EXTRAPO...WHAT? EDUMAC...WHAT?

     You know, extrapolation. 

     When I introduced the Science Fiction class I taught, I used the term extrapolation. In my context, it meant to look at a current trend and, assuming nothing intervened or changed, predict future possibilities and outcomes. So many works of science fiction or speculative fiction do just that; they were warnings. Cutting edge science provides much fodder for such consideration (runaway viruses, over-population, nuclear power, robots, cloning, genetic engineering, AI, etc). Good science fiction is based in science. Or, as had been said, many science fiction move starts with people ignoring a scientist's warnings. 

     Now, on to edumacation. That's all that stuff you supposedly learned and carry with you after spending years in school supposedly giving one tools to help navigate Life. One question that has been successfully avoided for years (but still answered wrongly year after year) is what should a student know and when? When a person is graduated from high school, do they know enough to successfully navigate their way through Life, and, again, what is it they should know? Should a diploma guarantee a certain level of knowledge? (That was a thing for a while.)

     Learning never stops (at least it shouldn't). "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle. These days are unlike I have ever seen. If a thought/idea is presented and goes against what a person believes s/he knows to be true, to them, it is wrong. Period. It is a generational tribal model. The great grandparents passed along their learning to the grandparents who passed it on to the parents who passed it along to you. And when people don't move around much, pockets form, and where all think alike, no one thinks at all.

      You can pretend to be stupid, but you can't pretend to be smart. Anyone who is smart can see stupidity, but anyone who is stupid can't see smart - especially when it goes against their beliefs (and what's happening in front of their face.

     Sad.