4 ms·

There is no problem in education. Our only problem is that we keep lying to ourselves about it. Not all children are equally gifted. Not all _groups_ of childre

There is no problem in education. Our only problem is that we keep lying to ourselves about it. Not all children are equally gifted. Not all _groups_ of children are equally gifted. The only reason we have such a hard time tackling with contemporary social problems is that their real solutions are at odds with political correctness. The challenging task isn't coming up with solutions that will help, but finding solutions that will both help and not violate certain taboos. Never in all of history has society ever benefited from lying to itself.

blakeja 11y ago
Exactly what I would have said. Most of my friends and family are teachers and the stupidity of ideas like "no child left behind"..."teach to the lowest common denominator"...are the kind of complaints I have been hearing about for quite some time. Stop with the Orwellian political correctness and teach kids the level they are capable of. End of story.
bsder 11y ago
> Not all children are equally gifted. Not all _groups_ of children are equally gifted. The only reason we have such a hard time tackling with contemporary social problems is that their real solutions are at odds with political correctness. Not really. Most of the solutions to contemporary social problems are quite politically correct. Universal healthcare. Decent minimum wages. Birth control. Sex education. Ending the drug war. Ending the criminalization of victimless crimes. We have the data on many of these things. We know what works. However, it is politically unpalatable to a significant subsection of the country. See the recent kerfuffle over thre Colorado teenage pregnancy reduction program (http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/04/30/colorado-republicans-say-teen-pregnancy-prevention-program/ http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/04/30/colorado-republ...) When a significant chunk of your people are willing to ignore the facts and reject something known to work, it's hard to make progress.

blakeja 11y ago

Exactly what I would have said. Most of my friends and family are teachers and the stupidity of ideas like "no child left behind"..."teach to the lowest common denominator"...are the kind of complaints I have been hearing about for quite some time. Stop with the Orwellian political correctness and teach kids the level they are capable of. End of story.

bsder 11y ago

> Not all children are equally gifted. Not all _groups_ of children are equally gifted. The only reason we have such a hard time tackling with contemporary social problems is that their real solutions are at odds with political correctness. Not really. Most of the solutions to contemporary social problems are quite politically correct. Universal healthcare. Decent minimum wages. Birth control. Sex education. Ending the drug war. Ending the criminalization of victimless crimes. We have the data on many of these things. We know what works. However, it is politically unpalatable to a significant subsection of the country. See the recent kerfuffle over thre Colorado teenage pregnancy reduction program (http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/04/30/colorado-republicans-say-teen-pregnancy-prevention-program/ http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/04/30/colorado-republ...) When a significant chunk of your people are willing to ignore the facts and reject something known to work, it's hard to make progress.