Showing results for tags 'education'.
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I'm wondering, how many of you went to preschool? I actually never attended preschool, and started school in Kindergarten. I hope I'm not alone here.
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general Is education free in equestria?
Berry-Bliss-Sundae posted a topic in MLP:FiM Canon Discussion
I have had this question since I first saw '' the school for gifted unicorns '' ... I mean, in the series some schools have been seen (the ponyville school, Wonderbolt Academy, the flight school in cloudsdale) but ... these schools will be paid or free(paid by the government) to use for any pony that wants to attend? Obviously the school of unicorns is not free, just to enter you need to pass an admission test Maybe my question is a bit ignorant, but at least in my country public universities are considered "the best in the country" given their high academic level ... private universities usually you pay when you are not able to pass public universities (basically you pay for having a degree) or have a relatively easy career that, besides liking you this career, this career is not taught by the public university. Thanks to this '' lifestyle '' I do not know the educational system in other countries, but I do know that in countries like the United States and England schools, universities and... basically you pay for everything. -
Hello everypony! Due to the recent number of Applejack episodes, I figured a discussion about Applejack is order. Not a discussion about whether she is best pony, or if she's getting too much screentime, but rather a discussion regarding her education, or lack thereof. APPLEJACK IS EDUCATED ARGUMENT: Applejack claims to have been "the last in her class" to receive her cutie mark in Call of the Cutie, much like Big Macintosh and Granny Smith. However, in Family Appreciation Day, Granny Smith tells the story of how the Apple family helped found Ponyville. In this flashback, Granny Smith is shown to already have her cutie mark, despite living with her family away from civilization. So, naturally this means one of these facts cannot be true. Applejack is also able to read and write; skills typically taught in school. Applejack also has a good understanding of business skills (thanks PonyEcho, I forgot about that!) APPLEJACK IS NOT EDUCATED ARGUMENT: Applejack has also found relatively simple mathematics to be confusing (Applebuck Season). Applejack is never shown attending school, and has never mentioned it other than in Call of the Cutie (It is also unclear if what Applejack says is factual, as Family Appreciation Day causes a continuity error). Despite living in Ponyville all their lives (and going to school together according to Applejack), Applejack and Rarity do not seem to know each other in the pilot episode. (Friendship is Magic, Part 1 & 2) So, here is my question to everypony here: What do YOU think? Do you think Applejack is educated? Do you think she is not educated? Why? Remember: No flaming, no insults, no trolling. Also this is a silly discussion. No need to get too serious!
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What are somethings you've always wanted to learn and become a master in? This could include any subjects or skills that have deeply interested you. You never seem to have the time to learn them at the moment (you have more time than you think; procrastination is really what gets in the way) but you would like to learn them at some point in the future. I would like to learn as much astronomy, geology, biology, environmental science, paleontology, meteorology, and botany as I can so I can have a better understanding of the natural world and the heavens above. I also wish to achieve fluency in seven languages: Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, French, Hebrew, Greek, and Russian. I've also been interested in gaining experience in some sort of craftsmanship, whether it be automotive mechanics, welding, or carpentry. Sadly, there's no resources close to where I live that can help me in that area
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Have any questions regarding university/ college admissions? Want to share your dream university list or experience? Want to discuss admissions with others who either have experience in admissions? Whether you want to study in Asia or America, a for profit college or Harvard, here is the place to discuss it!
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A gap year is traditionally a year that some students take between high school and college. It's meant to be a break from scholarly studies and an opportunity to go volunteer, travel, go on an internship, etc. Some people take it during or after college too. Here are a lot of programs specifically for people taking a year off: http://www.gooverseas.com/gap-year Are you planning on taking a gap year in the future? If you've already taken one, what did you do?
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Everyone has a liking and a hatred to their school. Like, I love to see my friends, and see my favorite teachers, and sometimes the assemblies, events. And our school is not AS strict as most schools. Some schools don't allow many things. My one friend said at her old school, no one was allowed to wear make up, wear fingernail polish, fake nails, and many more thats not make up related. I dont really wear much make up or wear fingernail polish, but that's strict. Anyways, like my school allows gum, I pods, phones when teachers are not teaching, and many more. But, we ALL have ONE thing or two that we hate a lot. Like, I hate the fact that out P.D.A is outrageous this year. We cannot even hug family or friends....really? And we can only hold hands. It will be an automatic detention. And many other strict crap. I also hate my Principal, he is NO help at all and annoying. Some of the teachers are just too....OMG strict. I do hate a lot of people at my school, and also the homework as well What is ONE thing, maybe two, three or more that you hate about your school? Many people have at least ONE thing. Dont try and say that your school is perfect, this is not what this thread is about.
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Everyone has a plan, some change their minds in the middle of their life. Some follow their plans all the way through. So as far as education goes, what is the highest level of education, that you plan to finish or have already finished? Or perhaps What KIND of education do you plan on doing or have completed already. Did you plan to go to college for an Associates, Bachelors, Masters degree or a Doctors/PHD? Perhaps Certifications are your style? Did you graduate high school or go for that GED exam? BONUS: Also did you win any awards during your time in school? I am talking about awards that came from high school, college, trade school and so on, so let's hear about it. I will start this thread with myself... 2005 = Graduated high school 2005 - 2009 = Graduated with my Bachelors Degree (Bachelors of Science) 2010 = Trade school (Became COMPTIA A plus, Network plus, and Security plus certified) 2011 - 2013 = Graduated with my Masters degree (MBA) (Masters in Business Administration with the concentration of Information Systems Management.) AWARDS.... Toastmasters Club – Competent Communicator Award (I Joined a public speaking club and became the first student on my campus to complete 10 speeches before graduation, which earned me this reward.) S.T.A.R (Students Taking Active Responsibilities) – Platinum Level Accomplishment (Helped out with volunteer work on the schools campus.) Future Business Leaders of America – Certificate of Appreciation (College Business club, won this award by helping out people who were struggling with on campus issues.) The Future... I plan to go ahead and try to get the following.... CCNA Cert. (Cisco Certified Network Associate Routing and Switching certification) ACMT Cert. (Apple Certified Macintosh Technician certification) (Working on this NOW) ?MCSA Cert (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) That's it for me, what about the rest of you bronies and pegasisters?
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All right what are your opinions on high school? Well I do think it is better than middle school in terms of maturity of students. But I don't like the drama that happens or how early it starts. My school starts at 7:30 and I live quite a way from there so I have to leave at 6:40. I would prefer it if it started later and ended later. All right discuss away!
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Now, where do the ponies at Hoofer Steps' dance school get regular education? Are they home schooled? Does the ground floor of Hoofer Steps' place serve as a school? Does Cheerilee have a competitor we haven't seen yet? I welcome your thoughts!
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general Is the K-12 Education Program Still Viable?
Glacies Frost posted a topic in General Discussion
In the "lower taxes" thread, someone brought up that there are people around the world stressed out and burnt out on education by the time they graduate high school. Many of them need additional tutoring to maintain their high grades or bring them into passing territory. I graduated nine years ago, and even this short a time after graduating, I still think that too much has been piled on children from word go. Let's face it, not all of us are going to grow up to be or enjoy being writers, or scientists, or mathematicians/engineers. I argue that we can actually make things better by altering curriculum to fit a student's interests starting around age 16, when they're old enough to at least have some idea what they find interesting in terms of potential areas of study and what they don't. I'm also now of the opinion that schooling should not end at the 12 Grade, the high school Senior in America. I believe it might be better to space out the education a little more, drag it out to 14 grades, so there's more time to learn the more intensive courses that seem now to be a part of children's lives, like what would have been considered college level math just ten years ago. By allowing a slimmer course load determined by a student's skills and interests, and by extending the "learning years" by two, I believe that some major benefits could be seen starting in as little as five years. I'm interested to hear everypony's thoughts on the matter, however. -
Source: SJW as related to religious naivete and charity scams, and how to solve it.
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I'm confused about the schools in Equestria....Ok, here's what we know so far: In Lesson Zero, Twilight states that she worries that Celestia will send her back to "Magic Kindergarten", which is assimably in Canterlot. Also beore she went to Ponyville, she was enrolled to Princess Celestia's Magic School for the Gifted, whicj might be for a similar age group. In Ponyville, there is an elementary school where a lot of familiar background and supporting ponies, as well as the CMC go to. So, the only educational facilities canonically mentioned were low-grade-level, which makes me wonder if that's all the education an average pony needs in their life in that universe. But don't you think it's wierd...? Think about it, the Mane 6, on the majority of age group people believe they're in, would be about late high school, early-college level. But, as far as we know, none of them go to any kind of school. Also, there seems to be no higher grade-level educational facility in Equestria. I'm wondering, like I stated previously, do the ponies in that world not need a big level of education or something? Pretty smart equines, if ya ask me. O_o
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http://infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html http://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/contradictions.html http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Biblical_scientific_errors http://www.answering-christianity.com/abdullah_smith/historical_errors_in_the_gospels-3.htm http://www.livescience.com/47799-morality-religion-political-beliefs.html http://www.nairaland.com/121066/predominantly-atheist-countries-lowest-crime http://all4ed.org/press/crime-rates-linked-to-educational-attainment-new-alliance-report-finds/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201402/why-are-educated-people-more-likely-be-atheists http://www.patheos.com/blogs/epiphenom/2011/05/non-religious-nations-have-higher.html http://observer.com/2016/06/nypd-ig-no-link-between-quality-of-life-enforcement-and-lower-crime/ http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/poor-people-more-religious-rich-people-and-china-has-most-atheists-according-study http://www.gallup.com/poll/142727/religiosity-highest-world-poorest-nations.aspx Sources for things I regularly debate. fite me
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Someone once said that you aren't living if you don't learn something new everyday. So I made this thread. If you learned something new today, post it here. All genre's of knowledge welcome here. History, Science, Math, General life lessons, Social stuff, Technical things you learn on the job, 'Street-knowledge', whatever... Feel free to cite the new thing you learned if it's cite-able, and keep discussion to a minimum so the thread doesn't become all about one thing. (you can always take discussions to pm or make a new thread for that) The primary purpose of this thread is to just post something new you learned today and to build a repository of facts n knowledge so others can come to this thread and do the same. Don't get cute and repost something new you learned from this thread Something new I learned today: A dime has 118 ridges around its edge, but a quarter has 119.
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Just want to gather some thoughts on something I've thought about off and on over the last few months. So, I have an office job now. And it took me awhile, but I realized it was kind of familiar to me already despite only working retail beforehand because its very similar to a daily and weekly structure I'd more or less been programmed to be used to: school. Wake up, pack a lunch or ensure I have some money on-hand for the food truck, go to my desk, write, type and do some math, break for lunch, more math, more spreadsheets, etc and then I get to go home. A few important differences though that have just about broken my sanity after one year of this. No one cares about you or how you progress. No teachers are going to take an interest in how you're performing (even though they were paid to do so, some put a good face on it). No one is going to add any variety to things either. No incentive to do so, also, its a business. The same tasks are going to be expected. Every day. Forever. As long as you're willing to do it, you'll get money. If you can't handle it anymore, bye, we'll find someone else. Nothing changes after a year either. Each new school year there was some of the unexpected to look forward to. New teacher, new room, new classmates perhaps. Work has a stagnancy to it in comparison. That guy you can't stand over in the corner? Yeah, he's been here for ten years, get used to him. Don't like your boss? Well, that's a shame because he's been here for TWENTY years, best just get used to him too. Getting bored? Quit your whining. Don't like the jokes people tell when the boss isn't around? Well...that one I honestly don't know what to do with. I'm not one to look for conflict and I have a tendency to bottle things up so I foresee me eventually blowing up at someone or quitting and looking for a new job. I mentioned it to management but we're all adults now, don't rock the boat if you don't have to. Part of me feels embarrassed I'm still one to get offended by off-color humor but I think that stems from my association between work and school. Time and place for everything. Work is not the place for tomfoolery. But there are no disciplinary measures in place for such talk so it gets dispiriting. So, what to do? School is 12 years. Post-secondary was six for me and while structured differently, it still had feedback. Still had the semblance of people taking an interest in your destiny. Imparting knowledge to you, trying to keep you interested and invested in something. Now I'm facing 40 years of expected "work" and I'm feeling despair encroaching on every moment I spend here. School gives you weird expectations about what life has to offer. Enjoy it while you can kids, but know finishing it isn't the end and after its over things get less organized and, in my experience, less friendly. Thanks for reading for those who did. Um, coping mechanisms? Job recommendations? I don't know what I hope people want to share, but any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txjBMasYO4Y Opinions? I did this using Adobe Premiere so the overall quality should be better. I've got more projects such as headcanons and analysing aspects of the older episodes so look forward to them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0kK9nRVqWY
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All right what was that one year in school that was just a blast and that you have great memories from? Mine was 4th grade because we had a lot of parties where we'd bring in our Ds and watch movies. Plus I barely got homework. I also liked 8th grade. It was the year I got back into cartoons and the year I became a brony. So discuss away!
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All right from studying for finals coming up I had an idea to make this thread. So what is that one class in school where you're just like, "I just don't get it." For me, it's Honors Geometry because I'm more of an Algebra person, and Personal Finance, which is where we learn to deal with money and taxes and stuff. That class is like gibberish to me. So discuss away
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I’ve talked about parts of this all over the forum, this is really just assembling it all into one place. What do we know about the education system of Equestria? We know that Ponyville has a one-room schoolhouse that appears to only have one class and teacher. No other schools or teachers are referred to within Ponyville. The expectation seems to be that foals will start school before gaining their cutie-mark, but will gain it at some point while in school. Lessons include regular reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as general history and other subjects that seem geared towards giving the students opportunities to find their special talents. We know that Twilight attended a special school: Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, for which she had to pass an entrance exam, and was apparently still attending in some way when she was sent to Ponyville by Celestia in the first episode. It was during the exam that she gained her cutie-mark, and Twilight specifically said that she was late in getting a cutie-mark. This gives us a vague time-frame for this advanced school. Out-of-show, the various creative staff have mentioned that both Trixie and Sunset Shimmer were at one point students at this same school, but all three were in different ‘years’ so as to not encounter Twilight directly at any point. We know of the Wonderbolts Academy which is attended by full adults, which gives the impression of a military training facility. I really handled that one back in the third part of my first worldbuilding essay here. In summary, in order for the Wonderbolts and their Academy to really be the Equestrian equivalent to the Blue Angels, Red Arrows, or Snowbirds (three different military stunt teams), then the weatherponies, including Rainbow Dash, are likely members of the Equestrian equivalent of the Army Corps of Engineers. What can we do with this? The foundation here is the one-room school. This follows a similar model as the rural one-room schoolhouses found in America in the mid 1800’s. This works quite differently than modern schools, which debuted in the early 1900’s, so it might be a bit puzzling for people. At that time, the ‘class’ wasn’t divided by age. All students would get the same lessons, but the older students would be expected to complete more elaborate versions of the same exercises and assist the younger students. For example, a common textbook in poorer districts would be an almanac, a compilation of weather predictions, informative articles on farming, as well as ‘important’ historical and literary excerpts. (As school supplies were purchased locally, there would be high variation from region to region depending on the funds being made available to the school.) A lesson would be reading a section of the almanac. Young students would be concentrated on simply identifying letters, slightly older students would be reading the words themselves, while the older students would be attempting to understand the concepts and finding uses for the ‘lessons’. Ponyville gives the impression of being a wealthy rural district with a significant sized town, so they’re not as limited and have many more resources available. However, the idea is the same in that the class is not divided by age. These schools would only have the students for four to six years, depending on how quickly the individual student moved through the lessons, and then they would go on to further education depending on their parent’s personal means. The poorest students would simply be released to be laborers. Those with some money or connections would become apprentices for skilled laborers, such as carpenters, smiths, and the like. At this point the apprentice system was highly regulated, with ‘masters’ needing to be certified by their guild-equivalent before being allowed to take on apprentices. If however the student had serious funding or better connections, they would move to a more advanced school. Usually a boarding school in a big city. These would have actual classes separated by entrance year, and cover more esoteric lessons like comportment, rhetoric, literature, music, history, and the like. These could be called ‘secondary’, ‘high’, ‘finishing’ schools, or a variety of other names. This schooling would normally last another six or so years, and the graduates of this would go on to apprenticeship in more white-collar jobs like business, medical, law, government, etc. Or go on to the final pass at a College or a University (which at the time were collections of Colleges that were sharing resources), which was considered to be a superior substitute to the advanced apprenticeship system as you would be exposed to a wider range of opportunities than if you were tied to a single master. This is why the advanced degree in modern universities is called a ‘Master’ degree. At one point that was the minimum requirement for a person to call themselves a Master and take on apprentices/students in those subjects. Anyway, Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns very much resembles one of these secondary schools, going directly into a College. Twilight will have actually been in a primary school prior to taking the exam, and was either truly late in getting her cutie-mark, or was precocious/annoying enough that her parents brought her to the entrance exam early. Or both. The episode gives the impression that if Twilight hadn’t experienced that magic surge that she wouldn’t have gotten into the school. However, the test of hatching the egg was more like the various interview questions high-tech industries used to give, where they don’t expect you to know the answer. They’re more interested in how you approach the question. They probably didn’t expect her to actually hatch the egg, they just wanted to see what she would do when *trying*. Rarity likely attended a Finishing School as well in Canterlot, which is why her accent doesn’t match her parents or Sweetie Bell. Students of secondary education at this time usually were taught ‘comportment’ which includes etiquette, speech patterns, and so on. In England, students ended up with what’s called Received Pronunciation accents. In America, it was ‘Mid-Atlantic’ accents which is what happens when Received Pronunciation moves across the water to America and is blended with the normal East Coast accents. Rarity’s accent goes away when she’s really stressed, at least in earlier seasons. She seems to be getting more proficient and not losing it as often now. A final note on this, it’s interesting that Twilight, upon arriving at Ponyville moved directly into the library and became the official librarian with no fuss or bother. It’s not even mentioned what happened to the prior librarian. It’s possible that the library system is considered part of the education system in Equestria. Royalty tends to have personal projects that they have official and immediate control over. Celestia appears to take a personal interest in the education system (having her own schools, and having personal students), so likely she exercised that immediate power to appoint Twilight as Ponyville librarian without having to go through the regular ‘I’m the Princess’ hoopla that must follow her everywhere else.
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gaming Any educational games you loved to play as a kid?
Inactive01 posted a topic in Media Discussion
I was just pouring through the internet when I suddenly came across many of the educational games I loved to play when I was a kid. It ranged from the Magic School Bus PC games to the Jumpstart games to even the Math Blaster games. Has there been any educational games you loved to play as a kid? Maybe the games I mentioned, or you could add your own! Let me hear them so we can relish in our nostalgia! Here's some pics of my favourites! They were so educational, and at the same time very addicting. -
I dunno, for some reason I've thought about this a lot. How does Equestria's education system work? Is it similar to the whole "elementary, middle, and high" school thing most of us are used to, or is it only primary schooling until you get your cutie mark? Then what? University? Vocational? Does it pertain to cutie marks? Do certain cutie marks help you out in getting into that? Can you avoid all of that? *shrug* i've just sorta pondered it a bit. What do you guys think?
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Hey guys, I’m not a Brony but lately I’ve decided to have an open mind and look into what the fandom is actually all about. I’m currently making a YouTube video series to document my journey. I apologize ahead of time if my videos sound condescending, it’s how I'm presenting myself on screen. The idea is to bridge the knowledge gap between the mainstream and the Brony fandom so I may sound offensive to you guys. It’s a way of connecting to a mainstream audience. Here are some questions that would really help me on my journey. Questions: What key episodes should I watch? What drew you into the fandom? The show or the culture? How has the culture affected your life? (The good and the bad) If you could educate the world on one misconception about the fandom, what would that be? Thanks, Boneyman
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As the name says this topic is about Mythbusters.If you're a fan of the show and wanna share your favorite scenes,Or anything else mythbusters.please post it here!
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Well, I'm actually making another entry on this blog, so yay! For the first serious piece, I'd like to review a book I came across in my research for a paper I wrote recently. The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students is a book by Allan Bloom which was written in 1987, and which analyzes and critiques the American education system from a philosophical standpoint. Although it is 25 years old, a great deal of the themes Bloom covers remain relevant today, perhaps even more so than when he initially wrote it. Since I surmise that most of the folks on this forum are either in college or will be attending it soon, I think this is a fitting thing to write on! The Book The first thing that one ought to know about Allan Bloom before diving into this book is that he was a Professor of Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and produced translations of Plato's Republic and Rousseau's Emile. His two translations are an apt summary of the largest influences on Bloom, for he draws most of his criticism of the university system from Classical and Enlightenment thought. So, what exactly does Bloom see as the problem with the American university? To put it simply, it has lost sight of its core. In the times leading up to WWII, the American university taught a curriculum which focused heavily on the thinking upon which America was founded: Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and more broadly, the great Classical tradition of Plato, Aristotle, and all those they inspired. For Bloom, this form of liberal arts education was good. Exposing students to the Classical tradition would make them good citizens by giving them a firm understanding of the ideas underpinning American democracy, as well as enriching their souls with the beauty and profundity of some of the greatest writers, artists, playwrights, and philosophers of the world. Most importantly, it would give them a moral center - an ordered way to view the world and know how to live a good life. In the post-war years, however, this education was rethought and reworked radically. Many people in the Philosophy departments of universities grew tired of such rigid moral positivism and sought answers to the big questions facing humanity in soft sciences such as Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, or Psychology. The thinking in these fields tended to be dominated by German intellectuals, such as Max Weber or Sigmund Freud. Although they were not philosophers by trade, Bloom claims that these German intellectuals had a profound effect on philosophy in America nonetheless because they were all heavily influenced by one of their predecessors who was: Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche is perhaps most famous for the quote "God is dead," but the quote is often misunderstood. For Nietzsche, society needed to be ruled by invented "Gods" in order to succeed. Irrational beliefs ran to the very core of civilization and human nature, and were necessary for their survival; the rationality and science which had "killed God" were self-defeating and not sufficient to structure a society. Nietzsche thus did not declare God dead as a smug rhetorical flourish from a triumphant atheist, as so many who are only familiar with the quote are inclined to think, but as a deep and anguished lament from someone who desperately wanted to believe that God still lived. Nietzsche claimed that with God dead, we could only descend into nihilism, in which no value or belief system could be judged good or evil, at least until mankind saw the light and created new "Gods." These notions ran contrary to Enlightenment beliefs which held that reason and logic ought to serve as the basis for life, government, and morality, and that the universe was a rational, ordered place. Through his proxies in the form of Weber, Freud, and the rest of the German intellectual establishment, Nietzsche's view on ethics and society came to dominate the American university. From this, one of the main points of the book comes into view. American democracy is rooted firmly in Enlightenment and Classical ideals. With American universities coming under the sway of Nietzsche, who detested those ideals, an obvious source of dissonance appears. How can young people be expected to participate responsibly in democracy if universities implicitly teach that the values underpinning democracy are poisonous and worthless? As the American university began unwittingly adopting Nietzschean views, the curriculum and philosophies guiding it naturally changed as well. One of the most important marks of this shift in philosophy was the move away from an attempt to give students a firm moral center and towards a hollow and poorly-understood notion of "tolerance," in which all values and beliefs are equally valuable, and students are constantly taught that the greatest sin is to judge the beliefs of others - the only evil is that of "intolerance." Bloom argues that this tolerance is merely a mask for nihilism; if all values are equally valuable, then they are all worthless. What is the point of believing anything under such circumstances? The curriculum also changed; the focus shifted away from a strict and rigorous education in the Classics and towards a huge range of electives which would afford students a broad array of paths to a degree. For Bloom, this was essentially an admission that the universities themselves no longer claimed to know what represented a decent education. This is the essential framework in which Bloom operates. Within this context, he assaults the university culture on several fronts, discusses the fall into Nietzschean thinking and its effects on democracy, and also considers the implications that this teaching has in the lives of university students in numerous areas, from their views on books and music to their approach to relationships, sex, and love. My Analysis This book was an extremely fun and enlightening read for me. Although I don't agree with everything in it, I was quite impressed with many of Bloom's major points. I have observed that moral relativism (the belief that no morality is actually correct, that everything is relative to time, place, and person) is on the rise in America like never before, and this book provided an interesting and often convincing narrative on how that came to be. I especially like Bloom's argument that this anti-rational thinking permeating the American university system is hazardous to democracy. Voter turnout is shamefully low in America, and an intellectual and philosophical explanation for the apathy is the most convincing route to take, in my opinion. If young people don't understand and appreciate the thinking that went into building the American political system, how can they be expected to make choices that will guide it responsibly? If the perverted "tolerance" doled out by American educators claims that their views are worthless, just like everyone else's, how can anyone be expected to care about making their voice heard by voting? The book does have a few problems, though. Bloom's views on music read hilariously like an old man whining about how the music was better in the old days. Which, to be honest, is exactly what he's doing. His views on relationships and the family are also somewhat idealized. He has an extremely romantic view of love, and comes out strong against divorce, due to the harm it does to children. While divorce is a major decision that must not be taken lightly, it is sometimes the lesser of two evils. Bloom does not seem to consider that a toxic relationship between parents might be more damaging to a child than a divorce. He is also very dismissive of modern psychology. He makes an extremely good point about psychologists often "inventing" new "problems" that their patients may not have even considered in order to keep them paying for sessions. However, psychology can also be very helpful to many who have legitimate mental problems. Overall, I can heartily recommend this book to any who are interested in education and philosophy and/or who are currently or will soon be attending college. I am roughly one year away from a bachelor's degree, and it very much bothers me that at no time was I ever assigned a serious reading of Plato, Locke, Rousseau, Shakespeare, Voltaire, and many other great minds who helped define the Western Tradition in which America is firmly planted. I've been left to discover them for myself, but others may not be so active in seeking out a good education. Bloom levels a critique at the American university system that struck a chord with me on a deep level. Whether you agree with everything Bloom says or not, The Closing of the American Mind is an impressive, well-reasoned, and fun to read text with a message that is worthy of careful consideration. For those interested, the book can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Closing-American-Higher-Education-Democracy/dp/B002A44TXI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1367719956&sr=8-3&keywords=the+closing+of+the+american+mind