The Tough Decision to Leave the Classroom • Hacker News Board

Re: The Tough Decision to Leave the Classroom

#271

Post by beams_of_light » Mon, Jan 12, 2015, 5:30 AM UTC

cheepin wrote: post #262

beams_of_light wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't feel that competition would be healthy between students. Some kids are simply not going to be as smart as others, due wholly or in part to genetic, socio-economic, or emotional parameters. Making them feel like garbage on a daily basis at school will not help them at all.

If you structure competition as Winner(s) + everyone else (as opposed to a full ranking system), you gain a powerful motivator for competitive students, while not necessarily convincing the others that they are garbage.

Can you provide an example of how this might work in practice?

Re: The Tough Decision to Leave the Classroom

#272

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft » Mon, Jan 12, 2015, 5:17 PM UTC

JediWing wrote: post #266

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wow. Way to grossly oversimplify one of the most important public policy issues of our time. You can't ignore externalities that affect student performance a I can. If I hire a contractor to build a house in the shape of a giant ice cream cone, then I expect that result. At the very most, he should shortly conclude that it is not possible (I'd still be liable to pay him for some reasonable hours that it took to com…

> I work as a university, and every term I have to prepare a program that sends out end of term letters (probation and suspension). Which college do you think gets the most of those, per capita? Sounds like the system is weeding out the "gamers" pretty well in that case. > Just because money is wasted elsewhere doesn't mean all should be invited to waste even more money. No but it does mean there's plenty of low prio…

> Sounds like the system is weeding out the "gamers" pretty well in that case.

For now.

You're proposing changes to the same system that will undermine that.

> This is categorically false. Taken to the extreme it means we should pay teachers NOTHING.

Argumentum ad absurdum.

> It's almost as if they weren't simply optimizing for a single factor like money or status.

The people you want to be teachers never gave a shit about pay anyway. I fully admit this. They will actually do it regardless.

When you say "pay them more" you're not going to improve education that way. If you could be honest and confess that you simply think they deserve more and that we should pay them more I'd have no way to argue against that...

But such a point doesn't belong in a conversation about improving educational outcomes.

Re: The Tough Decision to Leave the Classroom

#273

Post by coryrc » Sat, Jan 17, 2015, 11:17 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #258

coryrc wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, because no one can create wealth, especially not women...

Well that's a pretty sexist thing to say, and why even bring gender into this at all?

1. sarcasm

2. What do you think the predominant gender is of all these second spouses that "now" have jobs and are "driving down wages"?