https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=175013999254049&set=a.118861398202643.30827.118858758202907&type=1&theater

Overall, I think education fails students in general needs a big shake up. I did my education in the UK as I’m British but the same problems exist. As a person who has ‘learning difficulties’ and was thus a ‘straggler’ at school, I was dumped right down at the bottom. Thankfully I was spotted by an observant special needs teacher, diagnosed with Dispraxia and Dyslexia and got the help I needed. I was, I might add, in a private school, not a state school, so the facilities were there. Hundreds if not thousands of kids are not so lucky and every year are thought to just be ‘thick’.

I think education needs to do a few things and many of them were mentioned above and in the comments. First, we’ve got to recognize that not everyone needs a degree or will do well at traditional subjects. That doesn’t make them stupid, I know many an intelligent craftsman. They just have a different intelligence, they are smart with wood or metal or whatever. Putting them through the one size fits all mangler that is ‘education’ kills any intelligence they might have. We should cater for that.

Second, we need to ‘educate’ not teach. Education should be teaching people how to learn, teaching is pumping in facts and hoping some stick. Kids are smart, teach them how to educate themselves and they will! Like someone said, the human infant is programed to learn, why do we find that so bad? They’re the best at finding what they are good at and where they are strong. Give them lots of options at a young age and they’ll sort it out.

Thirdly, we need to spend money on it. If a country can afford atomic weapons and giant aircraft carriers and can’t afford a decent education system (or healthcare for that matter) then the priorities are not in order.

Finally, you can’t just throw money at it. I think the author is right; many things like organizing teachers better need to be done if education is to succeed. Without it, any nation is doomed.

China is going to have this problem soon enough as well, they’ve not been educating, just teaching. Thousands of out of work graduates, not much ‘intelligence’ between them. Great if you need factory workers or people to press buttons all day but wave goodby to innovation…

Jack

Like the Single Payer Option, the better options were NOT possible because one entire party very nearly to a man would block it and many in the other party are beholden to interests that wouldn’t fund their campaigns unless they toe the line.

When 95% of Republicans and 40% of Democrats are behind a bad idea, not only is it impossible to get a good one through, the blame by party label is NOT equally apportioned.

The Republicans aren’t responsible for some Dems being DINOs, that IS genuinely the fault of the Democratic party.

But bipartisan support when one side will NEVER accept a proposal form the other isn’t proof that both sides are equally culpable in passing bad legislation.

Human infants arrive primed to learn – it’s instinct, it’s nature – but we view this utterly natural and positive process as abnormal! Raising children to be functioning adults is presented as cruel and unusual punishment, discriminatory and impossible. Crazy, but profitable.

But all that would have been a distraction to the point of this post. And, I figured somebody would bring it up in the comments anyway.

It’s not a simple Democrats good/Republicans bad issue. Sorry I’m seen as an enemy for saying that (more evidence of blind partisanship on your part).

Steve either doesn’t know that or is deflecting.

It is the position of the Democratic Party to make high quality education available to everyone. “Neither party wants an informed electorate” is cynical false balancing. Mostly.

Trying to treat every kid as having exactly the same potential neglects all the social and cognitive differences that makes every student unique.

That may be true to some extent, but I wonder if the notion that there was once an “educated electorate” is as lacking in fact as the idea there was a “glorious time back in the 50s”, or whenever, that so many conservatives wish they could return the country to.

So, Steve, what is your point?

I cannot, and do not, speak for Steve; however, I interpret his point as being both sides – Democrats and Republicans are responsible for the mess we are currently experiencing. If we as a population, want to improve that situation, then we as an electorate need to stop electing both Democrats and Republicans. I rely on the old adage, when choosing between two evils (or in this case more than two evils) I like to go with the one I have not experienced yet.

I believe Alan has it right when he writes:

The problem with an educated population is that they might start making informed decisions at the ballot box.

Neither party wants an informed electorate, both want the electorate to make decisions solely from an emotional standpoint. They stand a much better chance of winning the election.

So, Steve, what is your point?