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Whoa. What "bad directions" are you referring to? If you are going to make accusatory claims, do be specific. Bill Gates is a luminary who created the largest

Whoa. What "bad directions" are you referring to? If you are going to make accusatory claims, do be specific. Bill Gates is a luminary who created the largest software development company known to man. I will give him the respect to hear him out about any subject he feels he can contribute in.

okreallywtf 9y ago
The only bad direction I can really think of in public education is teaching things that are not based in fact (ie, creationism), I'm not sure what bad directions OP is referring to but my guess is they would relate to things most of us would actually consider to be very good.
- quadrangle 9y ago
  What a crazy jump. You would guess I'm a creationist or want some other sort of similarly bad mis-education?? Why would you automatically assume that whatever the Gates Foundation is funding, it must be the best education? I suppose if you can't think of any bad direction besides creationism, you must be someone who never thinks much about education. Education isn't just a matter of what information is presented, it's about how it's presented and all the complex issues around that. The point is that there's real complaints from actual educators about the views on education that Gates Foundation promotes, including the whole overemphasis on testing and more… I'm not certain of all the details, but for an example: http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/ http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/
  - okreallywtf 9y ago
    My bad, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions.
    - quadrangle 9y ago
      No worries, I should have been more specific initially. But if Gates was just doing everything great for education, we can still question the concept that wealthy business owners have the power to influence things like science and education. This is one of the more subtle yet still troubling aspects of wealth inequity (of the capitalist sort in this case).
quadrangle 9y ago
If you think that Microsoft being the largest software company is proof in itself that Gates should be listened to on any subject other than building large businesses or technology related to his expertise, I think you're being intellectually reckless. Microsoft's impact on the world has been overall negative in my view compared to the likely counterfactual of a world-without-Microsoft, but that's too speculative to get into. It's undeniable that Microsoft got big more on the effectiveness of how it played the game of business within our social/corporate/government/market system than on the quality of the products. Anyway, issues in education as my example? Just one starting point: http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/ http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/

okreallywtf 9y ago

The only bad direction I can really think of in public education is teaching things that are not based in fact (ie, creationism), I'm not sure what bad directions OP is referring to but my guess is they would relate to things most of us would actually consider to be very good.

quadrangle 9y ago
What a crazy jump. You would guess I'm a creationist or want some other sort of similarly bad mis-education?? Why would you automatically assume that whatever the Gates Foundation is funding, it must be the best education? I suppose if you can't think of any bad direction besides creationism, you must be someone who never thinks much about education. Education isn't just a matter of what information is presented, it's about how it's presented and all the complex issues around that. The point is that there's real complaints from actual educators about the views on education that Gates Foundation promotes, including the whole overemphasis on testing and more… I'm not certain of all the details, but for an example: http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/ http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/
- okreallywtf 9y ago
  My bad, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions.
  - quadrangle 9y ago
    No worries, I should have been more specific initially. But if Gates was just doing everything great for education, we can still question the concept that wealthy business owners have the power to influence things like science and education. This is one of the more subtle yet still troubling aspects of wealth inequity (of the capitalist sort in this case).

quadrangle 9y ago

If you think that Microsoft being the largest software company is proof in itself that Gates should be listened to on any subject other than building large businesses or technology related to his expertise, I think you're being intellectually reckless. Microsoft's impact on the world has been overall negative in my view compared to the likely counterfactual of a world-without-Microsoft, but that's too speculative to get into. It's undeniable that Microsoft got big more on the effectiveness of how it played the game of business within our social/corporate/government/market system than on the quality of the products. Anyway, issues in education as my example? Just one starting point: http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/ http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gates-Effect/140323/