71–80 of 94 posts
I suspect users are flagging these submissions because of the abysmal comments, and they're not wrong to. If were going to have a discussion it needs to be up to the civility and intellectual standards of the site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I suspect users are flagging these submissions because of the abysmal comments, and they're not wrong to. If were going to have a discussion it needs to be up to the civility and intellectual standards of the site. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I would suggest otherwise.
To fix inequality of opportunities one would be well advised to start with the way k-12 schools are funded. It's too late for most disadvantaged students by the time they are old enough to go to college.
Throwing more money at failing and corrupt school districts wont fix it either.
Want to fix it?
Go to your next PTA meeting, become a coach on a team there, volunteer with the local school, get involved, today. Do you even know where your kids would go to school from the place you live (speaking to HN in general)?
This is a democracy, you must participate for it to function at all. Sitting there screaming at the internet and the Moldavian troll-bots isn't fixing anything. Yes, it stinks. Yes, the admins and the superintendant are complete and total idiots. Guess who gets to fix it?
You do.
It's likely near the beginning of the school year near you. Now, today, is the best time of the entire year.
To fix inequality of opportunities one would be well advised to start with the way k-12 schools are funded. It's too late for most disadvantaged students by the time they are old enough to go to college.
Some of the best-funded and worst-performing school systems are ones in inner cities with high minority populations. Baltimore, MD public schools spends more per student than the wealthy D.C. suburb of Montgomery County, MD, despite having a lower cost of living.
To fix inequality of opportunities one would be well advised to start with the way k-12 schools are funded. It's too late for most disadvantaged students by the time they are old enough to go to college.
Tying such a large percentage of funding to the property wealth of the community ensures the poor remain under educated without access to upward mobility. I cringe thinking what effect this had in the Jim Crow era.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Word, but I think it underlines a real problem. For some people with low chances of losing in the game (trust fund, property, stable family, no prior convictions, etc) life can be a game about maximizing gains. For others it's toothe and nail. When the rules of the game are historically set by people who are already too stable to really lose, it's the "weaker" players who get exploited.
When you phrase it that way, it sounds like you think it's hopeless to have a system with objectively fair rules. Notwithstanding the probably uninspired resulting college environment, I think it would be hypothetically fair to admit people solely based on their standardized test scores without any other consideration. The admission standard while somewhat arbitrary would be clear, such that anyone who wants to get a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You understand the problem with color-blindness, yes?
Blind-hiring worked to remove the gender gap in orchestras. Why wouldn't it be good to use in college admissions? http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/orchestrating-impartiality-impact... .
Entry into an orchestra isn't something that is cost prohibitive for an economic class of individuals.
Applicants to orchestras likely enjoy a certain level of affluence given how demanding the required practice is for performers. Musical performers enjoy slightly less systematic discrimination throughout their careers and technkal musical ability is something that is largely self-taught meaning that the applicants to orchestras are more likely to share similar levels of abilities at the stage of auditioning for an orchestra whereas college applicants are more likely to express difference at the time of application due to systematic discrimination throughout their educational trajectory.
Playing in an orchestra doesn't share the same grave weight of attending college in careerist society where college is increasingly necessary. The demand is higher for college, and the supply can reflect that.
Orchestras arnt a part of a massive industry tied to sports, science, defense, state subsidies etc...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Blind-hiring worked to remove the gender gap in orchestras. Why wouldn't it be good to use in college admissions? http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/orchestrating-impartiality-impact... .
Of The cuff; a whole slew of reasons. Entry into an orchestra isn't something that is cost prohibitive for an economic class of individuals. Applicants to orchestras likely enjoy a certain level of affluence given how demanding the required practice is for performers. Musical performers enjoy slightly less systematic discrimination throughout their careers and technkal musical ability is something that is largely sel…
Maybe I just hold the value of having an objectively fair playing field higher than some others here. I personally love the idea of bling hiring in orchestras, in technology jobs, and in college admissions.
People's upbringings are never going to be fair. Nor is their potential, if we're being honest. But moving the admissions goalposts all over trying to make everything more "diverse," when that's really just a racist codeword for "skin color," is not a valid answer to me.
This is simplistic, but a weighted average of standardized test scores + being in a top percentage of your graduating class (regardless of school quality) is already going to give you a lot of genuine diversity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of The cuff; a whole slew of reasons. Entry into an orchestra isn't something that is cost prohibitive for an economic class of individuals. Applicants to orchestras likely enjoy a certain level of affluence given how demanding the required practice is for performers. Musical performers enjoy slightly less systematic discrimination throughout their careers and technkal musical ability is something that is largely sel…
None of those are reasons not to try it. It worked well on a smaller scale and hasn't been tried on any sort of larger scale. Maybe I just hold the value of having an objectively fair playing field higher than some others here. I personally love the idea of bling hiring in orchestras, in technology jobs, and in college admissions. People's upbringings are never going to be fair. Nor is their potential, if we're being…
Maybe you value it less than others, and that's why you're willing to give up on a whole section of the playing field so easily?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it isn't. It would be hypocritical to say "slavery is bad and it was done to black people so we should make white people slaves now". It is not hypocritical to say "black people were mistreated because of their race and this has disadvantaged them as a group, here are some ways to make up for that previous treatment". If one kid gets singled out at school to be beaten up, it is not hypocritical to single him out…
reparations are not the same as acute care.