Can Jewish Cultural Technology Fix the Downfall of Modern Universities?

In this thought-provoking discussion, Simone and the speaker explore the challenges and issues facing the current education system, emphasizing how it sometimes instills doubt and pessimism in students. They share a personal story from a concerned parent who removed their child from the public school system due to objectionable teaching materials. The conversation delves into topics such as racial identity, educational content, and historical biases in the curriculum. They consider the contrasting educational experiences provided by Jewish Yeshiva systems and modern universities, highlighting the decline in confidence in higher education. The video discusses fostering pride in cultural ancestry without shame, emphasizing debate and critical thinking as key components of effective education. Ultimately, it advocates for creating a system where students learn for the love of knowledge and meaningful discussion, rather than merely for grades or employment prospects.

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello, Simone.

Speaker: Sorry, I'm late. Horrible, nightmare visions! It's called life, Dib.

Malcolm Collins: Education, as it exists today, seems to believe one of its primary drives is to induce pessimism and self hatred into the student from a cultural perspective.

Speaker: Children, your performance was miserable. Your parents will all receive phone calls instructing them to love you less now.

Malcolm Collins: You

Simone Collins: know, I feel like normally when I hear statements like this, Either from you or in media. My default reaction is always to say it's not really that bad.

But yet one more parent wrote to us today I don't know if you saw their email. We're having it i'm not going to name them for their confidentiality, but they were writing from a personal perspective about the experience that drove them To take their kids out [00:01:00] of Yeah, I'll, I'll read this just cause it's one of those things where like I can hear about it abstractly and think, well, that's not really happening.

And yet here's this parent. Saying

what pushed my wife and I over the line was a worksheet. Our daughter brought home, which asked kids to match values to white people, black people, et cetera, drawing lines between the group and what was valued. White people were supposed to be matched with money and a picture of a clock. I assume it indicated being on time between that worksheet and another take home worksheet involving pronouns and gender stuff we contacted.

The public school they went to and asked who is giving our daughter, the material, it turned out to be a consultant, which they subsequently refused to fully name or state what exactly they were contracted for. After that event, we pulled our oldest daughter

Speaker: What does identifying blotches have to do with determining our future careers?

Oh, you poor doomed child.

Simone Collins: I just to, to hear that, that, and we know, I can know [00:02:00] factually that that's happening because we talked about that one insane unhinged DEI consultant. This is

Malcolm Collins: from the Smithsonian where like. Being white is associated with hard work and personal responsibility and being on time. And it's like, well, that sounds super racist to me.

Like, how are you guys, how do you think you're the good guy?

Speaker 5: When me and Brad first met, I didn't think we'd get along, but turns out we kind of agree on everything. Your racial identity is the most important thing! Everything should be looked at through the lens of race! Jinx, you owe me a coke. We both think minorities are a united group who think the same and act the same. And vote the same. You don't want to lose your black card. Sorry, I don't know, I just think we should Roll back discrimination law so we can hire Basie and race against Jinx!

Now you owe me a Coke. Hey, tell him what you told me yesterday. White actors should only do voices for white cartoon characters. I've been saying that for years

Malcolm Collins: But continue.

Simone Collins: Well, no, I was, I was actually thinking about the DEI consultant who works specifically with kindergarten programs and has that curriculum. But, it, it just that it, that we Oh yeah, welcome to the garden, check out that episode. We are [00:03:00] contacted by people who are themselves experiencing this.

Makes me realize that you saying this, As much as I want to chalk it off to exaggeration and storytelling, it's not, it's reality.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, absolutely. , and this is, I think where this is seen most right now is in the university system.

Speaker: The machine will now decide your fate.

Malcolm Collins: Recently, just 36 percent of Americans now tell posters they have significant confidence in education, specifically in higher education, down from 57 percent less than a decade ago. Oh gosh. So consider, 36%, that's all of the population that has confidence that higher education is doing a good job. And There was something written by someone who really helped frame this and put it in perspective to me, and I want to read it with you and talk through it.

Because it had me rethink some things. And it reminded me, we were on a [00:04:00] recent call with a pronatalist group in France, right? And they're trying to promote traditional French ways of doing things. And I consider us so blessed that we grew up in the United States and that we intrinsically look at a pluralist way of doing things, because it means that we look to other groups.

I, you know, they were trying to fortify their religion, Catholicism, right? And I was like, okay. Well, so surely you've looked at the religions that are more resistant to fertility collapse, like Protestantism and , Jewish groups. And they're like, I never thought to do that. And I was like, well, you should, they're doing this working that you could adapt.

And I was reading something by a Jew recently

Speaker 2: When have I ever ripped on you for being a Jew? Oh yeah, well you're a stupid Jew. You're a Jew. Shut your goddamn Jew mouth. Good job, Jew. Jews. Shut up, Jew.

You're a Jew ist. Dude, he's Jewish. Jew. Jew. Jew. Jew. Jew. I told you Jewish people don't have rhythm. F**k off, Cartman! Okay, except maybe for that one [00:05:00] time.

Malcolm Collins: and I was like, this is a really interesting point that I don't just think matters for our educational system, but like at the end of this, discussion. I want to talk through with you how we can update the Collins Institute, our free, you know, educational system, CollinsInstitute.

CollinsInstitute. org you can go check it out. But like I kind of want to re re rethink some parts of it, especially as we're dealing with older kids and the way that we do our sort of homeschooling

Hmm.

Okay. So this was written by a Jewish First semester, Columbia student.

In some classes, professors started having us read key passages of the text together, either aloud or during quiet in class reading time. I joined them at first imagining that a second read was a deeper read. Asked to analyze together, I might notice that my group partner had no understanding of Descartes .

Ontological argument. I tried to ignore it. So it's [00:06:00] not to seem unkind as our final exam neared my classmates. Study habits came into sharp relief.

They seem

to be learning the material from scratch, scrambling to flip through entire swaths of the Western literary canon in a single week.

Speaker: Take a good look, children. It will