While we have seen Education alone isn’t the path to “More”(It’s an Elephant 1/25/16), it is a very important building block. Our present Educational system suffers from the twin blemishes of being ineffective while being ridiculously expensive. At the K12 level the whole format is hopelessly out of date. In this wonderful interconnected world somehow we are using a basically 19th century Prussian teaching model adapted at that time in the U.S. by Horace Mann. While a rigid system of lecture, drill and exams working your way up yearly grades may have worked centuries ago, it is evident we could so much better adapting to modern educational opportunities. For instance look at the worldwide success of the online Khan Academy. Kids learn online, combine the online and classroom or the home. Seemingly endless learning variations, but isn’t that the point. Each child learns differently, but all have a natural curiosity. With the ability to customize the learning experience to the needs of each child to a degree never even contemplated in the nineteenth century, why are we stuck with this antique system? Continue reading
The Long Journey to “More”
It’s an Elephant
The parable of the blind men and the elephant, each describing the part of the elephant he feels and drawing a conclusion, warns us failing to see the whole would lead us to a false assumption. If you feel just one part of that animal, no matter how impressive it might seem (think the trunk) it would never give a true description of the whole. For this reason we ask our readers to look at the 10 actions in our “Now they expect More” post 12/26/15 to create “More” as a whole. Doing one without the others likely would fail to produce sustained increase in “More.” Take the first education. We have been endlessly told that education is the path to having “More.” The idea of one magic bullet bringing untold “More” is a fantasy. Even education fails to do the job alone. Continue reading
Now we actually expect “More”
No matter where in the world you look, China, Brazil, Europe, the U.S. or virtually anywhere else, the question from the people to their leaders is the same. What are you doing to get us “more”? For 10,000 years the average person hoped for enough just to stay alive. Getting “more” let alone a lot “more” was mostly a dream. Now we loudly voice our displeasure if there isn’t a constant increase in our “more.” What has been attained in “More” for those lower in the power pyramid in the last 400 years dwarfs what was accomplished in all those years before. Average people have gone from despair to our present expectations. It didn’t happen all at once. Even at the turn of the Nineteenth century, the vast majority of humanity was engaged in agriculture under some form of bondage. It may come as a surprise to some that at the founding of the United States ordinary people with any rights were rare while involuntary servitude was widespread. Starting in Western Civilization “More” had begun its journey down the pyramid. Like a rock tossed in a lake the ripples initially covered a small area but moving ever larger. Was this to become the norm for the next 10,00 years or an aberration?
The 15th Century came and nothing would ever be the same
Three innovations came to pass in the 15th century that forever changed the world and we are still coming to terms with what they wrought. It isn’t that we hadn’t used ships for trade, read books or loaned or borrowed money before, what changed was the volume. Before this century we could trade only a small fraction of what was possible by its end. Books were rare but after 1500 it was possible for families to own their own bibles. Commercial ventures could be financed with a worldwide outlook.
An Ordered World with just a little “More”
From the time 10 thousand years ago mankind developed agrarian settled societies, a general form of organization came into being. A pyramid with a relatively small ruling class at the top and the masses at the bottom. Royalty, military and religious leaders backed by their staffs and bureaucracies directed the lives of those below. Needed Artisans often had a special rung. The wild card were the merchants who facilitated the exchange of goods within the society and with others. Altogether they constituted a relativity small minority, supported by a base of the multitudes that provided the basic substance of life. Whatever we gained “more” through trade, increased labor or innovation the “more” mostly went to to those toward the top of the pyramid. The upper classes gained in better food & drink, shelter, clothing and adornment and maybe most important time. From 10,000BC to 1,500 AD, the masses across the world lived relatively short lives with the barest of necessities while providing the basics for mankind. Continue reading
Detour on the Road 