War Zone Schools No More

“The U.S [population 327 million].experienced vastly more school shootings between 2009 and 2018 than dozens of other countries combined.”  Not to mention the time since then.

Elsewhere, there have been no school shootings in the United Kingdom  [population 66 million] since the last century.  China [population 1.386 billion] has had stabbings, hammer attacks, and cleaver attacks in schools in recent years, but no shootings.  School shootings in India [population 1,339 billion] are “virtually unheard of,” though a “rare school shooting” left a “14 year old dead on December 14, 2007.”

That’s the record:  The United States has this phenomenon of “school shootings” while the rest of the world does not.  It seems to be a sickness prevailing specifically in the USA.

There are, for sure, many reasons for it.   No doubt, all of them are being addressed from many quarters with great urgency right now.  Hopefully, a cure for this epidemic will be found and applied, soon.  Most likely, though, it will take time, maybe lots of time until that day will come.  Yet here, in the meantime, and for the long run as well, there is a solution to eliminate “school shootings” immediately, so they just remain a bad memory:  

The answer is LEARNING ONLINE, each learner with his/her own computer, tablet or other personal device, in his/her home or anywhere, at a friend’s house, at the beach, or wherever the environment is safe, friendly and conducive to spending time learning, studying, having fun..

Nowadays, courses can be brought via video online, with far better Illustrations and demonstrations than are possible live in a school setting.  Plus they can then be replayed as many times as the learner might want to review them again, at a time and place of his/her convenience.

Also, meetings can now be held onscreen, virtually, with the various participants in totally different locations.  In other words, nobody needs to feel lost by being all by him/herself in a remote learning location.  From my personal experience, I often feel much closer to whoever I’m conversing with onscreen than if we were in the same room together.  It’s a feature of the video connection to truly bring you much closer to the person you’re talking with, in many ways.  

So overall, and disregarding the reason for switching to ONLINE LEARNING, it will be more personal, more in depth, more convenient, and for sure far safer to study this way.   Not to mention, far less expensive.

As long as Americans are not going to abandon their violent gun culture, physical schools will remain sudden war zones where a shooting may happen any day.  Fortunately, electronic technology has advanced to make study in old fashioned school buildings obsolete. 

It’s time for orthodox schooling to come into the present, the age of technology enabled learning. 

Being Online Too Much?

The press is overflowing with stories of harm being done to individuals who are “online too much.”  Such as the kids who have their iPhone glued to their ear all day, even taking it along to bed at night, keeping texting and “talking” around the clock. Then, of course, there are the guys and dolls playing video games, again at any time of day and night.  Plus more, their eyes linked to the computer or cell phone screen whenever they can, as if they were living in a different universe.

Children’s and young adults’ minds, the experts say, are particularly vulnerable to excessive online exposure, both physically and mentally.

Thus, computers and handhelds come with apps which enable parental control of how much and what the user will be able to see and do online, and for how long.

All good and well, for they sure have a valid concern, which is the many forms of harm a particular online exposure can produce.  Mind you, the same or worse harm would be done if that particular behavior or activity were done offline, say, not sleeping but rolling dice in bed, or playing the slot machines no end, or smoking and overstaying at a gaming table, etc.

I’d like to make the case, however, that there is nothing wrong with being online, nothing at all.  Rather the crucial question is, WHAT one is doing online, and for how long.  Online enables the user to do things which would be harder to do, take longer, and maybe couldn’t be done as well as online.  So, that’s really great.

Online is an advanced form of communications, very much like the bicycle is a technology-assisted form of walking.  I can imagine that there were lots of like critics when the bicycle was invented, for it, likewise, was seen as becoming far more dangerous in covering distances, and much faster.

So, online is just fine.  As long as you are spending your time online intelligently, it can greatly enrich your life.  That’s all.

Other Than Ivy League Education

In my humble opinion, the value of graduating from a name university is highly overrated.  And more so, going into debt for financing the attendance there definitely is.

Look around you, checking the educational background of high profile achievers in all kinds of fields, and look at their educational path, this is what you are going to find (histories picked from web):

Already 133 years ago, Frank Lloyd Wright (one of America’s greatest architects, interior designer, writer, and educator) was admitted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1886, but left after only one year.  Only then his real education started, and truly never ended.

In more modern times, Warren Buffett (CEO of Berkshire Hathaway) never had the intention of going to college. By 13, he was managing his own business as a paperboy. Yet, his father urged him to attend the University of Pennsylvania for business, which Warren did at age 16. After two years of complaining that he knew more than his professors, he moved on to the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and finished his degree there, graduating from the University of Nebraska at age 19 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.

Buffett wanted to keep his education going, so he applied to Harvard but was rejected. He then researched Columbia University, and earned a Master of Science in economics from Columbia in 1951. Then, shortly after graduation from Columbia, he briefly attended the New York Institute of Finance.

Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft), you already know, attended Lakeside School 1967-1973, then Harvard College 1973-1975, when he dropped out.

FaceBook’s Mark Zuckerberg, you may recall, is another Harvard dropout.

Dell Computers’ Michael Dell dropped out of University of Texas at Austin his freshman year at the age of 19. …

Apple’s Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College after just six months.

And so it goes …

Instead, these high performers got their high quality education from lesser known institutions and otherwise, all of which obviously did as good as, or even a better job, than the Ivy League colleges.  Not one of these superbly educated individuals went into debt in order to study.

And that’s of course how it should be:  Get your education at an affordable rate or entirely cost-free, if possible.  Which IS possible.  All it takes is to check out ALL avenues of learning.  You’ll be amazed how many there are.

One way to go, which was not available to Frank Lloyd Wright, not even to Warren Buffet and most of the others who needed education before the year 2000: is ONLINE.

Yes, great institutions of learning now exist which are entirely ONLINE.  No need to enter any classrooms or travel across town or the country.  The teachers and all the supporting evidence for your studies come to you, wherever you are, and can be replayed as often as you like.  In comparison to brick-and-mortar institutions of learning, the cost of online learning is rather negligible; for sure no need to go into debt for. Even, there are many courses which are entirely cost-free.

So, no excuse for NOT studying for whatever you are interested in learning, nor taking out loans to get your learning.  Here find a list of Accredited Online Programs, Colleges & Universities:

https://straube.org/accredited-online-programs-colleges-universities/

Ideally, learning should not mean a substantial outlay of money, but be affordable, inspiring and fun.  By these parameters, ONLINE is a good way to go.  Enjoy!