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About LinkBacksI'm not even going to say education should be the business of government. Let the individuals figure it out.
I'm not even going to say education should be the business of government. Let the individuals figure it out.
What we are experiencing is the the natural and inevitable result of making something a "right" (i.e. giving it away for free). Things that are free are not valued, and end up being crap, like our education system. I send my kids to a private school, which has much better teachers, a dramatically better curriculum, smaller class sizes, and a much higher standard of bahavior and social interaction than the public school that I removed them from.
It also only costs them 40% (per student cost) of what it costs the crappy Wake County school that I pulled my kids out of to educate them. Of course I still pay for the crappy Wake County school to spend insane amounts of money to hire underqualified and poorly motivated people to provide glorified day care for other people's kids, but that's my govermnent in action!
Stop giving away education. It is not a right. Neither are food, health care, jobs, housing, or cable TV. That's not to say that it shouldn't be legally required, because it should, but make people pay for it. If people have to buy it, then they are much more likely to give a crap about it, and they will demand value.
There are hundreds of thousands of examples of this: look at public university performance results in France, where it is free, compared to the US, where we have to pay for it. Once you crunch the numbers and adjust for population density, we have about three times more good schools than they do per capita. It's just basic common sense though, people do not take care of things that you give them for free like they take care of things that they have to earn by working and paying for them.
Every ship is a minesweeper, once.
"Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone." - Steve Jobs
AlexMcNabb (01-28-2012), itrsteez (01-31-2012)
"Tragedy of the commons".
I just saw some statistics that are quite troubling to me. Can anyone else catch what it was?
Undergraduate Degree / Share of All 1 Percenters
Health and Medical Preparatory Programs 142,345 0.9%
Economics 1,237,863 8.2% 5.4%
Biochemical Sciences 193,769 0.7%
Zoology 159,935 0.6%
Biology 1,864,666 6.6%
International Relations 146,781 0.5%
Political Science and Government 1,427,224 4.7%
Physiology 98,181 0.3%
Art History and Criticism 137,357 0.4%
Chemistry 780,783 2.4%
Molecular Biology 64,951 0.2%
Area, Ethnic and Civilization Studies 184,906 0.5%
Finance 1,071,812 2.7%
History 1,351,368 3.3%
Business Economics 108,146 0.3%
Miscellaneous Psychology 61,257 0.1%
Philosophy and Religious Studies 448,095 1.0%
Microbiology 147,954 0.3%
Chemical Engineering 347,959 0.8%
Physics 346,455 0.7%
Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Administration 334,016 0.7%
Accounting 2,296,601 4.7%
Mathematics 840,137 1.7%
English Language and Literature 1,938,988 3.8%
Miscellaneous Biology 52,895 0.1%
Originally Posted by Mister Two
That's because of inherited wealth.
That Political Science and Government appears in these numbers?
I think he was implying that people with inherited wealth choose those degrees. Which I agree with. Couldn't fathom why History would be on their if not for that.
There are two reason a man does something: one that sounds good and the real reason - Morgan
Why the big Biology number? It's the most popular degree. Rich people want to be doctors?
Every ship is a minesweeper, once.
"Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone." - Steve Jobs
I loved my public schools growing up. And we have some brilliant teachers spread throughout this country. We just have to spend some time finding them.
Oddly enough, I really like the schools my kids are going to. It makes all the difference when teachers actually care about the students. Ratios become less important (but can still be relative in size), work becomes less important, etc... Learning is what counts. Social interaction, etc...
It doesn't matter if it is public or private, the staff makes the difference. My issue with public schools is the inefficiency of the system - oversight watched by oversight. Micromanaging of stupid crap. I dislike when a public official oversteps their bounds and glorifies their position (nurse talks to a student about diet and sleep).
The biology number is easy to understand, same with finance.
History? That seems a bit odd for me, professors and curators...
I just took a moment the google the salary of a curator. The Federal Government pays theirs $90k a year.
Hmm.
There are two reason a man does something: one that sounds good and the real reason - Morgan
It's all about the legacy...
Explain more. The curators are chosen based on legacy?
There are two reason a man does something: one that sounds good and the real reason - Morgan
Wait, nurses aren't entitled to tell someone to eat healthy and get enough sleep?
I don't like the public school system, I don't think the cookie cutter approach to education makes any sense what so ever.
Public Schools: Teaching the next generation of American children being smart and working hard is a bad thing.
| 2000 4Runner Limited | 1998 VW GTi VR6 | 1989 Toyota Corolla GT-S |
The way I see it - a country is only worth what it leaves behind. This is why we hold the remains of ancient civilizations in such a high regard. History is rich of stories. For example - watch the History channel when they are not broadcasting something about midgets marrying mutes... There is always a fascinating story surrounding a village/town/country/government/civilization. We should all preserve our history. In the end, everything is history. It needs to be recognized - preserved. It's the only way to advance as entire country/generation/planet. We have to be able to tell the story of our predecessors, in order to prepare for the future. BUT - the way to do that is understanding the past. Historians (in my opinion) have some of the most intriguing views of civilization, based on their experiences of other times. I think if everybody understood the past, and placed any kind of emphasis on the importance of lessons learned - there wouldn't be half the problems that exist today.
It's like every country goes through its 'teen years' of knowing everything, despite what the countries that are centuries old have told those young countries. This is why we look at civilizations like Greece, Rome, China, etc... as examples of what is good/bad as a growing nation/empire. The story must be told/understood. Curators (the good ones, that will get paid $90k+) are examples of the kind of person that would know how to do this properly.
Wasn't Indiana Jones commissioned by the government in Raiders of the Lost Ark? I mean, if it wasn't for archeologists like him, and the curators he worked for, the whole world might be a different place (not going to get into part IV).
Full Moon Rain Attack! (02-01-2012)
Ahhh, I may have understated my position - I have no problem with a person saying - generally - we should all eat healthy and get plenty of sleep. But when a lecture is given by a person who has absolutely no idea of what is going on in a home, or what is being taught in that home, that a child is not sleeping enough - to the point where a phone call is given in a condescending manner to a parent - is quite insulting. I have witnessed enough issues of the public school system to know that people glorify their own positions as a form of validation (I've also seen this in the private sector, too - as in: self proclaimed job security... "I'm too important NOT to have around here. You NEED me on that wall"... etc...).
The issue I really see are people putting too much faith into letting someone else raise their child... not doing things at home - blaming it on the teacher for their bad child (this has become so common, it has been the punch line of many, many jokes). If we put the responsibility of the parent back on the parent, the child can emerge from a public school less scathed by the issues we face today by institutions that seem to care less about the actual learning and more about job security. Perhaps the reason I felt I was not wronged by my public school experiences (which, to this day I find my level of education superior to just about everybody I've had an opportunity to compare it against - recalling basic topics from conversations in which I'd say to myself "how do you NOT know this? I learned this in Ms Gulden's 3rd grade math class, or Mr Hoeflinger's 5th grade science class, etc...") is because my parents accepted responsibility for and culpability of my actions.
I believe there was a generation that preached that work is more important than family - and when that happens, the family falls apart - and the school feels it must pick up the pieces - translated: the gov't will raise your child, don't worry about it - you've got enough on your plate, trying to keep your job and put food on the table. And then single parents became a things of the future.
Barring the extreme circumstances - a single parent CANNOT raise a child... at least... not well. That's not to say there isn't 1/1000 cases that things turn out well, but I am saying that 999/1000 most likely will not.
My point? A strong stable home has its advantages in raising a child, providing the best education possible, regardless of where/how it comes from. It all starts at home. Parents need to become parents, and let teachers be the assistants, not the primary caregivers.
Honestly I can't think of one example, unless a person is home schooled, where the "village" didn't raise the child. People forget that children are humans and have brains that work and think just like other humans. Whatever a parent does might work but they are not the only influence in that child's life. Many parents and idealist like to believe that parents are the BIGGEST influence in how a child handles the world, well 51% is biggest when compared to 49%. The parental unit can only do so much, everything else is up to how that young human interprets the world.
We were all young once, we challenged what we've been taught and rebelled, we wondered and found things out, we still learn as life goes on. We are all societally* raised, it's why we generally have the same fashion (skinny jeans are just like slacks, both are pants and not robes), talk similar, etc. So we can think the parent is important all we want, but they are as useful as a spouse honestly. Nice to have and when the relationship is good, good things happen. Still, a society that positively influences the mind is most important.
Think about a suicide bomber with happy parent vs if that same individual would have come up through the foster care system here... well an "ideal" foster care system. It's a society that creates a suicide bomber just as it's a society that creates a president of a country.
I'm not saying parents have NO influence, up until the child becomes independent in thought the parent does control how a child views the world. Once a young human is able to view things for themselves, a parents influence is less than societies. I've dated a girl who's father was a just a few clicks south of a Grand Wizard, had her parents had that much influence should would have looked at me with disgust instead of love.
There are two reason a man does something: one that sounds good and the real reason - Morgan
^^^^This^^^^ My child's education is my responsibility. If I leave my kids in a lousy school where they don't learn anything, then it is 100% my fault.
Of course my viewpoint is skewed by my immense wealth. Looking back at public tax records, I think that I was actually a 1-percenter in 2001, although I have slipped down to a 5-percenter, or maybe even a 10-percenter (still have to do my 2010 taxes) recently. So call me a top 10-percenter, it looks like my group pays almost half of the taxes, and we use almost none of the services that the taxes pay for (no kids in public school {or prison}, never have to call the cops because I live in a nice neighborhood and can afford a shotgun, private medical care, no government assistance $, etc). Hell, when my building flooded I didn't even use my federal flood insurance, I just hosed it out and got back to work.
Government is a total ripoff if you make any money.
Every ship is a minesweeper, once.
"Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone." - Steve Jobs
AlexMcNabb (02-15-2012), jaspergtr (02-06-2012), RavenTSi (02-06-2012)
Government is a total rip off no matter who you are.
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