I like to think most know the US is pretty shit when it comes to education, but I didn't realize it was actually continuing to decline. I just kind of....naively assumed that lawmakers/educators/parents/whoever would have started doing something about it by now. This has been the state of affairs for decades.
Nope. The most anyone has really done is a band-aid effect. Put in new tests and new standards that make things appear to be improving while subtly adding to the confusion and degradation of the national standard of education.
Why would it have got better? That's not the natural trend of things that have been going down the pan unless an outside force imposes change on them.
There's almost always going to be some variance in any system. Indeed any system where all the pieces react in the same way is screwed when the environment changes - they do not persist. To a large extent how adaptable you are is a function of how well you can accomodate that variance, that diversity. Selection pressures are what keep a lid on all that, winnowing out the things that don't make sense. In their absence the more expensive strategies that would cope with selection pressures become maladaptive and are overtaken by cheaper strategies.
The problem with education, however you set it up, is that its selection pressure is pleasing government, not educating the youth. And governments selection pressure is getting voted into power, not providing for the people.
And why's that? Well, one could say that in government your real selection pressure is your vote - but if we look at voting as an economy, then the costs to enter the market, and the fact that a very few 'companies' control most of the vote market, imply that it's not going to be particularly competitive. Generally if a company controls more than 40% of the market in anything it's a bad sign.
I see basically two ways to fix education:
• Align its selection pressures with education. (Get government out of the loop - enhance feedback between industry, science, and education - allow people to exercise some degree of economic control over education as their weapon.)
• Make politics make more sense. (Eliminate party politics. Restructure the political system, etc.)
I predict neither of these is going to happen. Fortunately, there is a third option:
• Do it yourselves.
This is the hard option, at the moment. But the leverage that government has is primarily through two things:
• Accreditation.
• Resources.
While we might question whether people have the resources to educate their kids themselves, it would be a dramatic weakening of the government's stranglehold of education if HR procedures could accurately pick out people who have skills in an area. And I think that's coming, people are becoming more familiar with using powerful datasets and networking their information together. It's not clear to me that having a qualification actually yields much information, it's just what people go off when they don't have work history and the like to vouch for someone. A low pass filter: If they don't have this we're not even going to look at them.
The resources problem is perhaps harder. But is it as critical? My parents home-educated me, and they're not particularly wealthy. And can it be patched by other means? If you cease to need teachers to teach to exam specs, then it becomes a lot more practical to set up with you and your five mates to teach your kids together.
As with a lot of things, I think long term the answer is going to be - 'If you want something done right, do it yourself.'
All is well and good until Junior High. But come Junior High, when most subjects are "somewhat" (emphasis on the quotes) serious and the students begin to think more, you find that a lot of subjects are being taught badly.
I was forced to stay through 6 years of school Math, only to find out that I hadn't learned much. People who could afford private tutors, sure, they learned Math. But I didn't. Perhaps it was partly my fault, but most public school teachers are not incredibly good because other people had difficulty understanding Math too.
In twelve years I have only had two teachers who were good at their jobs and taught me a lot. My current classes also have good and respectable professors that make me enjoy the lesson and learn stuff.
Also, Nemmerle, you're very wise and intelligent, I wish to lick your brain. (and that is something someone in my environment once said, I have taken to using it ever since)
Last edited by Uchuujin; May 21st, 2014 at 05:08 AM.
I have 2 words: Common Core. It is an absolute abomination, and very likely the cause of most math issues.
What are you, americ(k)an?
I just have too much confidence in humanity I guess. I expect them to be responsible and shit, even when it's for stuff that doesn't directly affect them. I suppose that makes me a bit naive. And DIY is hard as hell at times. Especially the so called hidden curriculum: how to interact with authority and peers (and deal with bullshit). Home school can make that difficult sometimes
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