Education

An apple a day keeps the teacher away from medical bankruptcy

Evidence-based education is an established field of study working to determine best practices for teaching and education based on proven effectiveness in learning.

A Common Framework For All Subjects

It's not enough just to teach students an array of disconnected facts about a variety of subjects. In order to really comprehend these concepts holistically, seeing how they relate to each other, to ourselves, and fit together as pieces of the universal puzzle, education must be undertaken with a clear picture of what that puzzle is depicting.

metaculture is designed to be that picture. The fractal serves as a visual representation of the universal whole, with everything it contains fitting into its simple yet infinitely complex pattern. The philosophical grounding in science, reason, critical thinking and universalism make it religiously and ideologically neutral, avoiding conflicts with church/state separation that a purely atheist or religious point of view would raise.

By giving children a vision of what the puzzle will look like when it's finished, children will learn much more easily and eagerly while building a meaningful vision of life's purpose and how to make the most of it.

Public Versus Private Education

Public Education is a natural monopoly where geographic location is the most important factor for determining which school is best. Except for large cities, it is inefficient and redundant to offer multiple school options for children. Programs under the guise of "school choice" end up draining resources from existing schools that are already struggling, and the "alternative" is usually just different, not exactly better.

Another issue is that fundamentalist religious schools are the other "choice" that is most often available, causing public funds to support religious indoctrination and violating church-state separation.

However, there is a good point made by the Libertarians that competition in the realm of teaching methods and curriculum is necessary to allow new ideas to develop and gather evidence of their efficacy. Can this be done without the dismantling of public education?

In order to determine best practices in education, you need to perform experiments to determine which curriculum performs better than others, or which ones fit the needs of certain types of students the best. School systems in large cities can offer multiple types of school within the public system to allow for this without diverting and diluting the public funding that needs to go to those least able to afford a private alternative. Smaller cities and rural schools can adopt the best practices learned from the experimental schools, and offer multiple curriculum tracks to meet student needs.

School curriculum variety, competition, and experimentation are all needed to achieve constant improvement in our education system. Supporters of public education should find more ways to make this possible within the public system, or else lose the argument to those who seek to undermine it.

Filling In The Knowledge Gaps

The focus of this wiki is to address the most common knowledge gaps that most people still have after the typical high school or college education. Specifically, the ones that serve as blocks to understanding core scientific concepts like creation and evolution and cause continued reliance on supernatural belief systems.

Can We Learn From Videos?

Let's find out! Watch all the videos on this wiki, go to Khan Academy and take a bunch of courses, or check out these videos on evidence-based education principles.

The Science of Teaching

Evidence Based Learning Strategies

The Case for Evidence Based Teaching

We actually do need education very much, though we can probably do a lot better than kind that existed in England in the 50s and 60. And the kind that exists now.

Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall Part Two