Post by steveb on May 9, 2014 8:43:52 GMT
This today in the Guardian:
University economics teaching isn't an education: it's a £9,000 lobotomy
Some good comments to be read there as well. A couple:
“If you want to learn about an airplane, the cheapest way to do it is with a model airplane. Maybe you go out and get a build-n-paint F-16 from your local hobby shop. It’s a great way to get details about the appearance and dimensions of a real jet fighter. Or maybe you go out and get a little balsa-wood glider, which is a great way to get an intuition for basic aerodynamics. But every kid understands implicitly that F-16s are not built by snapping plastic chunks out of molded frames and gluing them together, just as every kid understands that you don’t go to the airport and get strapped onto a giant balsa wood trojan glidar and hurl [yourself] off a bridge.
"As you learn about mainstream economics you will be continuously urged by your textbook to apply the models you are learning to the real world, and you will be faced with constant reminders of the predictive power of these models. But the reason I’m standing here talking to you is to remind you, just as constantly, that every single morning, in offices from Wall Street to the IMF, economists are strapping entire populations to wooden planes and launching them off bridges, throwing up their hands in helpless befuddlement at the inevitable grisly results, cashing their checks, and heading out for the golf course by 2pm.”
Professor Douglas Orr - City College of San Francisco 2008
University economics teaching isn't an education: it's a £9,000 lobotomy
"I don't care who writes a nation's laws – or crafts its treatises – if I can write its economics textbooks," said Paul Samuelson.
Some good comments to be read there as well. A couple:
An electrical engineer, a chemist and an economist survive a plane crash and end up on a desert island. They sit around despondent for a while until the engineer says: 'Look, things might not be so bad - I think I can get the radio working on the plane and with a bit of luck I'll be able to signal for help or at least transmit our position - we should be rescued within a week'.
The chemist then says: 'Yes, I've been looking at the soil, it's composed of guano and high in phosphates - using pipes from the crashed aircraft, I'll be able to construct a signal flare that will burn so bright it'll be seen for miles - I reckon that as we're below a flight path we'll be seen within a week'
The economist thinks for a bit and then jumps up excited and says: 'Okay... lets assume we have a boat...'
The chemist then says: 'Yes, I've been looking at the soil, it's composed of guano and high in phosphates - using pipes from the crashed aircraft, I'll be able to construct a signal flare that will burn so bright it'll be seen for miles - I reckon that as we're below a flight path we'll be seen within a week'
The economist thinks for a bit and then jumps up excited and says: 'Okay... lets assume we have a boat...'
“If you want to learn about an airplane, the cheapest way to do it is with a model airplane. Maybe you go out and get a build-n-paint F-16 from your local hobby shop. It’s a great way to get details about the appearance and dimensions of a real jet fighter. Or maybe you go out and get a little balsa-wood glider, which is a great way to get an intuition for basic aerodynamics. But every kid understands implicitly that F-16s are not built by snapping plastic chunks out of molded frames and gluing them together, just as every kid understands that you don’t go to the airport and get strapped onto a giant balsa wood trojan glidar and hurl [yourself] off a bridge.
"As you learn about mainstream economics you will be continuously urged by your textbook to apply the models you are learning to the real world, and you will be faced with constant reminders of the predictive power of these models. But the reason I’m standing here talking to you is to remind you, just as constantly, that every single morning, in offices from Wall Street to the IMF, economists are strapping entire populations to wooden planes and launching them off bridges, throwing up their hands in helpless befuddlement at the inevitable grisly results, cashing their checks, and heading out for the golf course by 2pm.”
Professor Douglas Orr - City College of San Francisco 2008