Why don't we learn the basics? - like how to cook good food

While this issue is clearly one that is relevant to this thread , I have posted a response here .  The issue goes to the heart of the ongoing failures in our education system and more deeply--- the pedantic way we approach thinking about real life and living .

Dominion or Domination

We should all know there is a difference between the two D's but many are still confused enough to call one the other.  Christine Milne, in an irrational outburst at Tony Abbotts statements this week,  like many in the audience,  doesn't realise she's confusing two ideas and perpetuating a complete nonsense. Sadly she's not the only one who thinks they are logical about cutting edge conservation when they fail to study these matters , and their origins and practical implications fully.
 It's true, of course that dominion can be taken clearly to give licence to domination , but that's the full context ; are we complaining that men have a choice to be careless ignorant and arrogant? How clever do we expect governments to be? You can't have dignity and freedom if you aren't allowed the opportunity to sin . Many of the Greens(party) seem to think they will get the peasants to stop sinning-presumably  by giving even more power to the bureau .We all know the Greens  attitude to regulation reduction ------because of their theology .
The leader of the Greens is not alone in this because, like all the old reactionaries , they have sat on any good discussion on the myths and unworkable doctrines that the Green religions have perpetuated . (for eg ; that equality means we all should own the same ; that ownership is sort of "to be discouraged" ; their failure to promote diversity which implies that it " right and proper for diversity of capital investment to be encouraged" ; their ever so predictable default position " that nature can't be touched."  Too easy , too ideological  incarcerated
 The Greens, in the face of the reality of diversity and interconnectedness they don't fully understand prefer the easy road of "doing nothing" and advocating their predictable " no touch" policies. All too easy for a difficult beast.  If you can't touch Nature, can you care for it? Why have a Carbon Tax if we are not allowed" to touch "
The book of Genesis has been dismissed as irrelevant  but it is the authority of this idea of dominion, so its best to study it properly and fully. Not only is Genesis the origin ( in our culture at least) of the idea of dominion as an imperative and right of every man and woman  ( Genesis also portrays the paradox by talking to realities of abuse ) this neither positive or negative concept  is perpetuated consistently through this awefully boring ( to some) bit of foundational story telling /doctrine for Western Commonwealth discipline.   Its served us very well -- till we lost sight of it .
Bertrand Russell could see some paradoxes like D&D are never resolved ideologically but are resolved, as they were for thousands of years premarxist in our culture. just because you don't understand the logic behind something doesn't mean the logic is not there or that we shouldn't use experience to teach us limits and realities ( Russell's point)
The Marxists of course thought they knew a better way but its been proved shallow ,wrong in both theory and practice. So why is any thinking person still allowing some old pedantic and shallow remnants of their logic a voice?
There is no point in the reactionaries seeking to defend the empty rhetoric of anti dominion talk . They are living in the past and playing games with words and ideas they don't even understand.
When they have any common sense, even reactionaries who aren't behaving like children teach their children to have dominion over their bedrooms and toys . Copyright  Emperors Academy  10th March 2014

Pedants paradigms run out of steam

Q&A ABCTV last night . Greer doesn't like marriage cause it doesn't work for her , Dan isn't convinced by anything but thinks a bunch of stats will do it ( The typical excuse of someone who can't and won't make up their mind is someone who talks stats ) and Hanna gets married because " its the done thing to do".( How reactionary in action ) If these selfies and their stale old reactionary doctrines were dangerous ideas,  its only because they were some years ago- when they were teenagers??. Young women prefer a burka to following the frustrated and tired old diatribe against church and men or whatever ( "what I think is wrong") of Germaine. How come The ABC don't see this - blinkered not dangerous ideas  , threatened not threatening ; sensing the disease but in denial, lest they find they have had the disease for decades.
The real revolutionary who still drives revivals and an  ongoing sense of liberal democracy in the West , thankfully, got a mention . ABCTV are as agents for the pregressives not alone in not saying too much about the good things that have gone before but to mention he leader on the others side - taboo  .ABCTV do the same thing to Jesus as Islam does - puts him in the old hat basket ( category error of course created by your worldview)  
Some of our kids do think . They might not think broadly enough to switch channels to half full but they know the ABC preach utopia but teach dsytopia.  Few in our education devolution culture have found their way back to  a glimpse of the real world which is neither-- ecomia . Young people observe the disconnect  between the depession in the real world adult painted world and its  trumped upoptimsim of the positivsist on the TV  They see that  the children that are in charge and they see grown adults as children because the children in charge have never grown up - to see the big picture , the good that's possible ;that everything is not as bad as a young tennager might be xepecetd to think ( but not a mature man)Utopia might be real if they had  to both have a job and the commitment that protects mother and child , they can safely reject its simplicities ( juvenile or infantile was Hitchens word) .  After all the B&W label ( first question ) didn't work because the real world is both  B &W AND technicolour . Bigger than one side or any side. 
These tired old fanatics in charge  should know that while they only believe in things they can see , they may be missing out on a lot thats happening . They should know that if they really want to talk dangerous ideas the radical revolutionary who was killed by the  political forces of his day just might make his presence known - scary........ He did .
To be really radical you have to be ----not be line but on the edge . The centre may appear safe but it no place for those who think - Its comfortable being in the centre... like sheep , you can see both sides of the argument ( but only from a pedants non dialectic standpoint )but you have no real view and be quite unmoved over which  of the Hitchen brothers is right ( Are they standing on the edge of territory worth fighting for and whose claims are best supported by the landscape beyond ? .)

Shorten is embarassing on education

The more Bill Shorten speaks on Education as he did at the press club today , the more he reveals the weaknesses in Labors education policy-- its a facade undermined by a commitment to a nonsense ( the idea of disadvantage )  . The Freudian slip where he used "entitlement "instead of "enlightenment" said it all .
The Labor party are on the drip feed to presuming they,  of all people can decide on what others need . I accept that Libs too entitle some of the wrong things
Needs based funding would be OK if Governments KNOW and can decide what kids need . Parents should decide such things and Labor supporters are deciding to pay more to send their kids to the schools they dare to see as overly advantaged.
If I was a Fabian or on Emily's list I would be worried - Shortens desperate use of "progressive and innovative and challenging "is a look back, not a look better or forward- a fanatical defence of whats been 6years of talking andbeing taken for ride ---- as if they have gone somewhere  .
Australia will judge all the talk about a future "good society" knowing that Labors society of last few years is just talk - the dummies can't see it yet - they have been givin de money to the entitlement and children in charge culture.

Political realities - noone is interested in detail -including journos

In a moment of truth on The Drum today, Kerry questions Greg about his sources to reveal he has no credible ones; Greg reveals just how shallow much news journalism is,  even on the ABC.

The journos are happy to just chant data data data , as if it tells us something revealing . All such pedantry in bookkeeping worship proves,  is that they too are easily lead . more interested in bookkeeping trivia than real accountability?Like the public they get lost is stats so why do they ask for them ? 

The panel were agreeing that most Australians don't want any detail . On questioning,  Greg reveals his " survey " was largely based on those on his facebook page etc  .

This is after a week of repeat choruses from the press that " the opposition aren't showing us the figures "  all they were interested in was piece of paper with 2 numbers on it -  a total of two columns - no detail please .Maybe the Libs should have had more but budget is never intended to be final and yet the press will use it so

In another side to this shallowness,  you have Rudd in the debate with Abbott picking and choosing the data from his own cheat sheet.

Too many loose threads -giving you a headache?

Its amazing how long the people (in the now reactionary West) can be strung along . New color and movement seems to be what has revived interest in what Rudd is doing.  For some obscene reason we are all in the jungles of PNG this week.  
What happens when such leaders run out of salvation destinations to send our problems to?

Perhaps more importantly , what instability of mind leads to people not being sure of what they know ?
Gary Furnell makes a good case for the traditional view of why a real education revolution is needed . Australians are some of the most pedantic of any . see first posts on this blog . Worse they don't understand that you can actually understand something without having to prove it point by point . Most of us are too busy making high level risk decisions to try and explain even the first few steps to a certainty that's become part of our science understanding .

Our now tired and predictable education system has ALSO given in to idea that ideas evolve and therefore stringing along is anything but wrong. This means we no longer focus well enough on the building idea in education.There are steps but some routes go nowhere but down or out.

Furnell's point too is that paradox is a way to box understanding without spending your life in space travel . Its a great article ,  but won't suit those who have spent their lives trying to find a place to hide inside their own limited logic.                              QUADRANT magazine May 2013

Scoring our intelligence and ignoring our blind spots

Why do ATAR scores allow for "degree of difficulty" DOD ?  Maybe " difficulty ' has more to to do with disinterest in some areas . While this doesn't apply to History which unfortunately no one wants to do , it might apply to languages as ---You get points for doing it when you don't get points for music . Some comparisons  are onerous and most onerous if used by people who claim they are interested in a broad education ( what incentive  do we need to get children to study history?)
Physics is "difficult "but if you do it slower its very difficulty can drive great achievement and make it easier and more fun. The key driver we want is not DOD but FUN and help in DISCOVERY in a hard landscape full of bricks and brick walls - not the dumber rating system that relies too much on DOD .

Howard Gardner describes 7 types of intelligence ; how many are we encouraging ?  Spatial is a  critical one for growth in the future -- ART and history can help develop thinking skills in this area.

Does ATAR importance end in mere institutional concerns? Because there is so little focus in "the education revolution" on the " world beyond ", we all talk hypocritically talk about "Jobs" instead of  actual Careers.

Teachers seem to need no high ATARS . Teaching is a great career but are we preoccupied with mere stats and not providing the right incentives to encourage competence . Have we sold our souls to the bookeepers ; Columns of figures that don't account for any competence ?