Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/3/12
The other day while walking around on the gym floor, I ended up having a small chat with one of our current interns, Doug, on the education system. Random topic I know, and I honestly have no recollection as to how we even got there, but it definitely was something that got the two of us fired up. While I won’t bore everyone with the details, I will say we both came to the conclusion that we can’t believe how ass-backwards everything has gotten.
Maybe it has something to do with reading several books on how higher education isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be – The Education of Millionaires and most recently, Chris Guillebeau’s The $100 Startup – or maybe it’s because I’ve been getting some emails as of late from undergraduates asking me if they should pursue their Masters Degree (in and effort to gain a few more letters next to their name and hopefully have a leg up on their competition), or maybe it’s because I have a sister who’s a teacher.
Either way, the “system” is broken. In today’s society we’re basically programmed right from the get go to think that higher education is the key to being successful, and as a result we have more and more people going into disheartening amounts of debt.
Although, to be fair: no one is pointing a gun at someone’s head that they HAVE to go to a $40,000/per year school….to major in Humanities.
Now, I am in no way saying that going to college is a bad thing or is something that shouldn’t be strived for. But it’s gotten to the point now where 3rd graders aren’t even allowed to go outside and play and have upwards of 2-3 hours of homework per night.
3rd graders!!!!!!
I don’t know about you, but when I was in 3rd grade I was pimpin it on the kick-ball field and figuring out whether or not red Play-Doh tasted any differently than blue Play-Doh.
FYI: it totally doesn’t.
I certainly wasn’t memorizing my multiplication tables.
Anyways, in light of our conversation Doug sent me this TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson that I thought was amazing, and totally worth 20 minutes of your time.
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Coaching the Kettlebell Swing – Kettlebell Form Check for Tony Gentilcore – Troy Pesola
Last week I posted on how we go about teaching (and implementing) the Turkish Get-Up and kettlebell swing at Cressey Performance (HERE).
From what I could tell it was received well (no hate mail), and at the end of the post I opened it up to the masses to go a head and give ME feedback on how I could go about improving my technique and coaching cues.
Wouldn’t you know it – someone did just that.
Here, Troy Pesola throws me under the microscope and breaks down my KB swing.
Contraindicated Exercices vs. Contraindicated Lifters
This post is a blast from the past that I randomly came across while searching for something else. I re-read it, thought it didn’t suck, and figured that since I wrote it over two years ago and there’s a lot more people reading the site now, it wouldn’t hurt to re-post it again.
On that note, Enjoy the weekend!
Who’s going to see Kate Beckinsale be Kate Beckinsale Total Recall?
Comments for This Entry
Lars Krogstad
As a teacher myself, I couldn't agree more with this: "If an alien was to guess what the purpose of school was, they would guess "to educate university professors"".August 3, 2012 at 9:49 am |
TonyGentilcore
Well, glad to know my train of thought is reciprocated. I have the utmost respect for teachers. Hands down one of the most challenging, rewarding, and under appreciated professions on the planet. Well, that and being Kate Beckinsale's personal water boy.August 5, 2012 at 6:49 am |
deansomerset
If you want to talk about messed up, a teacher here was suspended without pay after giving zero's to about half his class for not handing in a major assignment. Not handing it in late, but just not handing them in at all. The school board has a "no zero's" policy, which essentially gives the kids incompletes instead of failing grades, even if they don't do a single thing. This culture of hand-holding and "everyone gets a ribbon" tends to fall apart when you don't get something to your boss on time.August 3, 2012 at 10:15 am |
TonyGentilcore
Now THAT's messed up. Unreal. I really hate this whole "everyone gets a ribbon" mentality. Kids need to learn what it's like to fail. If not, we're raising nothing more than entitled brats.August 5, 2012 at 6:50 am |
Mitchell Wright
I did catch your chat with Troy. Great stuff, Tony. Also, I left The $100 Startup sitting on the desk at work. That should be a nice read when I'm supposed to be slaving away.August 3, 2012 at 11:13 am |
TonyGentilcore
Once you read it, let me know what you think. Also, if you like it, you should read his first book: The Art of Nonconformity. AWESOME read.August 5, 2012 at 6:51 am |
Troy Pesola
Thanks for the mention Tony, so cool be on your list of stuff to read. Now relax that grip! ;)August 3, 2012 at 2:47 pm |
TonyGentilcore
Well thank YOU for going out of your way to write such an awesome post! Okay, okay, okay: relax the grip. Got it....;o)August 5, 2012 at 6:52 am |
Kedric
Agree on how messed up the system is, producing robots isn't exactly the purpose of education. Another good view on this is Seth Godin's stop stealing dreams. http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/StopStealingDreamsSCREEN.pdfAugust 4, 2012 at 5:32 am |
TonyGentilcore
Thanks for the recommendation Kedric!August 5, 2012 at 6:53 am |
Droll6683
Hey Tony, I emailed you last week and was wondering if you receieved it? If not responding no big deal I guess but curious to some info on the subjects I mentioned. Thanks again for great information. Jeff GarvinAugust 6, 2012 at 7:45 am |
TonyGentilcore
Jeff - my apologies, I don't recall receiving an email from you. Care to resend?August 7, 2012 at 9:12 am |