theory. Theory does not belong in schools. Too difficult. You
are only supposed to learn things that you don't have to figure out,
otherwise finding qualified teachers will become impossible.
Math is theory too.
But regardless: Yes, there *is* a theoretical side to logic, but logic
is also *extremely* applicable to ordinary everyday life. Even moreso
than math, I would argue.
Now, I don't necessarily mean things like formal symbolic logic, lambda
calculus. Although, my 9th grade math class *did* have a very heavy
focus on formal proofs - and it wasn't even remotely one of the hardest
math classes I'd taken, even just up to that point. Students can handle
theory just fine as long as it isn't the more advanced/complex
stuff...Although college students should be *expected* to be capable of
handling even that. Now, *cutting edge* theory? Sure, leave that for
grad students and independent study.
Anyway, when I say "teach logic in schools" I just mean (at the very
least) the basic things: Like recognizing and identifying the basic
logical fallacies (no need necessarily to dive into the actual latin
names - the names aren't nearly as crucial as understanding the concepts
themselves), recognizing ambiguity, understanding *why* the fallacies
and ambiguity are flaws, and the problems and absurdities that can occur
when such things aren't noticed and avoided.
This is VERY simple, and crucial, stuff. And yet I see SOOO many grown
adults, even ones with advanced graduate degrees, consistently fail
completely and uttery at basic logical reasoning in everyday life (and
we're talking very, very obvious and basic fallacies), that it's
genuinely disturbing.
I am personally looking forward to Beijing hosting the winter olympics
2022. I am sure they will mange to fake a smile after the politicians
have demolished their homes to make space for the ski-jumping event.
Don't know whether this has always been the case and just never got
noticed until recent years, but between the last winter olympics and the
recent soccer/football match, and what you're saying about 2022, I'm
noticing a rather bad trend with these big international sporting
events. I get the feeling this'll be something that'll get bigger and
bigger until either A. the right people get together and do something
about it, or B. things come to a head and the shit *really* starts to
hit the fan. (Yes, I like outdated slang ;) ) Nothing good can come from
the current trajectory.
Was this off-topic?
It was off-topic several posts up. :)
