211–220 of 241 posts
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Who is she competing with?
Everyone/herself. Game mechanics: you earn points, you get badges... she wants to be able to say "look what I did." She likes "winning" and you can "win" in the sense of moving forward thru "levels," getting achievements, etc.
I'm a parent of two who does NOT plan on putting his kids in public school because I think they won't be served well there (plan on "home schooling"). My 5yo uses Khan Academy and it seems to be great. Finally, I basically hate most aspects of public school. That said, I get sick of everyone piling on public school whenever something like this comes up. Public school is set to the following task: "take everyone , eve…
6th through 12th grade is where people learn that life isn't about smart-ness. It's about social-ness.
Are you really comfortable with the idea of potentially stunting one of the most important aspects of your child's abilities --- their ability to interact positively with people? (People other than you. People who don't already like your child.)
I was sent to a "Montissouri" school Kindergarten through 3rd grade, and it was ... Well, let's just say it turned out quite badly. Then I was sent to a private school 4th through 8th grade, with small class sizes. It was one of the most terrible experiences of my life. Personally, I wish my parents had sent me to public school, because I believe I would be a better person today.
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Can those private high schools deny problem kids? Are they a non random selection of students? Think about it. Edit: You are also being selective in your examples. Why not compare Berkley to the University of Phoenix? You have to consider the entire range of private schools, and the overall output. But I'm not as concerned with higher education, I think that is a different system with a different goal. Primary school…
Uh, it's not like "problem kids" are necessarily getting a good deal from the public system. Special ed kids are forced to learn "academic" style knowledge rather than the practical life skills they actually need... and behavior problem kids use way more resources than they deserve and harm all the other kids in the process. Sadly, many kids in special ed programs and many behavior problem kids would not have problem…
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I don't think it's a binary choice. I think capitalism is great for most things, and bad at some things. Education happens to be one of those things. If I buy a $30 bottle of pills that are supposed to make me lose weight, well I lost $30 and I learned my lesson. If I send my kid to a fucked up school it might take years for me to realize it was fucked up, and the stakes are much higher. A bit of back story. I'm the…
Yet here I am, a successful software engineer, due in large part to a good public education. But were you given a good education, or were you smart enough to educate yourself given a modicum of education and a structured environment? The problem is that half of people are not smart enough. If you teach them to read using word recognition, they will not deduce phonics on their own, so their reading ability is permanen…
I didn't care about education until i was in my 20s. I would not have educated myself as a child or teenager.
"The problem is that half of people are not smart enough"
That sounds like a number you pulled out of your butt. Do you have any real statistics on that?
"The problem with zero-competition government schools is that when they get captured by a fad (word recognition, new math, no student left behind, etc.), it happens everywhere. There is no escape. "
I'm not sure I understand, but I'm pretty sure it's not true. Our schools are becoming more federalized, but that hasn't always been the case. States once had a lot of leeway in their education systems.
"The latter does not require education or sophistication, just the ability to ask about the relative rank of the nearby schools."
This isn't true. She'd have no idea what graphs mean, and even if she got it to some degree it would be very easy to mislead her. Think about it. Have you ever watched infomercials with absurd assertions that have graphs and numbers on them? You and I realize they are absurd, but most people don't. Think about it.
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Hm, interesting question. I was thinking specifically of primary education, most people never go to a private college and it's a very different situation. For example, my wife is a teacher, and one of her biggest challenges is dealing with kids with severe behavior problems. They disrupt the entire class, but these kids still need an education. If you remove those kids from the class the rest of the kids benefit, but…
Nobody is arguing that there shouldn't still be public funding of education. If I had a kid in special ed I'd want to send him/her to the best school possible for his/her unique challenges Right now the only option is public school unless you can afford massive private school tuition. With more private schools, smaller, more specialized schools would develop. Someone passionate about teaching special ed would have th…
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Hm, interesting question. I was thinking specifically of primary education, most people never go to a private college and it's a very different situation. For example, my wife is a teacher, and one of her biggest challenges is dealing with kids with severe behavior problems. They disrupt the entire class, but these kids still need an education. If you remove those kids from the class the rest of the kids benefit, but…
If a private school can provide a superior education to non-disruptive children, and public schools continue to provide the same education to disruptive children, isn't that a good thing?
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Where do you draw the line on pharmaceutical marketing? Is it OK to market antidepressants? What about blood pressure or cholesterol medicine? Heartburn medicine? Asprin? Sunscreen? Toothpaste? Dentil floss? Athlete's foot spray? Prescription meds are controlled such that a doctor must agree that the prescription is a good idea before the patient gets the drug. There have been instances found of conflict-of-interest-…
> Where do you draw the line on pharmaceutical marketing? The line is pretty straightforward. No marketing to patients of any drug that requires a prescription whatsoever. The reason why these medicines require prescriptions is because they are more serious than aspirin or sunscreen, so it's an easy and reasonable line to draw. Marketing to doctors is fine (i.e. the market actors who have the base knowledge necessary…
Your argument against lenders and fine print is interesting. Post housing crash this sort of thing is blamed for herding lots of naive people into mortgages with terms they shouldn't (in retrospect) have agreed to.
However if you look at what regulators were doing during that period, they were actually expanding the core problem. Bush had started a war that was having real effects on the economy. In spite of Greenspan's attempt to clarify the government's position on implicitly underwriting Fannie and Freddie, Bush expended no effort at solving this problem, which had been much anticipated. Fannie and Freddie ended up not releasing any financial information to the public for several years!
This was also the time when many people felt very wise for having bought a house when they did. Prices were up 40% over a few years in many markets, and so it was easy for the American people to support an expensive war b/c so many were rich on paper thanks to the drastic appreciation in housing prices.
The regulations that tilt investment toward housing are supported by both political parties and created the massive bubble that ended up bursting.
Sure you can blame lenders for sloppy research, buyers for inadequate caution, but our government had everyone convinced that housing prices always go up.
You relate a sort of conspiracy theory about intellectuals being paid great sums to hoodwink the average person and suggest that better regulation is the answer. I'd argue that regulation is the biggest problem we have b/c it insulates people from the predictable and obvious consequences that they'd anticipate without this malign guidance.
Like a seatbelt made of tissue paper, it may appear to offer protection, but in reality it leads to risky behavior that no sane person would undertake without a large dose of naive trust in the ruling class.
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If a private school can provide a superior education to non-disruptive children, and public schools continue to provide the same education to disruptive children, isn't that a good thing?
If I could make a better product than apple wouldn't that be a good thing? Too bad I can't.
I'm a parent of two who does NOT plan on putting his kids in public school because I think they won't be served well there (plan on "home schooling"). My 5yo uses Khan Academy and it seems to be great. Finally, I basically hate most aspects of public school. That said, I get sick of everyone piling on public school whenever something like this comes up. Public school is set to the following task: "take everyone , eve…
I'm a parent of two who does NOT plan on putting his kids in public school because I think they won't be served well there (plan on "home schooling"). 6th through 12th grade is where people learn that life isn't about smart-ness. It's about social-ness. Are you really comfortable with the idea of potentially stunting one of the most important aspects of your child's abilities --- their ability to interact positively…
heh heh... as someone who's been thru the public school system, I can safely say I don't WANT my kids learning the sort of "social skills" you learn there. You describing it as "interact[ing] positively" has me convinced that your story of not having gone to public school is true. :p
It's funny that people always bring this up: social skills. Have you met many home schooled kids? They are some of the most mature, well balanced, intelligent kids I've met. Secondly, what do you think home schoolers do, live in a bubble? Contrariwise, they interact ("socialize," if you prefer) with kids of all ages, as well as adults, in a normal, "real world" context.
As for "stunting" my child's abilities: I am absolutely certain public school does this, so I'll take my chances, thank you very much. I don't appreciate your insinuation, by the way.
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Well put. Finally, I basically hate most aspects of public school. I was ready to agree with this. But then I reflected. What I really hated were my rotten peers (and, to an extent, my rotten self) from around the start of junior high to the end of high school. They weren't horrible, mind you. Just middle-of-the-distribution-curve kids, with the inevitable psychopath or two. I don't think privatization is going to fi…
By no means universal, merely a reflection of my experiences. For example, I was an exchange student for a year and when I came back I was told I'd get no credits for it because I couldn't produce a report card , so I was held back (i.e. punished for studying in a diff. country for a year). Same year: moved from another state, forced to take freshman "earth & environmental sciences" because it's a state requirement.…
One of the great pleasures of adulthood is no longer being forced to suffer the presence of such people in my life.