Observations From the Spectrum

We are watching daily a trial that for all extensive purposes is occuring because an Academic viewed herself as a Teacher. Academics are not teachers. They live in a place that is inaccessible by design by most. Politics is one by those who speak to the people, not above them.

It’s ironic that the party that is supported by most teachers is so awful at communicating their message to their constituents or voter base.

There is no magic pill or key to education with the exception of one thing. Education needs to be at the level of the student not at the level of the teacher. It’s why Academia is known as the Ivory Tower. It is unclimbable from the outside and needs each piece to be accessible from the inside. In other words, Academia is like the Dominoes of Pizza or the Kraft of Cheese. It’s almost related to education but not quite the same.

Academics rely on the novice’s desire to become their equals to gain information. I could have written this sentence as Academics rely on the student’s desire to be educated and learn but academia is not that. It’s something close but different to education.

Academia is where experts live. Experts are useful. They are our plumbers, mechanics, chefs and roofers. These are the tradespeople that know their trade. And if we have the money to spare, we want the best expert services when we have the need.

But how does someone become an expert? It’s usually through an apprenticeship. An expert takes a student of note of whom they are willing to mentor and takes them under their wings to become better at the given trade. Much of the time this person is a family member who grew up with the language of the master tradesperson so the transition to expert is just practice plus time.

Academia is not like this. It is a place where the experts hide their wares or skill sets behind filth. Language that most have zero energy or interest in wading through. It’s boring, pedantic and written as a bedtime story for most. Meaning, it is a snooze that is only accessible to the most dedicated of beginners, not students.

If Academia was meant to be accessible by students, it would be written differently in a way that connected with more of an audience. Why? Because that is what we learned early during the birth of language. When we wanted important information to be remembered, it was written in parables, myths and oral stories that were easy to remember and handed down generation to generation from expert to novice. Mother to daughter. Father to son. 

We know this to be true. Even academics agree on this point. Shakespeare is an author of note because of his mastery of iambic pentameter which allowed his actors to remember their lines with more ease. Fact, not fiction.

So why do academics hide in their ivory towers? Twofold. One, many probably don’t know better. I didn’t when I was a professional windsurfer tasked with teaching new clients how to sail. It took me breaking down windsurfing to its smallest accessible parts and learning how to communicate those pieces so that the student could succeed. In that moment of my first student’s success, I became a teacher.

Two, they are in a cutthroat profession that enjoys eating its young. Academia is not a place of higher learning and open and free thinking. It is a place of pillars and antiquated people trying to hold on to their success by the skin of their teeth knowing that when they are replaced, their existence barely matters. Marcus Aurelius wrote about this in the Meditations if you are interested in roughly 150 AD or 1900 years ago.

Academics are thinkers with skills but they are not able to communicate with the masses. One of America’s big problems, unless it is a conspiracy theory, is at teh hands of academics who don’t know how to teach and because of this, view their students as dumb.

The problem is that a bad teacher still trumps a brilliant academic just like all Italian handmade pizza is better than Dominoes even the worst of the worst. It’s why Trump beat Hillary. Plain and simple. No other reason.

HRC is an academic of the highest order. She is brilliant and capable but has zero ability to communicate effectively with the novice voter or common person. Zero. She relies, as does her party, on logic at a higher level. Higher level thinking is four or five steps up Bloom’s taxonomy. Most people are not there.

Trump is a bad teacher but he is personable because he is either stupid or cleverly able to communicate with novice level thinkers. Either way, he is more attractive to most just like in education. Globally, the revered teacher is usually the PE, Art or English teacher. Why? Because they are more accessible or understandable by design and nature. Very few math and science teachers are at the top of the list and those that are, are master teachers and therefore not academics.

So, if we want Democracy to stand and survive, the answer and solution lies in the hands of academics who are too busy thinking about how to solve the problem than realizing that their communication style is the problem. Period. No one knows what the Left is talking about half the time with its acronyms and abbreviations and fractured groups. You can blame me or the student for not wanting to learn or participate but all teachers would agree that is a teacher problem, not a student one.

Failing students most of the time are an engagement or lack of understanding problem meaning they don’t have the prerequisite skills or knowledge to move forward. Can’t teach writing without all students knowing the parts of speech. You can’t teach voting without all voters knowing basic civics and/or a basic knowledge of government and how it works.

But the DNC doesn’t seem to get this and I presume part of it is by design. They are tenured academics. They can only rock the boat so far without problem but are taken care of well until they die. It’s hard for them to go up against the machine because they have so little to offer to so few who understand. It’s why universal basic income and more importantly universal healthcare are not on the ballot. If those measures were on the ballot, voters would vote especially if there was a vested interest in teaching them about the importance of these measures now and in the future. Wake up! It’s time.