The Real Howard Roark
Posted by overmanwarrior 12 years, 3 months ago to Culture
What interesting times we live in. The videos about Frank Lloyd Wright seem very ghostlike in relation to today's population. He sounds a lot like Ayn Rand
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I don't really think you can blame schools for molding the minds of kids, unless the parenting is weak. It ALL goes back to parenting. Test scores, behavior....... In general though I've always been a bit anti-college.
I've met morons with PhDs from prestigious universities, and I've met morons who dropped out of high school. Just as I have met incredibly intelligent, able, motivated, productive, and successful individuals from both of the aforementioned categories.
Howard Roark took the useful information from his tertiary education, and dispensed with the rubbish. He didn't need to graduate, because he had already attained all the useful knowledge he was going to get from his school. Graduating was merely a formality.
Many people view tertiary education as though it is a golden ticket, thinking that once one has a degree, he/she is entitled to better jobs than someone who hasn't---regardless of all other factors. But this is a stupid view, because it ignores most of the important factors. Anyone could pay someone else to do her/his assignments, and in some cases even sit her/his exams. An employer who only looks at an individual's degree or academic transcript is missing most of the picture, because pieces of paper do not grant ability.
In the same way, it is also stupid to argue that all university graduates are useless and that high school dropouts who started businesses or did apprenticeships are necessarily superior. In reality, capable people can be found in both categories, just as incapable ones can.
First, it would be incorrect to assume that researchers always test interesting hypotheses. A great deal of scientific research investigates trivial issues. A considerable portion is complete rubbish. That is why the top journals are extremely selective in terms of what they publish---i.e., they only publish articles that the editors think will be of interest to a wide audience.
Second, the validity of any given methodology is largely dependent on the question being tested. Showing that one human is eight feet tall would constitute pretty solid evidence against the hypothesis that all humans are less than 7'6" tall; but it would offer very little support for the hypothesis that all humans are eight feet tall.
A common (and to some extent understandable) misconception is that science operates on the basis of consensus, when in reality, no amount of experts believing that something is true can actually make it so. The reason why scientific papers include a method section is so that you or anyone else can attempt to replicate the study if there is doubt that the stated methods would produce such results. Likewise, you might agree that those methods could plausibly produce those results, but you might not agree with the conclusions of the authors with regard to the interpretation of those results.
One should not assume every study is bogus, just as one should not accept every study as a matter of course. Rather, one should judge each study on its individual merits (just as one should judge each person on their individual merits), unless one has an a priori reason to suspect that a study would be bogus.
there are plenty of colleges where getting a degree in hard science is not an exercise in progressivism. there are many successful entrepreneurs who have advanced degrees in the sciences. it's not right for everyone.
I'm as frustrated with the college system as anyone. but I'm all about K-12. that's where the indoctrination is honed. college is just a slide into home. not my home.
A good science degree fosters independent thought and critical thinking, although I agree it's a tough call to overcome the 13+ years of indoctrination that preceded it---and unsurprisingly, many do not.
That said, some aspects of tertiary education (at least here in Australia) do push the leftist agenda. I had to pay compulsory student union fees which directly funded socialist groups, and several of my lecturers pushed progressive ideologies, including my genetics lecturer who taught us that "race has no biological foundation and is a purely social construct". And while it serves me right for choosing anthropology as an elective in first year, I was rather annoyed that an entire lecture was devoted to "Marxist anthropology" (yes, literally). But I also have to mention that my tutor in the same anthropology course did actually encourage our class to question everything the lecturer taught us and was quite derisive of students who blindly accepted those ideas.