F
Foxgolfer
Guest
The purpose of a good education is to be able to weigh up empirical evidence , encourage curiosity and be flexible in your thinking .Be prepared to change your mind if the facts change.I find that modern education, from schools through further education and on to main stream media is developing generations of closed minds.
It has become important to conform to the 'narrative', be it political, social or economic, it doesn't matter. As long as it is in line with 'common purpose' thinking that is fine, outliers, people who think a little differently, make up their own minds and express different views are ostracised and ridiculed, if they are in public life they are 'cancelled', banned from social media and sometimes worse.
Mostly, pre lockdown, I used to let this idiocy wash over me without much thought, if I met such a person I would be polite, not engage and, down the line, avoid like the plague. no problem.
Now however the opportunity to display your idiocy has been ramped up to unheard of heights by the governments 'measures', strangely, people who hate the tories, call them far right, nazis even, are the first to fall over themselves trying to implement their every diktat, wear a mask, get the vaccine etc, etc.
People seeming to believe all this crap from politicians that they profess to hate, whilst helping the same politicians systematically dismantle the social and economic structure of this country in preparation for a future that will not be good for ordinary people.
The development of a national curriculum , has I agree, to an extent stifled some creativity and the drive to “””teach to the test” and only value what can be measured, has had a detrimental effect, particularly on 4-16 .
Where I take issue with your post is in the implication that every source for the bedrock of enquiry is valid .It isn’t . “ Alternative facts “ are not facts unless they have a basis in reality .
The blurring of the line between fact and opinion is dangerous and perfectly illustrated by the mob that , believing Trump’s “alternative facts “ ( lies ) formed the opinion the election had been stolen, and now people are dead and lives are ruined . . The failure, to a large extent was one of education .
For me Vaccine scepticism , climate change denial and holocaust denial are all a failure in education . Lazy thinking prompted by a reliance on opinions formed by superficial and unreliable sources.