Posted on 06/11/2011 4:54:29 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell
Our expensive educational system does not teach intelligence. Most publicly educated people in the US do not know what intelligence is. A majority believe it is innate, something people are born with. In fact, intelligence is a product of classical education.
One must be taught to think. Logical or critical thinking may be learned easily or with difficulty but it is a learned skill. Mathematics and classical philosophy teach thinking skills. Thinking is the antithesis of indoctrination. Teaching people how to think is categorically the opposite of teaching them what to think.
Obama has not learned how to think, only what to think. This is what makes him doctrinaire and ideological, he has mastered a limited set of ideas and principles that he applies universally in all circumstances. He has the same set of responses to every condition. He is unable to differentiate between a variety of situations and evaluate them individually. His is a one size fits all mind.
Obama's dogged insistence on applying one set of principles to every situation is viewed by a preponderance of people as intellectual rigor. For those who do not have a clue about the true nature of intelligence this makes perfect sense. It is not about thinking. It is about learning the correct response and applying it with all diligence and discipline. That is the fundamental discipline of socialism.
At its core socialism is a one size fits all political discipline. The answers have all been worked out. Learning them and applying them rigidly is the work of the true believer. Obama is, by any measure, a true believer, not an intellectual.
You’re right that Obama is a doctrinaire ideologue, but there have been some fine thinkers with mighty little schooling.
Incorrect. Little public indoctrination, perhaps. To become a fine thinker requires substantial schooling, typically home schooling.
Now you’re using schooling in a sense that doesn’t involve a school.
tr.v. schooled, school·ing, schools
1. To educate in or as if in a school.
2. To train or discipline:
You do not need a school to educate, train or discipline someone. Ask my mama.
“Obama is, by any measure, a true believer, not an intellectual.”
Thank goodness someone put it out there!
Progressives will always consider their fellow travellers to be brilliant intellectuals and will laud them as such. Those who reject Progressivism will always be considered knuckle-dragging morons, no matter what.
IMHO
I wonder what kind of afterlife the Almighty has in mind for Obama?
Will his spirit return to earth in a constructive manner?
What would be fitting for the soul of a person like this though arguably I say he lost his soul a long long time ago when he became a follower of Islam.
“there have been some fine thinkers with mighty little schooling.”
Yup; you’re right.
The writer said that “Intelligence is a product of classical education.”
Rush left college after one semester. Einstein, I believe, left school when he was 16. What about Gates, Jobs, and Dell — I don’t think any of them attended college at all.
I worked in H.R. for several years. Our Director was obsessed with hiring degreed people, and they were the most useless, non-productive employees. The ones who came up with the most innovative ideas, and pulled the most weight, were those who started working right out of high school and learned to think on the job.
Those with degrees actually thwarted progress. In college, they learned the cool buzzwords and how to be P.C., but could not think. They were, however, entertaining. When we needed a good laugh, we could pull out one of their written documents and ridicule the atrocious syntax, grammar, and bizarre statements which were not well-thought-out by any stretch of the imagination. (”Products of classical education”, per the writer)
Those who gush about Obomba’s being articulate and what a great orator he is are apparently deaf and dumb. He is the epitome of exceeding stupidity.
Once a person can read and write he has the basic tools to educate himself to a great extent.
OK ... I know what that means, anyway.
I come to FR because the many minds and wordsmiths here are what I need to stay challenged.
I’m one of the “most” then.
I’ve always thought of intelligence as one’s ability to learn, retain and apply knowledge. What’s the word for that?
tagline
Correct. Schooling may not occur in a school. The only schooling done in Public schools is indoctrination. The word is both a noun and a verb.
i certainly agree with the article.
but, Obama is a bad example.
in Occidental, he was in a drug haze.
and he only had 2 semesters (according to records).
...as for the Islam, i agree.
Obama couldn’t even remember the correct year in England, even AFTER he asked for the correct DAY.
clearly, he doesn’t have a world class memory.
Yet in front of a Times reporter, he recited the Muslim call to prayer, as reported, flawlessly with perfect accent.
FOURTY YEARS after he was in the Indonesian school he was registered as a Muslim student at.
...i think it is impossible for him to remember it flawlessly after 40 years, without refreshers...
and, that call to prayer includes the Muslim “profession of faith”. “There is no god but Allah, and Mohammad is his messenger”.
...what TRUE Christian, would proudly recite that ?
and who could remember it perfectly after 40 years without practice ?
Do ya think?
Yes, I think you and Louis and I may all be in agreement.
There is very little rigorous study in how to think with most modern education. One might think a good law school would provide such, but otherwise we’ve little evidence that Obama was exposed to any education of substance.
People generally need to exercise their brains in the development of their intellect, and math and philosophy are among the best studies for intellectual development. But we probably all know people who are self-taught to good effect in either a classical sense—or in their understanding and mastery of the world around them.
excuse me,
and he only had 2 semesters (according to records),
at COLUMBIA. fall 82 and spring 83.
(in 1981 he was in Pakistan... with the son of a future leading Muslim politician.)
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