How Do You Fix Education? 949
TaeKwonDood writes "Carl Wieman is the 2001 Nobel Prize winner in Physics but what he cares most about is fixing science education. The real issue is, can someone who went through 20 years of science education as a student, lived his life in academia since then and even got a Nobel prize get a fair shake from bureaucrats who like education the way it is — flawed and therefore always needing more money?"
Fix it at home (Score:4, Insightful)
Get the parents more involved. For kids, school should be akin to their 9-5 job. In order to excel they need to put the time in at home, and the only people that can help instill that discipline are the parents.
War on science (Score:5, Insightful)
How can education be fixed when their is a war on critical thinking? Its better for those in power to rule by sound bites, innuendos, and accusations that appear credible enough to be believed.
how about we get rid of public education (Score:0, Insightful)
Didn't you get the memo? (Score:0, Insightful)
Education was fixed with the no child left behind act.
No, you can't fix it (Score:5, Insightful)
Vouchers (Score:5, Insightful)
How can a culture that celebrates ignorance (Score:5, Insightful)
A fair shake? (Score:3, Insightful)
Unschooling (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
I know I'll be in the minority here on slashdot for saying this, but society isn't divided into us (virtuous, intelligent, benevolent, and wise) and them (stupid, malicious, dishonest, and greedy). I think there are very few bureaucrats twirling their moustaches and gleefully chortling over the failures of the modern educational system. One of the symptoms of the failure of education is lack of critical thinking and objective reasoning, and one of the hallmarks of that is the kneejerk reaction that every bureaucrat is by nature evil and dishonest.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
"Get the parents involved" is nice, but it's also passing the buck. Plenty of parents saw no value in education in their own lives, and discourage their kids from wasting their time. That's going to take generations to fix.
Meanwhile, we can still do a better job of teaching science (mostly in making kids interested in science). Perhaps the only way to get the parents involved is to teach this generation that science isn't jsut a waste of time, so that they encourage thier kids in turn.
The simple fact is, our school system was designed originally to produce good manufacturing workers, but there's no future in manufacturing. While people have long been whining about manufacturing jobs going overseas, the truth is more jobs are lost to automation than to cheap labor pools.
We need to be training designers and engineers with the talent to compete in the world market, but our pre-college (and increasingly our undergraduate) school system still de-emphasises critical thinking and abstract problem solving. We need to recognize that these abstract skills are quite practical: they are the jobs that will exist when everything else is automated!
Re:How can a culture that celebrates ignorance (Score:2, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No, you can't fix it (Score:2, Insightful)
How often is the problem the unions?
The parents are a problem, our culture is a problem, the schools themselves are a problem, the unions are also a huge problem. There is no single problem and solution.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reform No Child Left Behind Act (Score:3, Insightful)
Anybody who says "more funding" without saying what it would be spent on is part of the problem.
Want to fix education? Budget administration and recreation separately from the educational costs. Have the Education budget pay for teachers, facilities and supplies. Have the administration budget pay for principals, school boards, and secretaries. Have the recreation budget pay for athletics. Then people will know where the money is going.
Hopefully that leads to more centralization. Localities don't need control. Curriculum doesn't need to be micromanaged. Just because busybody parents want to have a huge say doesn't mean they should have it. Making those decisions thousands of times instead of 50 times, or even once is massively, massively wasteful.
Lastly, stop building new schools to replace perfectly functional old buildings. Yes, procuring federal funding for a new school building will win you votes in a US House election, but it's still stupid. The building doesn't teach your child anything. Unless it's a health hazard, suck it up and live with your 25 year old building. Do a little remodeling during the summer months.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:3, Insightful)
How Do You Fix Education?
Get the parents more involved. For kids, school should be akin to their 9-5 job. In order to excel they need to put the time in at home, and the only people that can help instill that discipline are the parents.
I still think that the best way to "fix" education is to get the government out of it. The chief problem with education as it stands today is that it is nothing more than government provided day care to most people.
3 things to fix education (Score:5, Insightful)
1:Smaller class sizes!
2:Less memorization, more critical thinking and analysis.
3:Less passive listening and watching, more discussion and experiment (think Socarates).
None of these need tons of computers or facilities or whatever. What they do need are more teachers, and less burnout.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, we can still do a better job of teaching science (mostly in making kids interested in science). Perhaps the only way to get the parents involved is to teach this generation that science isn't jsut a waste of time, so that they encourage thier kids in turn.
Replace science with english/history/math/social studies/foreign languages/etc etc etc and you still have the same problem.
If you don't take a holistic approach to 'fixing' education, you're just going to end up with more failure all around. To make a car analogy: you can upgrade a part (science) but when the whole car (the public education system) is beat up, you're just going to have some other part fail you.
Re:You dont. (Score:3, Insightful)
Others would do better from education geared more towards arts, language, or math/sciences. I think that the "well-rounded" requirements of x-years language, x-years math, x-years science is wasted on many people. Some would have done better to have x+1 years language, and no math beyond basic math and science. Not everyone is meant to be shaped from the same mold... I think we need to stop forcing people into them.
I feel that once you hit high school in this country, you should be able to have a primary, secondary, and elective track... the primary being math-science, culture-language, culture-art and the secondary being a trade skill, and elective being one's personal choice... This way more time can be spent into the areas of interest, and less on getting every student through more english, or chemistry when there is no interest, and little chance of it's expanded use in their lives.
Crazy idea, but focus on education? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the biggest thing that can be done to "fix" education would be to make it the primary focus of schools! I'm all for extra curricular activities, but it seems that in many places in the US, those are treated as far, far, more important that actual learning. Sports is a great example of how the focus in schools has been taken off of education.
Another thing would be to stop trying to make everyone equal, and allow faster students to excel instead of teaching to the lowest common denominator.
Re:No, you can't fix it (Score:5, Insightful)
And it begins with throwing out the blood sucking administrators and unions.
Not everyone will succeed in this paradigm, but at least the reasonably disciplined and intelligent will have a real learning environment to report to and foster, rather than the publicly funded babysitting operation they have to endure today.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry but parents are one of the greatest problems that murder education.
If you disagree just try to teach in a situation where your job is on the line if you don't find a way to declare that every kid is Einstein. Parents call all kinds of politicians and officials and even if the kid is dumb as a rock and beyond all educational efforts they want that kid promoted and honored. The sad truth is you create great schools by tossing kids out on their rump. Make it a challenge to get through school and the kids take the bait every time.
Re:Science classes (Score:2, Insightful)
stop the silly competitions (Score:4, Insightful)
There is this silly competition mentality in higher ed--competing for being bigger and badder. Everything is becoming so "corporate" in culture.
There is an unhealthy arena of competition for grants and research funding that puts the focus on the research track instead of education. The competition manifests itself by the universities pushing a "brand name" and trying to become larger.
In the end, the university becomes an entity who doesn't care about the student but rather its reputation and rankings in magazines.
This is kind of a problem that stems from the new breed of philanthropy that really isn't philanthropy--it's advertising and marketing for the donors. The development departments are getting suckered into making these silly deals with donors (especially corporate donors) that places the focus on promotional consideration for the donor rather than the spirit of the cause.
Small schools with low ratios from teacher to student are probably the best way to go to maximize your exposure in the apprentice model.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
No, anything other than "get the parents involved" is passing the buck.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
>Finish kids are not treated like babies as to why they can do so
>well. Most have to get to school themselves
Letting kids walk to school in the US would be cruel. Most US communities are so badly laid out that it simply is not possible to walk anywhere. It is not unusual for schools to be isolated on the wrong side of major highways, with no means for people to cross them. Until we start laying out our communities sensibly kids are going to need to be bussed (or driven) to school. It simple would not be safe to let them walk. The really scary thing is that a lot of people here think that this is a good thing
Stop passing kids along (Score:4, Insightful)
I went to public schools with kids who had marginal skills at reading and math. Rather than passing them along and bogging down the education of kids doing well, don't pass them until they're actually meeting standards. Note, I am NOT talking about burning time on standardized testing. I'm talking about teachers being given more leverage to hold slow kids back. I think this is a big motivator for a kid to do better (as well as a confidence builder the second time around). This is based on my anecdotal knowledge, not science so I could be very wrong here.
If kids can't cut it after say 2 or 3 grades being held back, give them some some early out like a GED program say after the 10th grade. It's sad to see high school kids who can barely read because our education system isn't strict enough about standards.
I think by enforcing performance for passing, you'll also be able to increase the level of work being done at higher grades.
Impossible. (Score:5, Insightful)
>Do things right at school, and perhaps there won't be any need to get the parents involved.
This simply is not possible.
I used to be a huge proponent of "teacher accountability" until I shared a 7 hour plane ride with a teacher friend of mine.
She explained the obvious to me.
All students require motivation to learn. Most students are not self-motivated. Teachers lack the authority to instill motivation in their students through punitive means, and there are very few inspirational teachers. Thus for most students, their primary motivator is their parents.
You can have the most intelligent teacher on the planet combined with the most patient, compassionate teacher on the planet - Albert Einstein crossed with Mother Theresa - and it won't matter a whit if the student is not motivated to learn.
Some very few students are self-motivated. But by and large students require external motivation, and the only people with the authority to do that are parents. The days of teachers beating students into their studies are long gone. But not so for Mom and Dad.
The single-most important thing to "Fix Education" is to increase parental involvement and stop the mentality that school is a place where you "send" your kids "to be educated". Too many people have come to view the educational system as a "service" - a place where you pay your taxes and then send your kids to be educated, with the whole burden of the process on the system. In fact, the system is merely the water - they can't force the kids to drink it. Only Mom and Dad have that power.
Unless you are extremely lucky and find the rare self-motivated student you simply cannot remove parents from a successful edcuation.
Fundamental Conflict (Score:3, Insightful)
I've found that there's a fundamental conflict in place. The improve something you generally need some way to measure the improvement. Without measurement, either slack and/or bad processes will creep into the picture.
However, the easier it is to objectively measure a skill, the more likely that skill is to be offshored or automated. Repetitious and well-documented (commodity) skills drift away from the US work-force to machines or 3rd-world labor.
If we use subjective approaches in order to stay ahead of the automation/offshore curve, then bias sneaks in, resulting in inconsistencies and political squabbles.
These two contradictory forces push and pull against each other: measurement against flexibility. I don't think there's any easy fix. Staying on the cutting edge requires risk and experimentation. Education is no different. Do we want measurable cookie-cutter skills that are likely to become obsolete, adaptability that is slippery to measure and manage, or something in-between?
Stop Passing Failed Students (Score:2, Insightful)
How about stop passing failing students? When was the last time you heard of a kid being held back to repeat a grade?
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems to me that "parents need to take responsibility" is all to easy to use as an excuse for the flaws in the system. At least, easier than actually trying to fix the flaws.
On the contrary, it seems to me that it's arguing that parents not being part of the system is itself a flaw of the system.
Re:You dont. (Score:3, Insightful)
The amount of arrogance and condescension in your post is truly astonishing. I don't know where your political affiliations lie but you just managed to display nearly every single negative stereotype about Liberals. And before anybody shoots the messenger you should know that I'm a liberal Democrat.
Have you actually spoken to the people in the lower 50% of our population?
So are you saying that the people who have a lower socio-economic status than you or I shouldn't be allowed to home school their children?
it's easy to forget that many people exist that do not car about education in the least
Says the person who couldn't be bothered to proofread his post for spelling mistakes and/or typos. Sorry, I had to dig you for this one ;)
Not to mention the people who turn home schooling into bible schooling. Not that it's bad unless they crack down on critical thinking or don't teach evolution at all or something, but you know some people will do that.
So what? Shouldn't parents have the right to teach their kids whatever they want? Why is it any business of the Government what I choose to teach to my kids? Personally I don't want my kid taught creationism in biology class (that's what theology class is for) but I also don't want the Government telling me how to raise him either.
And you want those people to home school their kids?
You actually used the term "those people"? If I was referring to a minority group as "those people" I'd probably be called a racist. Think of the language you are using and how it might read.
Our education system does homogenize our society, but for the poor/unfortunate that is usually a good thing.
Do you realize how arrogant that statement sounds?
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
A generation ago, a paper route was the responsibility of the carrier (the 12 year old kid).
You made sure your subscriptions were paid and you kept track of your own money.
It seems that responsibility isn't required for anything anymore.
Look at the recent mortgage fiasco.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
This system has drawbacks for late-bloomers and others who are mis-tracked, but it makes schools look a hell of a lot better than the U.S. approach. The problem with comparing educational systems is that one first has to establish what you're comparing. If there were a panacea like your post implies ("Finish kids are not treated like babies"), it would've already been implemented, and the battles would be over.
We discuss some of the issues around education in Grant Writing Confidential [seliger.com], though the top posts are about other things at the moment.
Re:Free market competition? (Score:2, Insightful)
Get the government out of it. We need free market competition. Let failing schools fail. Let failing teachers get fired. Let failing students get expelled. Let schools compete to provide the best education for the lowest cost. Let voluntary charities choose who is most in need and able to benefit from education charity. Education is too important to let government continue to completely cluster f*** it. Won't somebody please think of the children?
Let the poor get even poorer education, let the poorest be locked out of education entirely, let the rich monopolize the best resources, let the wealth gap grow even more obscenely.
Sorry, "the free market", which never really existed in the first place, is not a panacea for social ills, and in the case of services labelled "public necessity" will exacerbate them.
For a real world example of what privatization of schools will do, see: the current US broadband market.
Re:You dont. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, a classic education is no longer being taught. Where's the Socratic logic class in High School? Where's Latin? Why arent Plato's works discussed? Where are the Geometers? What about teaching Leibniz calculus to high schoolers? Even elementary students know what acceleration is.
What ever happened to civics class? It depresses me that most people don't understand basic concepts about our political system.
Re:War on science (Score:1, Insightful)
By removing the combatants' power over education.
Our education funding is filtered through many entities, all of which skim at least a little, and many of which have weird agendas. Who needs them? There's no reason that someone who works in Washington DC should have a say in how your kid is educated.
Under the current system, you need to win your war against 100 million people who vote for Republicans. If we moved the funding closer, your war gets much easier to win.
Bullcrap. (Score:3, Insightful)
Let the poor get even poorer education, let the poorest be locked out of education entirely, let the rich monopolize the best resources, let the wealth gap grow even more obscenely.
Sorry, "the free market", which never really existed in the first place, is not a panacea for social ills, and in the case of services labelled "public necessity" will exacerbate them.
For a real world example of what privatization of schools will do, see: the current US broadband market.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:4, Insightful)
And there are children without parents, or with bad parents, and it's no reason that their education should suffer because their parents are irresponsible.
In the end I reckon, and this is just an idea, that the educational system have to be able to comprehend that children, like people, are different. These differences means that some learn best from one method and others learn best from another; the goal should be to give each student (or group of students) the best education possible suited for their abilities, personality, genetic variation, or whatever factors are proven to have impact. Though it seems to me that if you speak of different needs many automatically assume that you somehow mean that some children have higher value than others. What I write about is simply trying to maximize effect by accepting the variations that exists in society. Forcing one model, and a flawed one at that, upon all students simply means that some will not be able to utilize their full potential. Which, in the end, is societies loss.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely. IMHO, the biggest problem with schools is that students are assumed to be incapable of making decisions on their own, and thus, the schools treat everyone identically as though they were all of median intelligence, all had identical interests, etc. Among other things, this means that people below the median intelligence can't keep up, fall behind, and are unable to get the extra help they need, while people above the median get bored out of their minds as they have their time wasted with ten times as much homework as the other students (but always more of the same crap) just to keep them busy.
A real approach to education reform starts by recognizing that every child is different, every child has different needs, different motivating forces operating on him/her, different interests in different areas, etc., then tailoring the educational program in such a way that children of similar levels of ability and interests are grouped together. You then take it one step further and have teacher-student conferences with each student at the end of the year to find out what things the student liked and didn't like. By late elementary school, students should be helping plan their own curriculum, with core classes plus a range of optional classes that they can choose from. And so on.
It drove me nuts throughout school that I had to waste time learning the same things over and over again. I took a test and got out of U.S. history in college. It covered pretty much the same thing that we covered in U.S. history in high school, which in turn pretty much covered the same thing as U.S. history in junior high. Mindlessly repeating the same content over and over does not promote learning except for people who have trouble learning. For the rest of us, the high school class was a colossal waste of about 200 hours of my life that could have been spent learning something we hadn't already learned but for the fact that taking it was required to attend the universities.
As for choosing our curriculum, that really didn't happen until college. In high school, our choices were basically whether we took French or Spanish, whether we took an AP version of a couple of classes or not, and which science we took. To a large extent, the math curriculum was dictated by whether you took algebra in junior high or not, though there was the option of taking a year off. Not much choice, in any case---the sequence was pretty much planned out in strict order in spite of the fact that none of the higher level math courses really depended on each other beyond requiring an understanding of basic algebra. Everything else was pretty much nailed down ahead of time. You could choose which year you took the classes, but you still had a very fixed list of classes that very nearly added up to a full four years without giving you much choice in what you took. That just plain sucks.
Give students the option to be an active participant in the education process---from choosing the curriculum to leading discussions---and you will find that they are more involved, more attentive, more interested, and more capable of learning efficiently---far more so than the passive participants that today's students are forced to be.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Crazy idea, but focus on education? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Summary says everything (Score:3, Insightful)
We will immediately get several tiers of education, ranked according to price
We already have that though. How many people do you know that picked the location of their home based on the school district it was in? Do you think that everybody has the means to do that? I don't think gutting the public school system is the way to go but don't pretend that there aren't already socio-economic inequalities in the system.
The only way to educate everyone is to give everyone the same education.
I'm game..... always wanted to go to Cornell!
Re:Free market competition? (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, students that have the power to choose which students they will educate can exclude those most expensive to educate, and schools that you only end up in as the result of an active choice by your parents end up with students that have parents that are more involved in their education.
This is not surprising.
This would be easier to argue if it had been true of, say, high school before high-school became mandatory and part of the free public system in most parts of the U.S., or for grade school itself. The fact is, the U.S. had what you recommend earlier in its history, and it didn't work as you describe. So, if you want to convince us that it would now, you need to explain why it would work differently now.
Motivation (Score:5, Insightful)
Rewards work also, no doubt.
But there is only one thing that kept me in line academically as a kid, and that was fear of my father's foot in my ass.
See for me, I could blow off rewards. Oh yes, it would be nice to get $5 for A's on my report card, but I don't really /need/ the $5 for anything. Oh it might be nice to watch a movie, but I could just as easily watch it on the internet. Leaving class might be nice, but where would I go? The only consistent motivator for me was FEAR of PUNISHMENT.
But that is merely a personal anecdote. I readily admit that motivation can be both positive and negative. But either way, I still beleive the most motivating influence on students is usually their parents. In my experience, teachers are usually either non-empowered or un-inspired to motivate.
Re:Impossible. (Score:5, Insightful)
Most students are not self-motivated
All children ask many "why" questions to their parents, showing evidence of curiosity. Science and scholarship begin from curiosity, and curiosity is the fuel of self-motivation. I think most if not all children have curiosity as a natural instinct, but something in our society destroys their curiosity and they cease to be self-motivated.
The problem is not in the children's brains, but rather in our societies, our schools, our families, and how we treat our children. Something in our society kills the natural curiosity that all children have.
Next time your child asks why the sky is blue or why GNU/Linux is cool, don't say "I have no time to tell you".
Re:Impossible. (Score:4, Insightful)
Correction. Most child are self-motivated to learn. They quickly learn that school isn't about self-motivated learning; it's about roting memorization and skill training, with proficiency measured on a seemingly arbitrary scale. The only means I can think of to resolve this problem is to start treating children like people. By that, I mean, to not only teach children the rote memorization and skills, but also to make it clear to them that (a) it's only part of a greater roadmap and (b) to actually *show* them that roadmap, with their help in making that roadmap.
In short, the best way to improve a child's future prospects is to help a child forge their own future. Sometimes that means teaching them things they'd rather not have to work to learn. But, many times it means helping them find out what they desire and to use their own motivation to help them learn how they can better themselves as their prospects of doing what they already want to do.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:3, Insightful)
Involving parents means that you are giving up on a large number of children. Many have parents that won't get involved, and many don't have parents or have some that won't have anything to do with the children.
Your solution is that the world needs uneducated workers too?
I agree parents should be involved, in fact they can be much more effective than the school as it is now, but again--what's your plan for the rest?
Correct what the NEA has screwed up! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fix it at home (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:No, you can't fix it (Score:4, Insightful)
You really have no experience with education outside of being a student, do you?
You get shitty administrators in charter schools just like you do in public schools. Teachers' unions were formed as a reaction to shitty administrators, and in some schools and districts they are just as necessary today as they were before. In fact, as long as there are egos and criminal behavior on the part of administrators, there will continue to be a need for unions. That's not to absolve unions of their shitty behavior, because they do their fair share too. The union issue is far from black and white, and there is more than enough accusation shitty behavior to go around.
If you want to stop the "babysitting", you need to make it easier to throw out bad administrators, bad union representatives, and enact decent tort reform so parents can't sue over any little accident.* All of that can still be a problem in a merit-based charter school.
* Anecdote: At one of the elementary schools near where I work, the children are not allowed to run, at all. A child ran, fell, and broke his arm. There was nothing the school could have done about it, but the parents sued anyways. Hundreds of thousands of public tax dollars later, the school decided that the only way to prevent liability was to disallow running. Someday those same parents are going to complain that the schools were not adequately supplied. Hmm. Funny that.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
> Opps we find out that we can really get by with less than
> a junior high education.
For sure. If you think making shift manager at Burger King is a career goal instead of just a waystation on a longer path..... that you achieved at 20 putting yourself through college. And I really wish we could stop the people who think a junior high education makes them ready to vote from getting near a voting booth.
In the post industrial world we are now transitioning into it is all about having a clue and being able to reason. That means you need to know things, and unless you are one of the few who can self teach themselves it means an education. Unskilled labor is just people we are keeping around because a) we haven't quite got the robots perfected yet to take over your job and b) even after the robots we will be too squemish to put 'yall down so we will give you a welfare check until you die of natural causes, which will probably be pretty early with your tendencies to unhealthy habits.
[Yes this post is borderline flamebait. But it also has some painful truth in it that will hopefully get some arguiments going.]
Make going to school non-compulsory... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Make going to school non-compulsory
Kids that don't want to be in school, who have parents that don't care if they are in school, do not need to go to school. They are nothing but a distraction for the kids who want to learn. Any teacher will tell you one disruptive student will ruin the class for everyone. Public schools in the U.S. force kids who have no discipline go to school, then they are surprised when they don't listen to the teachers. The kids know the teachers can nothing to discipline them, the kids know their parents will do nothing to discipline them. I fail to see the disincentive to goof off in class here, and so do the kids, so they will goof off. Schools do not need these children and in public schools, not only do they have to go, but the public schools want them to go so that make that ever important buck from the federal and state government, education be damned. I personally know more than one teacher who cannot kick a particular kid out of their class because the school administrators tell them they can't.
2. Privatize
There is a ratio of teachers to administrators in all schools, public or private. An administrator would be like a vice principal, guidance councilor, text book researcher, sensitivity director. In a private school, the ratio is about 1:7 in public schools it's almost 1:1 [ed.gov]. Meaning for every teacher there is an administrator. And every time someone says "there's something wrong with our schools" they just tac on more administrators in a blind attempt to "fix" the problem. Administrators fix nothing, ever. Which leads me to..
3. Do away with tenure and teachers unions
The idea that teachers unions somehow are for kids has got to be the biggest lie I've ever heard. Teachers unions are for, teachers. Some people didn't know this, but if you've worked in the LAUSD for more than 3 years you cannot be fired for anything short of molesting a child, it's called tenure. Tenure is for, teachers. There is no way you can argue that keeping poor teachers (tenure) or keeping teachers that have broken the rules (teachers unions) somehow helps the kids. With these two "protective" organization are in place it takes an act of god to get rid of poor teachers. There are no teacher's unions in private schools and the level of education you get in a private school by far exceeds that in a public school. Without tenure, without teacher's unions. So at the very least it's proof that excellence does not require tenure or unions. And there is a strong argument that they do more harm than good.
4. Allow parents to take their kids out of failing schools.
I think it's a travesty that the government is going to force parents to place kids into school that they know are going to be a bad influence on the child. Parents should be able to send their child to whatever school that is reasonably in their area. It's so bad that people actually buy houses in order to get their kids sent to a particular school, and I guess for those who can't afford to move or afford a private school... to bad? That's just wrong. If we are going to be forced to pay for schools we should at least be able to select which one we're going to send our kids too, or at least let us get our money back so we can send them to a private school. The only obstacle that stops this 'voucher' system is the teachers unions. I would love to hear how the lack of a voucher system helps kids, because I'm pretty sure it only helps teachers at failing schools.
I have no belief that any of these things will change, teachers unions are far to powerful. It a huge union with almost limitless money, but it's a self perpetuating bureaucracy with the honest belief that teachers should be paid more than any other profession in the world. More than doctors, lawyers etc.. no matter how much anyone else thinks teachers deserve.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a public school teacher like your friend. I tend to agree. I've recently been promoted to department chair and get to see even more of the stubbornness he's feeling. Part of the problem though is the schools of education at Universities are just as flawed as the schools themselves. Many of the new methods are simply reworking of old ones that justify a PhD's dissertation.
I was (un)fortunate enough to have someone study my class for a book, because many of the things I was doing were similar to the concept she was putting forth in her book. Well, I finally got a copy of it, with the chapter marked that focused on my classroom. I'm glad she marked it because I wouldn't have recognized it if she hadn't.
She blatantly manipulated the situations in the classroom to justify her own ideas. After speaking with some professors that I trust, and to other older colleagues, I found this behavior to be rampant in educational schools.
The result, a system that doesn't trust itself. Higher learning scoffs at what is going on in the classrooms, and classroom teachers scoff at professors of education, because they are only trying to justify their own existence.
But overall your friend is right. The systems are too entrenched. Really most teachers need to learn to be reflective. If something works, keep doing it. If it doesn't, try something else, and repeat.
My favorite was when a professor taught a class on innovative teaching techniques at my grad school. He used an overhead projector and talked at us for two and a half hours...Yikes.
Re:Impossible. (Score:5, Insightful)
One other interesting idea that I've seen repeatedly, at least coming from good teachers, is the idea of using the education system as a practicum for methods of learning. Teaching students how to learn is the single most important thing teachers can do in the 21st century, especially considering how fast the quantity of information neccessary to get good and interesting jobs is increasing. There's a good chance that those historical anecdotes won't serve much of a purpose beyond making one sound well informed, but if those anecdotes also came with an improved ability to reflect on and integrate lessons learned, than the students who studied those anecdotes are better equipped to reflect on things that happened to them in the past.
It's not neccessarily the curriculum that needs to change, but rather our concept of what's important.
Re:Impossible. (Score:5, Insightful)
School in the US is hampered by a few things:
1) The entrenched educational system itself.
2) A deep seated fear of lawsuits leading to coddling and oversensitivity.
3) The students themselves.
4) The teacher education and certifications programs in the US.
The entrenchment of the US educational system is so deep that we are very unlikely to overturn it for anything short of a complete meltdown. The culture of traditional schooling is deep seated through three generations of Americans, and the vast majority of them feel that this is the "proper" way to educate students. These individuals include the administration, teachers, school board members, and, most unfortunately, the voters.
Our culture off litigation is such that our schools are now paralyzed by it. Schools run with 0 overhead. They have no savings, investments, or major assets. If they are sued, that money comes DIRECTLY from the pockets of the communities that fund them through taxes. With this threat over their heads, schools will do ANYTHING to avoid even the hint of a lawsuit. They will graduate students who haven't met the requirements, let convicted criminals come back and mingle with the rest of their classmates, avoid pressing charges against students, waive ineligibility for sports due to grades, felonies, or substance abuse, etc.
This fear of lawsuits drives our schooling today. Corporal punishment is out, due to a fear of a lawsuit. Public humiliation is out due to a fear of a lawsuit. Suspensions are limited, due to fears of lawsuits. Expulsions are rare, due to fears of a lawsuit. Discipline is lax at best, due to the fear of a lawsuit. On top of this, we continue to force the same curriculum on every student, once again, due to the fear of a lawsuit. And to make matters even worse, our ability to reward achievement and differentiate excellence is rapidly diminishing....want to guess why? LAWSUITS!!! It's the word of the decade.
The combination of lax discipline, untargeted and generic curricula, and less and less rewards for performances means that few students can really be engaged with the curriculum. Most of the students themselves do not see a major value in school. While some are curious, and view the educational system as a doorway to the universe, most see as it as an opportunity to climb some social ladder. Due to my other three reasons, we as teachers are not able to motivate students well at all.
The final issue is our teacher preparation programs. I attended a state meeting about our low standardized test scores. I was brave enough to ask all the assembled elementary school teachers (some 200 or so) how many had a minor or major in math. Out of the 200, there were four hands. It's no WONDER our math scores are low, and that we struggle to teach science.
To teach elementary school, teachers need a BA in something, and an education degree. That's it. There is no requirement for some basic math and science classes, much less basic math and science EDUCATION classes. Why is this? Because most of the Education Professors at our colleges....don't have math or science degrees. They have Education degrees. Why? Because it makes no sense to hire someone to teach Education classes who doesn't have a degree in Education. And who makes those decisions? The Education Department in each school, which is made up of people with degrees....in Education.
During one of our many pointless staff meetings a year or two ago I "solved" our education problems. Here's the itemized list as compiled by two science teachers:
1) Elementary teachers need to have a minor in every subject they are to teach. No more monoculture of a million English teachers teaching elementary schol.
2) Elementary school education remains largely the same. But by 9th grade we begin to organize students by trade. By "trade" I mean: College bound, military bound, trade school/certification bound, unsk
get rid of education, replace with learning. (Score:4, Insightful)
The usage of the word education has evolved to mean a mechanical process whereby an institution can add knowledge and wisdom to an individual, like QuickLube changing your oil.
Teachers are taught that they can "motivate" students, that is, make them want something the institution wants them to want.
It is all part of the scientific pretensions of the academic "Education departments".
Let us replace this false belief in institutional "education" with the original concept of "learning".
It used to be that a person with knowledge and wisdom was called "learned".
Teachers should be thought of as helpers who assist those who want to learn, rather that god like knowledge creators who apply some "educational" algorithm.
Teachers should stop trying to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig. Instead, they should assist those with the desire and ability to learn.
Perhaps the best example of this is mathematics. Many (perhaps most) people lack the ability to do mathematics beyond what can be done by a calculator. Instead of egalitarian, futile attempts to turn these people into Eulers, teachers should focus on those with actual math ability. Civilization only needs a few people with the ability to do mathematics, the rest are incapable of it.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:4, Insightful)
Your part of the problem. I walked to school 30 minutes each way for years. I spent 2 hours (round trip) walking to my friends house. I spent six months walking (sans car) in cali, to and from work. whats your point wanker?
it's these two funny little things at the end, called feet - they're made for walking. an no offense, but really, "It is not unusual for schools to be isolated on the wrong side of major highways" would suggest you *BUILD A BRIDGE ACROSS IT* rather than buying (and maintaining) a fleet of buses to pick up kids *twice a day*.
wake up, your part of the problem.
kids are not dolls. they never were. parents are idiots. they weren't, but now they are. Welcome to your version of education.
Re:The problem isn't the education. (Score:3, Insightful)
"The vast majority of kids don't really care about science, it's neither fun nor interesting to them."
You forgot to mention that while science, engineering and teaching pay better than factory worker, the pay sucks compared to corporate executive, marketeer, stock broker and lawyer. Unfortunately Capitalism in general and American in particular rewards the fields that suck most directly at the teat of capitalism. If you manage to invent something awesome, get the patents in your name and successfully sell it without the suits stealing you blind you might get rich but its a long shot.
If you get an MBA, kiss the right ass and rise to VP or above you are almost certain to make a killing. Most scientists and engineers are facing a very challenging education, followed by years doing challenging work and the best most can hope for is staying solidly middle class. If you are doing it for inner satisfaction that works, but if you have a wife and kids to feed, clothe, house and educate there is enormous pressure to go in to a field that pays well, and not one that is most worthwhile or satisfying.
Socialism sucks in most respects but it is fairly successful at creating a large cadre of scientist, engineers, teachers and other essential professionals because the system steers people to where there is a need. Capitalism only steers people to where the money is. Sometimes the money is where the need is, much of the time it isn't. For example the amount of money professional athletes make these days borders on criminal. Professional sports are a nice diversion and entertainment but they don't really deserve to suck hundreds out of an average joes pocket to go to one game in a billion dollar stadium watching people who will make more in one night than the spectators will make in a year.
If you want to find one of the most corrosive forces in most American universities its the priority placed on athletics and athletes over academics.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:3, Insightful)
In Europe, part of the method is the money follows the kid and isn't just given to the school district. That way, it might help to make the districts and teachers responsible towards the students and not think of them as generic product that can be ignored.
This is more of a rant:
What scares me more is these are kids and we refer to school as a job. No wonder many kids don't want to work 9-5 after high school or college, they've already been doing it for at least 13 years with no pay or pension and thrust into a social hell they have no control over, why would they want to do it any longer? When do kids actually get a chance to be kids instead of miniature, ignorant, adults? Maybe we need to rethink how, what for, why, and what, we teach in this country if this is our viewpoint. Let's hear it for the underage slaves. How about this, save money on an outmoded system and teach them at home, thanks to the internet, the infrastructure necessary to implement this idea is already in place. Of course, then parents wouldn't have their built in babysitter forcing parents to sacrifice their careers for a decision they made and employers would have to alter their workflows to accommodate parents staying at home with their children. Either that or parents paying for daycare with internet schooling making them, for once, fully responsible for their reproductive decisions.
Poor getting poorer education (Score:3, Insightful)
The wealth gap in the US is small enough that the richest quintile only outspend the poorest quintile by about 2.1 to 1. That's not really an obscene difference. Link. [nytimes.com]
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll knock it, in the sense that the grandparent is using it.
Let's say you're 18, on the vocational track of your high school, and suddenly you decide that you're actually pretty smart and you want a white-collar job and you want to go to university. Guess what? You are screwed! Forget about it. You already made that choice back when you were 16. There is no mind-changing!
Let's take France as an example, since I'm most familiar with it. If you're starting your third year of university and you decide that math is not for you and you'd rather go into engineering, guess what? Back to the end of the line! You get to start over from freshman year. Never mind that 90% of your courses would still apply. Never mind that you already know calculus backwards and forwards; take it again! You've just wasted two years of your life?
Let's say you're now 24, finished with your Master's degree and thinking about a Ph.D. You decide that it's not for you, you'd rather work. A few months later you change your mind; a professorship sounds really good! Not to worry, just apply for the Ph.D. next year, right? Wrong! You gave up your one chance, now you are screwed!
The American system is vastly better in this respect, and as a result I think it works a lot better at teaching creativity and free thinking, as well as adapting to each person's individual needs.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh for fucks sake. I guess we should just keep all our kids safely locked up in cages 24/7 so they can be protected from all the horrible evil things in the world, until they're 18 of course, when we can thrust them out into that world with absolutely no clue how to handle it and no experience dealing with a non-sanitized environment. Remember when we used to just tell our kids to avoid strangers and hang out with groups and then sent them outside to play?
On beating the kids... (Score:4, Insightful)
"The days of teachers beating students into their studies are long gone. But not so for Mom and Dad."
Try taking a paddle to Junior in some states... it's an instant trip to jail for Dad, and a legal nightmare with "children's advocate groups" and the state's department of social services bringing down lawyers on the parents. You don't even need real proof to arrest a parent for abuse anymore, just an accusation. It's getting to the point that corporal punishment of any kind, no matter how appropriate, is being banned "for the children".
Re:Fix it at home (Score:1, Insightful)
Your part of the problem ... wake up, your part of the problem ... Welcome to your version of education.
Funny :)
I agree with your opinions, but please watch the grammar [google.com] in a story about education, or your point may be lost.
Liberal Arts (Score:4, Insightful)
"There's the big misconception. Understanding art, literature, design, history, communications and yes interpretive dance IS in itself a core skill set."
More than that, even if you're a mathematician/scientist/engineer, if you don't have a strong, broad understanding of literature, history, and philosophy, I don't see how you can call yourself educated.
Re:Unskilled Labor (Score:4, Insightful)
> ..you're a failure if you don't go to college.
College isn't the only place to learn, probably not even be the best place. But expecting to survive in the Information Age with a junior high education (as the idiot I was aiming the flamethrower at was claiming) is just daft.
> The world needs ditch diggers too... and stockboys, coffee makers, and retail clerks.
It does today... but for how much longer? A person coming of age in the next few years will probably live to see many of those positions obsoleted. Not even many actual ditchdiggers today, lots of backhoe operators but not a lot of guys with shovels. Tomorrow it will be one guy supervising a bunch of semi intelligent automated equipment. That one guy will be the one holding the blueprints and making the big picture decisions the machines won't be quite smart enough to be trusted with. Bob the Builder in live action.. and with that nightmare thought I'll stop.
Celebrating Science (Score:3, Insightful)
"In the 1960s, we used to have parades that celebrated astronauts. Let me say this again - we had PARADES... for... ROCKET SCIENTISTS... To become one was something that was considered the height of a child's aspirations. No wonder we were sending people to the moon with a pocket calculator and a roll of duct tape."
We never had parades for "rocket scientists".
We had parades for astronauts, people that "rocket scientists" claimed weren't even neccessary for the space program. Werner Von Braun and his team initially wanted an unmanned program, and when we decided to send men up, the rocket scientists didn't want to give them any control at all... they wanted all operations to be done remotely from the ground. They viewed the men in the capsules as less than worthless.
The public saw it differently. The astronauts were really war heroes... Cold War heroes. So quit pretending there was ever a time when scientists were envied and lauded above all others. From the 30's onward, scientists were portrayed as Mad scientists more often than not. This era of respect for science you paint never existed. People have always been awed by scientific achievements, but were deeply suspicious of scientists themselves.
This Utopian era of love for scientists you describe never existed. America has always had a love/hate relationship with science.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
To a first approximation, kidnapping child molesters don't exist. To a second approximation, every single person who might kidnap your child is a friend or family member - you and your child trust them, they won't need a net.
Remember: News is "something that almost never happens". Otherwise it wouldn't be news. If you see it on TV, you don't need to worry about it.
Re:Make going to school non-compulsory... (Score:2, Insightful)
I, as a teacher, agree with most of what you have to say. However, there is one small, er, error. Teacher unions are not in it for teachers; they are in it for teacher unions.
Sorta right (Score:3, Insightful)
But also sorta wrong. Such people exist - Myra Hindley was a notorious example. The James Bulger case shows it needn't only be adults. However, the total number of such people probably averages out to one in a hundred million. In comparison, current estimates place the number of domestic sexual child abuse cases at one in every thousand. On the whole, the former - whilst it exists - simply isn't worth putting much time and effort into. Maybe some, but look at the relative payoff. For the same effort, you will prevent and/or solve a lot more actual crime dealing with the latter. Maybe not a hundred thousand times a much, but even if it was ten times as much, that would be an infinitely better use of resources.
According to the UN, slavery in America is still a major plague, and with American attitudes of treating the victims far worse than the abusers, this isn't a problem that's going to go away. Reports that, in some States, police collude with organized crime gangs to facilitate such an evil trade do not bode well. Even if the reports exaggerate, America has had that problem before. That's the sole reason the sole-called "Untouchables" were considered exceptional. Depressing, isn't it, when you have to celebrate when police are doing their job rather than polluting society?
Re:Fix it at home (Score:3, Insightful)
Nobody expects parents to be their kids teachers. But I do expect parents to show interest in their kids academic progress.
Think about yourself and your job. If nobody cared whether you do it, how would you feel about it? Teachers aren't supposed to care (well, to some degree, but that's not their job). They are supposed to teach you, try to give you material to learn, but they can't really force you to do it. Worse, they also can't decide that you shouldn't be in that class (until the end of the year, at least).
Parents should at the very least check how their kids are doing in school. Nobody expects them to be their teachers, but I do expect them to be interested in their kids career.
Re:Impossible. (Score:2, Insightful)
"I don't know, let's go look it up together."
When I was younger and would ask my mom a question she didn't know the answer to she would often pull out the encyclopedia and look for an answer.
A different but first-hand view (Score:1, Insightful)
Science education is a subset of science. It is science itself that is under attack. The government WILL NOT trust its own citizens to own, possess, and use chemicals, powerful electrical devices, stills, and a wide variety of the fodder that is the raw material for science.
Each of many Federal and State regulators grossly over-control, and outright ban, or make permit requirements so onerous only large enterprises can conform to rules.
Remember chemistry sets? If you ship one to a hobby store today (remember hobby stores?) the sheer number of hazmat labels required is astounding.
Like declaring uber small quantities of chemicals as "hazmat" will in any way improve shipping safety. Marking it in no way impacts whether or not the shipment is damaged, but it DOES greatly limit who can ship it, sell it, distribute or resell it, or worst of all, adding something to it and then selling it as a value added good!
Until the fodder of science itself is deregulated we will continue to become an increasingly nannystate population and become ever more distanced from knowing how the important building blocks of chemistry, ballistics, biological processes, physics, electricity, and other basic building blocks of science work.
Why is there no way to simply go to some face of the "police state", issue a letter of intention to make a "firework" or "still" or "tesla coil" or whatever, and have that local person who has talked with me issue that permission. Have that permission encompass the entire process of buying goods, storing them, using them, publishing the results, shipping stuff around as needed, and where the experiment involves some sort of dynamic act, permission to activate it.
Don't even get me started on the constitutional or BOR claim of "public access" vs. the reality of "governmental mandate, ownership, control and management" of education.
Not quite anon Jerry
Not "Sorta right"; he was right, period (Score:3, Insightful)
The grandparent wrote:
To which you replied:
The grandparent wasn't "sorta right," he was right, and you said as much in the rest of the paragraph. The whole point of saying "to a first approximation" is when you want to address the 99.999999% of the cases and neglect the 0.000001% that are exceptions. To a very good first approximation, kidnapping child molesters do not exist. If you went around introducing yourself to random people at breakneck speed, say one person every three seconds, ten hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, for the rest of your life you still probably would never meet one.
To a first approximation they do not exist.
--MarkusQ
Re:Fix it at home (Score:2, Insightful)
Even in the US, I couldn't get financial aid when I tried to switch schools when I was nineteen. Financial aid was offered straight out of high school but disappeared once I picked a school.
That's the trade off for getting someone else to pay for your education; you lose the flexibility to say what education you get.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:2, Insightful)
That's not what I mean. I mean, what if you've decided that you want to become an automobile mechanic, and then at the age of 18 you suddenly decide you want to become an aerospace engineer. If you have the proven intelligence for it then this is no problem in the US. If you want to try something like this in France then you are essentially doomed. You may be able to pull it off if you are really accomplished, but it's vastly more difficult.
If you are taking classes appropriate for an auto mechanic (e.g. general math, shop, etc.), and try to switch to classes that support being an aerospace engineer (calculus, physics, etc.) mid-stream, that won't work well in the US either.
You have more flexibility in college, but usually what this means is that you spend more time in school (because a bunch of your classes end up wasted). My father took five years to get his bachelor's because he switched from philosophy after his fifth semester. He ended up with a degree in English because many of the prerequisites were the same, but it still took an extra year.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:5, Insightful)
The world would be a better place if people grokked this.
They worry about terrorists -- but ignore the risk of diabetes. (the latter is 1000 times more likely to hurt or kill you)
They worry about abduction by unknown pedos -- but ignore traffic. (the latter is 1000 times more likely to hurt or kill your child)
They worry about the "radiation" from a cellphone-tower 50 meters from their house -- but pay good money to lie down near-nude in the strongest uv-radiation they are able to find. (the former is very likely completely harmless, the latter is KNOWN to cause premature aging of skin and increase the risk of skin-cancer)
They protest that the LHC will produce black holes that swallow the earth, but don't care if their car uses 5l/100km or 12l/100km. (the former is unphysical plainly impossible, the latter contributes to increased global warming with a very high probability (i.e. basically a certanity))
Violent death, to a first aproximation, is equal to traffic-death plus suicide. To a first aproximation, if you are killed, it will be because you kill yourself.
To a first aproximation, if you live in the modern west, accidents don't kill; disease do. ELIMINATING *ALL* accidents and *all* murders would only reduce deaths by 5% or thereabouts.
In short, the most dangerous things you and your children do are:
1) Getting too little physical activity, 2) Having unhealthy eating-habits and 3) Participating in traffic. (for those who smoke or have a high drug-consumption (including alcohol) that is one too.
Apple - meet orange (Or Swedish vs. US DSL access) (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem with the US broadband market is that competition isn't free enough - especially because you seem to have pathetic DSL offerings, due to poor legislation on copper access.
Here in Sweden (although we still have access problems due to the state-owned Telia still dominating copper access) we have seen much healthier DSL competition, due to freer competition in copper-access to homes.
This in turn helps keep cable and fiber offerings honest. In the last few years, the addition of fast 3G connections has also intensified the competition.
Interestingly, Sweden also has a rather innovative system for increasing competition and choice in education. However, it is important not to overestimate the gains that can be had from more choice in education. Indeed - people seriously overestimate the effectiveness of virtually all possible educational reforms in rich countries. But that's a topic for another day.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:3, Insightful)
That's funny. I agree with you. It reminds me of a saying that I heard just recently: "Build a bridge and get over it.". People need to quit whining and start solving problems. Sometimes we'll need to roll up our sleeves. Sometimes we'll need to put on our thinking caps.
Education is already fixed. (Score:1, Insightful)
Education is already fixed. The fix is called internet.
'someone who went through 20 years of science education as a student, lived his life in academia since then and even got a Nobel prize', might just be the wrong person to talk to about education.
Education is completely overrated, the system works in the way that it keeps children of the streets and as a state subsidized system to offload parents. But in all other aspects it is a complete failure.
People (children) who want to learn can do that with internet, without the hindrance of the educational system. Freedom at last.
Re:Paper Routes (Score:3, Insightful)
Not all students enjoy the same privileges... (Score:1, Insightful)
This article doesn't even begin to address the social inequities that students and their families face. There are students whose families suffer from food insecurity (not knowing where their next meal is coming from), no employment for their parents or the students if they graduate, unsafe neighborhoods, inadequate access to health care and other resources.
Is it really any wonder that students in these situations don't do well in school? Sometimes people like to pretend that "it's the parents, stupid" or "the kid is just not that smart" It's a lot more than that.
Re:Make going to school non-compulsory... (Score:2, Insightful)
As a teacher and an engineer... now back in Engineering I'll add one to the list.
LOWER teacher salaries and higher more of them.
Let me tell you why before I get bashed. I've taught before and I loved it, but you don't need to be 'smart' in the subject material. You don't need to be an engineering whiz to teach mathematics. In short, you don't NEED that level of expertise, except for maybe some curriculum design...
In the average classroom, what you need are caring individuals who know how to deal with the students. That's largely it. The rest is all in the teacher guides, lesson plans, and text books. Trust me, I've had to teach history and social studies (not my area of expertise). In the end it's all the same. I've dealt with some supply teachers who know nothing of mathematics, yet handle a math class so well.
What we should actually do is cut teacher salaries and hire 2 teachers per room. Or 1 teacher and a teaching assistant. That of course should be deducted from the teacher's salary as their work load is much less. I've spent some time in a room with teaching assistants, and even from my perspective, I'd have taken a pay cut to have them in their all year round.
Yes, this will never fly as the teacher's unions are very strong... I know first hand. It has nothing to do with your kids and everything to do with their jobs.
And please, don't tell us 'it's the parent's fault'. Yes it is, but I don't have a magic wand I can wave to make good parents. We get a room full of kids and have to make due with what we have. Yes, some parents care and it shows. Others don't give a rats behind about their own kids. That doesn't mean we shouldn't care. Kids don't get to choose their parents.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:4, Insightful)
"It is not unusual for schools to be isolated on the wrong side of major highways" would suggest you *BUILD A BRIDGE ACROSS IT*
I think that's what he was saying though-- these things are poorly designed/laid-out in that no one has built a bridge across it. There are no sidewalks in lots of places. There are no decent crosswalks, no bridges across the highway. It's not very safe to have your kids walking places.
So he's saying you have to fix that first. You have to build bridges, crosswalks, sidewalks, etc.
Re:Fix it at home (Score:3, Insightful)
"It seems that responsibility isn't required for anything anymore."
The real problem is multi-faceted, lets face this fact please. Lets not also forget it's the result of western culture and our materialsitic, excessively individualistic culture. 100 years ago advertising and TV were not very uniqitously prevalent, cell phones, video games, computers, the internet and all sorts of modern distractions did NOT exist. Since the advent of mass communication technology (Radio, TV, media, etc), this has allowed us to tune out and 'check out' into our little entertainment/fantasy lives without actually engaging people, pretending we're "doing something". When in reality all we are doing is mindlessly consuming what amounts to mind candy and drivel. This is not to say that all movies are bad or can't have an impact, nor should all movies 'have a point'.
But all these changes, has also allowed us to be consumed by our personal interests, hobboes. wealth chasing and work, cutting into the finite amount of time that exists in a day. Time is at a premium.
Over the past century commercialization has taken over damn near everything within our lives, with ads in our faces 24/7 and our love of money is what does us in, we want to offload our risks onto others, we want passive incomes, we want to make it rich, etc. To make as much money as possible and then point at someone else when things go wrong when it is really our own hyper individualistic bent, narcissm, lack of altruism and greed that causes social decay. Society is structured and fosters impossible and crazy ideas and expectations that simply cannot be met or implemented realistically, but many of us buy at least some of the pablum society pushes because it's congruent with our identity or economci interest, even if it is over the long term detriment to the whole of who we are.
Many aspects of society foster mediocre character, and mediocre thinking. Many on slashdot should know this already. We have kids raising kids, with one teacher to 25-30+ students usually, who are severely disengaged.
I will post this link again because it illustrates what is so wrong with western society and western culture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG3HPX0D2mU [youtube.com]
Next up is Ivorytower blues: A good book to read for anyone thinking about going to university anywhere, and the increasing commercialization and 'mass marketing' of education as a cure all, when it isn't.
http://www.ivorytowerblues.com/ [ivorytowerblues.com]