Part 2: "Death By Disinformation!" AN ANALYSIS - WITH SCOTT HAMBRICK Scott  and I discuss a timely gem from the New York Times Opinion  Dissemination Section. Today we'll finish up the article and move on to  the Dirty Dozen of Disinformation "white" paper, written by The Center  For Such and Fuck. Main article title: Don’t Go Down the Rabbit Hole Subtitle: Critical thinking, as we’re taught to do it, isn’t helping in the fight against misinformation. The conversation continues beyond this show! PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54261552 A/V CLUB: https://schoolsucksproject.com/bonus-scott-hambrick-the-ethical-question-qa/ OUR NEXT VIRTUAL SUMMIT IS NOW ON SEPTEMBER 11+12! Visit MindsetandMastery.com to learn more about this exciting new presentation, the topics, and bonuses Add your contribution to the School Sucks Yearbook! Have you ...

AN ANALYSIS - WITH SCOTT HAMBRICK Scott and I discuss a timely gem from the New York Times Opinion Dissemination Section Tittle: Don’t Go Down the Rabbit Hole Subtitle: Critical thinking, as we’re taught to do it, isn’t helping in the fight against misinformation. OUR NEXT VIRTUAL SUMMIT IS AUGUST 28+29 Visit MindsetandMastery.com to learn more about this exciting new presentation, the topics, and bonuses JOIN THE UN-IVERSITY! You  are granted access to our Un-iversity private community (and all of its  clubs!) when you purchase the downloadable version of The Ideas Into  Action Summit. Visit sspuniversity.com/ideasintoaction to learn more about the presenters, topics, and bonus materials . Use the coupon code myspace. OR...BRAND NEW! Get Access to Our Discord Community, ...

Part Four of the Test Drive Your Future college and career guidance series. For our purposes here, can this new future still be test-driven? Jim and I inventory our evolving understanding and expanding concerns - political, personal, social, medical, professional, economic - and we explore how to plan accordingly for what might be next. Also Discussed: - Capitalizing on a Crisis, not just for politicians! How we can take advantage of this crisis to grow, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually - Reconnecting with your core beliefs, your spiritual operating system, the foundation upon which your beliefs are built - The value of death awareness Jim Hood is a father, entrepreneur, eventual autodidact, and a School Sucks listener. He and his wife ...

Part Two of Three Continuing our conversation on self-directed education, Peter and I discuss creativity and critical thinking - two skills we agree are left underdeveloped (or even damaged) by public school and college. This track leads us into a more general conversation about current college problems, including the anti-intellectual and anti-critical thinking trends of the recent years. On critical thinking, Peter has referenced studies and surveys that reveal about 50% of employers are dissatisfied with entry-level, college graduate employees (PayScale Inc.) and that college does little to improve higher level thinking (Academically Adrift: Limited Learning On College Campuses - 2011). On creativity, Peter wrote a piece called As Children’s Freedom Has Declined, So Has Their Creativity. Peter informs us ...

It's good day for it. Topics: This morning I discovered a new website: www.criticalthinking.org, the homepage of The Critical Thinking Community. There's been a lot of talk on the show lately about the connection between critical thinking and emotional intelligence. And after searching through the site, I discovered the work of an educational psychologist named Linda Elder. I was very intrigued by her paper, Critical Thinking Development: A Stage Theory, so I thought I would turn it into a nice mp3 for you. Woven throughout the theory is a call to understand the roll emotional intelligence plays in effective and rational thinking, so I have also included some audio from an Objectivist writer and lecturer on philosophy named Dr.Diana Hsieh. ...

Steve Patterson is an author, a philosopher, a polymath, and a frequent contributor to School Sucks. He is also the host of Patterson In Pursuit; his podcast is a rich collection of philosophical discussions and debates. I consider Steve to be one of "go-to" people in the world of ideas, and I always appreciate his takes on social and political hot topics. In the previous show, we looked back at the first half of what is proving to be a disastrous year for rational discourse. Today Steve and I are more solutions-oriented; we discuss a useful practice for more effective critical thinking. Steve's Book: Square One: The Foundations of Knowledge Please Support School Sucks We do cool things! Thanks to ...

Steve Patterson is an author, a philosopher, a polymath, and a frequent contributor to School Sucks. He is also the host of Patterson In Pursuit; his podcast is a rich collection of philosophical discussions and debates. I consider Steve to be one of my "go-to" people in the world of ideas, and I always appreciate his takes on social and political hot topics. Today, find out why he's probably leaving the country. Part two will be more solutions oriented - a discussion about a useful practice for more effective critical thinking. Steve's Book: Square One: The Foundations of Knowledge Please Support School Sucks We do cool things! Thanks to your support. School Sucks is one of the longest running liberty-minded ...

A long and long-overdue chat with the man behind the popular (15K followers) Facebook page, The Honest Teacher. The discussion will be split into two parts, so check back Wednesday! Today we discuss where critical thinking actually exists in schools, why standards get lower and lower, color sticks (wait til you hear about these), the stress of real-time grade-awareness, the Orwellian world of student monitoring, and the politics of labeling students as defective. The downloadable version of The Ideas Into Action Summit is now available. Visit sspuniversity.com/ideasintoaction to learn more about the presenters, topics, bonus materials and encore presentation. Please Support School Sucks We do cool things! Thanks to your support. School Sucks is one of the longest running liberty-minded ...

Scott Hambrick returns to begin a multi-part discussion on "how people learn and how we help them do that," as he aspires to be a better Starting Strength coach and a more effective leader at Online Great Books. We begin our discussion with an exploration of the common learning theories practiced in public school and higher education, along with a cost/benefit analysis of each: behaviorism, cognitivism, and (social) constructivism. We also touch on connectivism and mindset theory. In future conversation(s) we'll cover additional behaviors and practices that can greatly enhance both the learning and thing processes, including The 20-Hour Rule, the Six Thinking Hats, the Trivium Method, attributes of self-directed learning and strategies for critical thinking in everyday life. Also, ...

Today college propaganda is so powerful that some successful (and presumably smart) people are willing to risk felony charges to help their children get in.

This April we'll be showered with more misguided student walkouts and other "teen-led" gun control activism displays. Shortly after releasing Podcast #552: #ENOUGH – With Thaddeus Russell I received an email from a public school teacher who wished to remain anonymous. I thought this was an important perspective to share with you, and I was grateful for the opportunity to give this teacher a platform. Hi Brett, I am an elementary school teacher and a relatively new listener to your show. When the School Walkout happened, I was compelled to write about it. Then, I heard your latest episode with Thad Russell! Many of the thoughts you shared are also echoed in my piece. Perhaps I am preaching to the ...

Today, everyone is asking "is college worth it?" Oh, wait a minute...no they're not. In fact, considering the looming student loan debt crisis and troubling graduation numbers, almost nobody is thinking deeply and carefully enough about this question. Furthermore, most students, parents, teachers and guidance counselors still view college as the only path a "college track" high schooler should consider. College is simply regarded as inevitable; it's the 13th grade. Enter Dr. Bryan Caplan. Bryan is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the author of a provocative new book titled The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money. His thesis: "Civilized societies revolve around education now, but there is a ...

Part Three of Three My marathon conversation with Peter Gray concludes with an exploration of Peter's vision for the future. It's a bold vision, but he describes the observations that led him to believe it will become a reality for more and more children and families in the coming years. The future is self-directed education. The Three Phases: 1. Discovery, learning about the world, the self and how the two fit together 2. Career Exploration, community/professional immersion, apprenticeship opportunities 3. Credentialing For Specialized Work, the Praxis idea of a better credential than the college degree Other Questions: -Does Peter have hope for government adoption of self-directed education? Publicly supported options? -How does education change? Considering the massive school bureaucracy. -Are ...

Part One of Three Dr. Peter Gray is a research professor of psychology at Boston College, and author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life. Peter serves on the Organizing team for the Alliance For Self-Directed-Education. He also runs a blog on Psychology Today called Freedom to Learn, where he regularly explains and promotes self-directed education from a variety of angles. Today Peter and I discuss how he distinguishes school from education, how school is disruptive to our "educative instincts," and the biological foundations of self-directed education. In other words, children come into the world biologically designed to learn. These foundations include: - Curiosity: the ...

(FreeCoast Fest, Day 1, Newmarket, NH) James Davis is a long-time School Sucks listener and supporter. He promotes and exemplifies peaceful parenting, self-directed learning and entrepreneurship in the NH seacoast liberty community. He is the co-founder at Daily Fantasy Sports Rankings and the co-founder at Camp Stomping Ground. Discussion: - who is going to help your kids gain context for the things they see in the world - children are targets for political manipulation - sailboat children: basic literacy without critical thinking - how James and his wife moved from preparing to be public school teachers to embracing self-directed education - why most teachers and parents aren't experimenting, learning and seeking best practices - Be a Sherpa, not a sculptor ...

Author, teacher and podcaster Hunter Maats joins me for a fun and challenging marathon conversation. Hunter and I discover lots of areas of disagreement, but our exploration into our differences has just begun. Hunter is the co-author of The Straight A Conspiracy and the co-host of the Mixed Mental Arts Podcast. Hour One: - The elephant and the rider - the academic "rope-a-dope" - Humanity's first family dinner - using ridicule against social justice warring - College kids and their feelings - Getting podcast guests to be vulnerable - The FDA and the market demand for government Hour Two: - The Straight A Conspiracy? - learning, unlearning and relearning - A discussion about grades - The progressive function of the ...

WOODS: Your podcast – what category is it in in iTunes? Do they have an education category? VEINOTTE: Oh, yeah. There’s actually quite a bit of competition in the education category, because anything that’s like foreign-language instruction or how-to, gets thrown into the education category. I will say, though, that we are the only show that is consistently hitting on schooling versus education and looking at school issues, and not so much delving into all the problems of school like zero tolerance. We did that in the early days of the show and it got pretty tiring. Now we’re spending most of our time talking about what real education is, but also frequently reminding people that schooling, government schooling, is ...

This episode is what The School Sucks Project is all about! Nick Hazelton, the seventeen-year-old creator of The Anarch-Yakitalist Podcast, is back to share his new self-education plan. Nick first reached out to me in early 2014 to discuss the possibility of leaving school (he was a freshman at the time)and becoming a farming entrepreneur. You can watch a clip of that conversation here: Nick left school this September to pursue this venture on a full-basis. He is still very committed to his education, and he asked me for some guidance on taking it into his own hands. Discussed: -Rethinking Education: Self-Directed Learning Fits the Digital Age (Wired.com) -questions for potential autodidacts -identifying strengths and how to use them -selecting ...

Tony Myers, Darrell Becker and I conclude our response to the Gnostic Media presentation called “Nonviolent Communication, Pt. 2 “From the Fabians, thru MKULTRA, to Today.” - #230 w/Bill Joslin. This was discussed at length in the School Sucks Facebook Group (link). Today we cover their presentation from the 22-minute mark to the end. This portion of the discussion covers the following: -Rosenberg and the roots of Non-Violent Communication -Riane Eisler and Second-Wave Femism -the concept of "domination cultures" -gender implications of domination systems -Secular Humanism and the Humanist Manifesto -Interdependence vs. Independence -Other types of activism "Deep Green Resistence" -Culling the male population, Terence McKenna -Cultural Marxism -the emergence of of "partnership cultures" -Problems with the primacy of conscious ...

Tony Myers, Darrell Becker and I analyze and respond to the Gnostic Media presentation called “Nonviolent Communication, Pt. 2 “From the Fabians, thru MKULTRA, to Today.” - #230 w/Bill Joslin. This was discussed at length in the School Sucks Facebook Group (link). Today we cover their presentation from the beginning to roughly the 22-minute mark, where in a effort to trace the history and development of NVC, they discuss linguistics, the potentially dangerous therapeutic techniques of Milton Erickson (indirect technique and confusion technique), and neuro-linguistic programming. Then they analyze a paragraph Darrell wrote in a Facebook thread. Description from Gnostic Media: Bill Joslin at an early age developed a fascination with mind and awareness. Subsequently he spent 16 years studying ...

Tony Myers, Darrell Becker and I analyze and respond to the Gnostic Media presentation called “Nonviolent Communication, Pt. 1 “Is NVC Consistent with the Trivium Method?” This is Gnostic Media podcast #229, recorded on may 18th, 2015, with guest Bill Joslin. This was discussed at length in the School Sucks Facebook Group (link). Today we cover their presentation from 01:41:22 to the end, where they compare the OFNR process of non-violent communication to the Trivium. Description from Gnostic Media: Bill Joslin at an early age developed a fascination with mind and awareness. Subsequently he spent 16 years studying Bonpo, Nyingma Buddhist and Taoist practices. He spent a year in Asia interviewing Buddhist monks in Laos, Cambodia, Nepal; Taoist practitioners in ...

Tony Myers, Darrell Becker and I analyze and respond to the Gnostic Media presentation called “Nonviolent Communication, Pt. 1 “Is NVC Consistent with the Trivium Method?” This is Gnostic Media podcast #229, recorded on may 18th, 2015, with guest Bill Joslin. This was discussed at length in the School Sucks Facebook Group (link). Today we cover their presentation from 01:22:31 to 01:41:22, where they discuss the 4 Ds of Disconnected Communication and Observations > Feelings > Needs > Requests. This image created some confusion: Description from Gnostic Media: Bill Joslin at an early age developed a fascination with mind and awareness. Subsequently he spent 16 years studying Bonpo, Nyingma Buddhist and Taoist practices. He spent a year in Asia interviewing ...

Tony Myers, Darrell Becker and I analyze and respond to the Gnostic Media presentation called “Nonviolent Communication, Pt. 1 “Is NVC Consistent with the Trivium Method?” This is Gnostic Media podcast #229, recorded on may 18th, 2015, with guest Bill Joslin. This was discussed at length in the School Sucks Facebook Group (link). Today we cover their presentation from 01:06:27 to 01:22:31, where they begin addressing the questions: is NVC consistent with the Trivium Method? can NVC replace rhetoric in the Trivium? Description from Gnostic Media: Bill Joslin at an early age developed a fascination with mind and awareness. Subsequently he spent 16 years studying Bonpo, Nyingma Buddhist and Taoist practices. He spent a year in Asia interviewing Buddhist monks ...

With Wes Bertrand and Matt Amberson Discussed Today: Review -This study is a great way to introduce the importance of childhood experiences to our lives. -ACE shows clearly that what happens affects our later years. -Childhood treatment is important to the health of the individual. -Two thirds of us have some ACE but all of us are subject to counterproductive childhood experiences. -What affects us is what was done to us but also what wasn't done. -We need touch, play, nurturing to thrive. -These affect us in a continuum from addiction to smaller irrational behaviors. -ACE is great to show the correlation but there is a whole lot more on the continuum. -ASK because we ACT. -Bias to sickness, abuse ...

(Highlights, 30 minutes) - Episode 56 with Brett Veinotte creator of The School Sucks Project which discuses home-education, self-education, critical thinking, peaceful parenting, personal growth, nonviolent communication & non-aggression. Clip 1: Was America deliberately dumbed down? Clip 2: College choices Look Closer: Visit the Ripple Effect - http://rvtheory6.podomatic.com/ Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt - http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/