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It sounds great - $40B+ can do a lot of good. I'm disappointed to see they're also trying to "reimagine" school - Gates's attempt has been a disaster. That sai

It sounds great - $40B+ can do a lot of good. I'm disappointed to see they're also trying to "reimagine" school - Gates's attempt has been a disaster. That said, Gates's work with diseases in third world countries has been absolutely magical. Hopefully this isn't ushering in an era of billionaires all trying to stake out their own social issues, but will see organizations working together where there is overlap. But I can armchair QB tens of billions of dollars in "making the world a better place" all I want. I can also be cynical all I want (as is at least partially my nature) but I'm going to try to remain happy about this one. I'm not a fan of how Facebook makes its money, but I don't mind seeing that money go somewhere that helps in any way.

reitzensteinm 11y ago
Fixing schools is probably the single biggest thing that could be done to move the western world forward. It warrants more than a single attempt.
- themartorana 11y ago
  I could not possibly disagree more. Poverty, income inequality, hunger, broken homes, homelessness, mass incarceration, mental illness, lack of healthcare - all of these things are so much more broken, and when kids find themselves mired in one or more of these things, fixing "schools" won't do a darned thing to help them.
  - electic 11y ago
    All the issues you outline are very much tied to education. We have such a bad education system in this country that it very well leads to homelessness, hunger, low income, and yes, eventually mental illness. More people trying and offering new ideas to help fix this very important issue is welcome.
    - themartorana 11y ago
      "We have such a bad education system in this country..." Assuming we're both talking about the United States, no we don't. "All the issues you outline are very much tied to education." I agree, but apparently in reverse. There's a constant backwards causation that people place on education - that it causes the issues outlined. That's wrong. These issues cause failings in school - huge swaths of children don't eat breakfast in this country, but we want to blame teachers and the education system for that child's educational shortcomings. Of course there's always room for improvement, but this pervasive idea that education is at the root of all issues is just wrong. A good education can't do anything to help someone in deep poverty because they once had a medical emergency while un- or under-insured. It doesn't help someone that can't get a job because they have a felony conviction for minor drug use. And cycles as they are, it's almost impossible to educate a child that lives with hunger or homelessness or violence or incarcerated parents... I'm fine with people working to improve education, but a top-down approach hasn't worked yet, and isn't likely to work. It's like trying to improve hospitals without consulting doctors. Teachers are demonized but are rarely (rarely, not "never") the problem. And surprise, surprise, the districts with the highest number of failing students and underachievement happen to be those with the highest level of children routinely immersed in poverty and crime and violence. No amount of "No Child Left Behind" or standardized testing or Chromebooks in those schools will increase student achievement until the root issues in the communities are addressed.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
    - serge2k 11y ago
      > All the issues you outline are very much tied to education Yes, they are. What you seem to be ignoring is that those issues cause poor education. Kids in a bad environment are going to have a hard time learning. Which of course leads to less opportunities and the cycle continues for their children.
      - abarrettjo 11y ago
- ploxiln 11y ago
  "fixing schools" is a fundamentally different kind of problem - it's one where we can't even agree on what a "big success" would look like. For who exactly? (only "low-performing" children?) To what end? (jobs? liberal sentiment?) How mandatory? "fixing diseases" and "fixing poverty" are things where maybe we don't agree on the best way to go about them, but we probably mostly agree on what a "big success" would be.
  - jfoutz 11y ago
    I would really like to see an emphasis on education rather than training. No child left behind sort of moved us to this pure metrics approach that makes things kinda sucky. it's hard to measure education. Rather than define precisely what i mean, consider the difference between sex education and sex training, i think you'll get the idea.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
- underwater 11y ago
  The sentiment that schooling is fundamentally broken seems much more prevalent in the US than in my native Australia, where I grew up attending public schools. In my opinion this is a US problem and not a western world problem.
  - reitzensteinm 11y ago
    I'm from Australia.
    - underwater 11y ago
      What do you think is broken about schooling in Australia?
- underwater 11y ago
  The sentiment that schooling is fundamentally broken seems much more prevalent in the US than in my native Australia, where I grew up attending public schools. In my opinion this is a US problem and not a western world problem.

reitzensteinm 11y ago

Fixing schools is probably the single biggest thing that could be done to move the western world forward. It warrants more than a single attempt.

themartorana 11y ago
I could not possibly disagree more. Poverty, income inequality, hunger, broken homes, homelessness, mass incarceration, mental illness, lack of healthcare - all of these things are so much more broken, and when kids find themselves mired in one or more of these things, fixing "schools" won't do a darned thing to help them.
- electic 11y ago
  All the issues you outline are very much tied to education. We have such a bad education system in this country that it very well leads to homelessness, hunger, low income, and yes, eventually mental illness. More people trying and offering new ideas to help fix this very important issue is welcome.
  - themartorana 11y ago
    "We have such a bad education system in this country..." Assuming we're both talking about the United States, no we don't. "All the issues you outline are very much tied to education." I agree, but apparently in reverse. There's a constant backwards causation that people place on education - that it causes the issues outlined. That's wrong. These issues cause failings in school - huge swaths of children don't eat breakfast in this country, but we want to blame teachers and the education system for that child's educational shortcomings. Of course there's always room for improvement, but this pervasive idea that education is at the root of all issues is just wrong. A good education can't do anything to help someone in deep poverty because they once had a medical emergency while un- or under-insured. It doesn't help someone that can't get a job because they have a felony conviction for minor drug use. And cycles as they are, it's almost impossible to educate a child that lives with hunger or homelessness or violence or incarcerated parents... I'm fine with people working to improve education, but a top-down approach hasn't worked yet, and isn't likely to work. It's like trying to improve hospitals without consulting doctors. Teachers are demonized but are rarely (rarely, not "never") the problem. And surprise, surprise, the districts with the highest number of failing students and underachievement happen to be those with the highest level of children routinely immersed in poverty and crime and violence. No amount of "No Child Left Behind" or standardized testing or Chromebooks in those schools will increase student achievement until the root issues in the communities are addressed.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
  - serge2k 11y ago
    > All the issues you outline are very much tied to education Yes, they are. What you seem to be ignoring is that those issues cause poor education. Kids in a bad environment are going to have a hard time learning. Which of course leads to less opportunities and the cycle continues for their children.
    - abarrettjo 11y ago
ploxiln 11y ago
"fixing schools" is a fundamentally different kind of problem - it's one where we can't even agree on what a "big success" would look like. For who exactly? (only "low-performing" children?) To what end? (jobs? liberal sentiment?) How mandatory? "fixing diseases" and "fixing poverty" are things where maybe we don't agree on the best way to go about them, but we probably mostly agree on what a "big success" would be.
- jfoutz 11y ago
  I would really like to see an emphasis on education rather than training. No child left behind sort of moved us to this pure metrics approach that makes things kinda sucky. it's hard to measure education. Rather than define precisely what i mean, consider the difference between sex education and sex training, i think you'll get the idea.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
underwater 11y ago
The sentiment that schooling is fundamentally broken seems much more prevalent in the US than in my native Australia, where I grew up attending public schools. In my opinion this is a US problem and not a western world problem.
- reitzensteinm 11y ago
  I'm from Australia.
  - underwater 11y ago
    What do you think is broken about schooling in Australia?
underwater 11y ago
The sentiment that schooling is fundamentally broken seems much more prevalent in the US than in my native Australia, where I grew up attending public schools. In my opinion this is a US problem and not a western world problem.