Neanderpundit

Here’s a guy (Mike Strickler) who seems as if he’s a decent teacher. He seems to care about his students. He seems to have done a great deal to make sure his students can find, learn, and comprehend the subject material. Hell, I WISH I’d had a couple teachers like that in my high school years.

Problem is, when confronted with a group of facts that don’t jibe with his own worldview, he just shuts down and ignores them. SO even the (supposed) best teachers have issues, and in this case, some MAJOR issues.

So now imagine a student in a class like this. He finds fault with his instructors but he knows that if he doesn’t do the coursework as the instructor expects it to be done, he has a bad or failing grade. He has a LOT of instructors that are like this, but over the course of his edcation, most are worse, if anything. He enters college, and finds that the situation has become, if anything, worse. His teachers in college fight conventional wisdom to jam ever increasing bullshit down his throat, and it’s not all political. Each teacher has a huge bias toward his own pet theories, and most of those theories are bullshit, because if they were of any value, they’d be working inb their industry instead of teaching. Rather than being told to seek out the truth for himself, the student is forced to learn complex (and conflicting) theories about what is and what isn’t reality. Upon entering the working world the person has a headful of information thaty he will never use because he has learned almost nothing useful and almost everything he needs to know he will learn on the job in the first six months to a year. And usually, because he’s fought his way through an inept and inneficient eduacational system designed to produce copies of itself rather than productive individuals, he will cease to attempt to learn anything new. You know the face of this guy pretty well, because you see him a lot- he’s your doctor. Or your lawyer. Or your accountant. Or you. Have you broken out of the mold that made you who you are, and enabled yourself to question everything, to open your eyes to the “other” realities to the world, or when confronted with something that challenges your worldview, do you dig in your heels and stop the discussion because you refuse to look at anything that might change your mind? Look hard at yourself. It’s quite difficult to do. Do it, and you’re a human. Don’t, and you’re just another manufactured sheep.

When I was around eighteen years old, I learned that engines didn’t grow in oak trees. I hung many a chain over many a branch hoping for a nice small block, or a new slant six for the old Valiant but never had any luck with it. I remember driving through new neighborhoods asking dad “there are no trees. Where do the motors go?”

I was nearly fourteen before I understood they were saying “Void where prohibited”. prior to that I thought they were saying “Boys were prohibited” All those contests I missed out on. Damn.

I was twenty one when I discovered the way to cure a nymphomaniac was to marry her.

I was almost eleven before I realized my sister wasn’t just a kid mom was babysitting for the neighbors. Thing was, I got slapped every time I asked “when are we gonna send her back?”. You’d think I’d have figured it out sooner.

We moved nine times int he first eight years of my life. Dad would rent a place cheap, (in those days cheap was thirty, thirty five bucks a month) and fix/clean/upgrade it out of pocket, then the landlord would show up and say “This place is too nice for thirty bucks a month. Your rent is now $90 a month” and we’d move. I thought you HAD to move every year.

I was ten when I learned Gary Miller had pubic hair and I didn’t. Freaked me out, he looked like some kind of animal. I plucked my pubes until I was fourteen. THen it just got to be too much

I was forty three when I learned not to drink the WHOLE bottle of whiskey at once.

I wonder what things I’ll learn next?

if you live in the Atlanta area, is to go see this

Jenny, my longtime dear friend and proprieter of “In a Sentimental Mood” is a friend of the band, go see the show, listen to some fine music, and have a good time. If you’ve never heard the William Tell Overture played on a squeezebox, you’re in for a treat. It’s a cheap date for a friday night, and a good time. Say hi to Jenny if you can.

Update! Money Back Guarantee! If you go to the show and don’t like it, I will personally refund your subscription fees for Neanderpundit, plus send you a really cute picture of my dog licking his nuts.
Void where prohibited. Other restrictions may apply.