Myth: School prevents pseudoscientific thinking

Myth

By sending kids to school, we make sure we reduce the number of pseudoscientific myths circulating in society

Fact

The net result is the exact opposite. By coercive learning, we instill 100 bad school habits that affect learning, problems solving, and behavior for life.

Bad school habits

The most important bad school habits that affect pseudoscientific thinking are:

Blunted skepticism, which comes from being fed "the only true knowledge" with penalties for questioning the established thinking
Tolerance of poor comprehension, which comes from having little room to fill up gaps in knowledge, which results in learning without understanding
Hate of authority, which is a result of a defensive response to limited freedom at school

The above three habits are described in detail in 100 bad habits learned at school. There are many other bad habits that substantially lower the intelligence of the population. We invented school to promote education. Today, the same coercive system is lowering societal ability to solve problems, and adapt to change

Mechanism of reward

Blunted skepticism makes it hard to reject bad models. It undermines the learn drive needed to explore alternative explanations to scientific claims. Tolerance of poor comprehension results to tolerance of incoherent models. The student is conditioned to tolerate shaky knowledge in his head. Hate of authority may contribute to a tendency to gobble up all anti-authoritarian ideas.

A coerced student develops learned helplessness, and loses the love of learning. However, after graduation, he may discover the pleasure of learning. He may take any simple bad model that reframes his reasoning about the world. He may experience high reward that reinforces further exploration of a blind pathway.

In a hypothetical line of reasoning, the new bad model may find its roots from a single piece of knowledge that makes one think: "Vaccines can cause autism? I always knew that stupid science teacher, Mr Johnson, was wrong!". This is a very satisfactory anti-systemic feeling. A seed of a bad model is enough to build a great theory by newly discovered learn drive. The person who hated school, hated science, and hated learning, may discover that learning new things to condemn the past is highly rewarding.

When you recover your pleasure of learning, simple models may be highly satisfactory. It is as if a 30 year old, discovered the art of learning for the first time. Simplicity increases the pleasure. Opposition to old models associated with bad feelings adds to the attraction. Ditching the label of a bad student and becoming a "new age explorer" enhances the experience. Bad models may keep adding new layers of defensive knowledge taken from biased sources. All bad models have value, and all bad models have their own niches on the web. To minimize straying, we should let toddlers explore the Internet. Let them absorb it with mother's milk that "most of things on the web are questionable, and multi-source investigations are the best defense".

In this context, fighting the school system is highly rewarding for me! For that reason alone, you should always consult opposing sources. For exercise, Google "school increases intelligence" or "school promotes understanding of science". I will not do it because my knowledge valuation network tells me I will get a lot of anesthetizing boredom of pro-school propaganda. Don't treat me like a trustworthy teacher, do your own research!

Good science teacher

A science teacher George Zonnios observed that the problem of pseudoscience begins at school. In his blog, Zonnios explains how school creates anti-vaxxers and flat-earthers:

[The problem of pseudoscience comes from] the huge amount of distrust that school is able to manufacture against science

Human optimization error occurs in many areas of life. In reference to direct instruction, the error underlies the entire school system. We do direct instruction, see some effect, go for more direct instructions, and when problems arrive, we try to remedy them with even more instruction. Equally well we might keep increasing the dose of a wrong antibiotic until we see the effect. The effect would naturally be the patient's death.

Zonnios says he can see the micro-management of control every day:

We sit students down without moving, and then set up PE classes to force them to exercise. We prevent socialisation in class and then give Health classes on the value of socialising on mental health. Insane