Article

2008-05-18 Iraq

New Iraqi University Teaches Students to Think

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Posted by Bobby 2008-05-18 05:22|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top
File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1 The only way to get what we've got is the same way we did: work for it and think creatively for it. Good luck, students of AUI-S!

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-05-18 06:02|| 2008-05-18 06:02|| Front Page Top

#2 As they recreate American universities will they make them into the political correctness indoctrination centers we have here now? Will they fill them with drug-addled hippie students and Code Pinkos? Or will they establish 'Animal House' fraternities and haze pledges by pouring boiling water and crab boil on them?

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2008-05-18 07:55|| 2008-05-18 07:55|| Front Page Top

#3 This is the weapon Osama fears most.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-05-18 08:46|| 2008-05-18 08:46|| Front Page Top

#4 This is the weapon Osama fears most.

This is what all dictators fear most. Which is why our communists have done their best to stamp it out in our schools.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-05-18 09:00|| 2008-05-18 09:00|| Front Page Top

#5 to expose Iraqis to Western teachers and a Western classroom environment focused on critical thinking and academic inquiry

Ah, the classics!

After the ~~Socialist Marxists~~ barbarians overran Western Civilization and destroyed the cultured of the West, its good to know that some places are experiencing a Renaissance.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-05-18 09:41|| 2008-05-18 09:41|| Front Page Top

#6 While having *a* school that does this is fine, there is a big difference in the theory of a liberal education, and its practice.

To explain, there are no universities that only deal in rote memorization, though it sounds dramatic to say so.

Education is often modeled as a pyramid, with memorization being just the lowest level. However, just because it is basic, does not mean it is not important. It is the foundation for more advanced forms of education, and if it is weak, they will be as well.

But from there, students must learn to deal in abstract thought, such as associating mathematics with reality; association and organization of information; discrimination; interpolation and extrapolation; analysis of existing information and synthesis of new information.

This is the upside of the pyramid. It is pretty universally done in serious universities around the world.

What in the West is thought of as "liberal education" *used* to be "cross training"; but today has evolved into almost "anti-education".

In many ways, it is the downside of the pyramid, the de-evolution of the intellect. Pseudo intellectualism and non-education.

For example, they tout "relativism", which is a fine concept in physics, but downright evil in social sciences. Often it asks students to abandon ethics, morality and culture as handicaps to their intellectual development.

Students are encouraged to be less objective and more subjective, often ego-centric in their behavior and outlook.

From the modern liberal education comes anti-intellectual ideas like "post-modernism", which is to a great extent gobbledygook; to abhor not social but intellectual discrimination ("There are no wrong answers, just different answers"); anti-nationalism, that socialism is superior to naturally occurring political mechanisms.

The worst problem is when this is taught first, and thought of as more important than a real education. You end up with students who think they are gods walking on Earth, yet complement this amazing arrogance with ignorance and even disdain for learning.

They lack both the information and the ability to understand that information. They equate emotional shallowness with intellect, dialectic and anger with accomplishment, and imagine themselves as inherently elite.

The liberal education that produces liberals, not in the traditional sense, but as we in America know them today.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-05-18 10:13|| 2008-05-18 10:13|| Front Page Top

#7 thanks for your insight anonymoose.

Posted by bman 2008-05-18 11:11|| 2008-05-18 11:11|| Front Page Top

#8 You end up with students who think they are gods walking on Earth, yet complement this amazing arrogance with ignorance and even disdain for learning.

Fits the definition of Mao's Red Guard and Cultural Revolution nicely. If the Marxist shoe fits....

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-05-18 13:16|| 2008-05-18 13:16|| Front Page Top

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