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If I were a billionaire I would fund Asia-style 'cram' academies in disadvantaged neighborhoods and make them free. Provide a safe place where students can get

If I were a billionaire I would fund Asia-style 'cram' academies in disadvantaged neighborhoods and make them free. Provide a safe place where students can get extra-school training in music, writing, math, etc. Create communities of students who, yes, compete against each other and become motivated to succeed. Bloomberg giving $750 million to charter schools is a great start: https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-bloomberg-why-im-backing-charter-schools-covid-19-learning-loss-teachers-union-11638371324 https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-bloomberg-why-im-backin...

cyber_kinetist 5y ago
From my experience, the students who are truly gifted only needs a good environment they can study in (without worrying about money/work/bullying/parental abuse) but they definitely do not need 'cram schools'. The talented ones often have enough motivation to study what they like, and they can do self-study well with just light attention/mentoring from teachers. People who are blindly praising Asian-style cram education really haven't actually experienced one in their youth at all; it is a fucking disaster at raising actual talent, and it robs you so much of your adolescence.
- rahimnathwani 5y ago
  "The talented ones often have enough motivation to study what they like, and they can do self-study well with just light attention/mentoring from teachers." There are many people who do not fit this category, but could still benefit immensely from good teaching. I know, because I was one of them.
  - cyber_kinetist 5y ago
    Yeah, I agree. But not something that involves cramming for test scores, which is my main point.
yardie 5y ago
Billionaires could do this and yet chose not to. Do you ever wonder why American schools finish at 2-3pm rather than run the entire day as Western Europe? So that teachers could get that extra 3-4+ hours of doing the administration side of classroom work (grading, report writing, planning, etc). Even when parents request it there never appears to be enough money for afterschool programs, school districts create and withdraw them all the time depending on budget that you can't actually make plans for them.
- donkarma 5y ago
  western europe is a pretty big place dude, which country are you talking about?
- spiralx 5y ago
  Most American schools finish then because they start an hour or more before schools in most European countries, typical primary school (4-13 years) hours in the UK are 8:30 to 3:30 with an hour for lunch, France is 8:30 to 4:30 but with two hours for lunch and Spain is 9:00 to 5:00 with a two hour lunch as well. In Germany schools start between 7:30 and 8:30, but finish anywhere between 11:30 and 1:30. The number of hours of class per week in the US matches a lot of European countries, but most countries in Europe have schools start and finish later on in the day, and some have extended lunch breaks that also push the end of day forwards.
micromacrofoot 5y ago
I live in one of those neighborhoods and you would find that literally no one would enroll. Cram schools succeed in Asian countries because there's an enormous amount of pressure to pass entrance exams, in disadvantaged neighborhoods kids often aren't even pressured to the point of graduating high school at all.
908B64B197 5y ago
> I would fund Asia-style 'cram' academies in disadvantaged neighborhoods and make them free Cram schools are laughably useless. Works well at a national level with a large enough population but they are really a side effect of the intense competition and pressure for the few decent university spots available in Asian countries (per capita). It's basically optimized to pass a test, not learn, and heavily rewards rote memorization.

cyber_kinetist 5y ago

From my experience, the students who are truly gifted only needs a good environment they can study in (without worrying about money/work/bullying/parental abuse) but they definitely do not need 'cram schools'. The talented ones often have enough motivation to study what they like, and they can do self-study well with just light attention/mentoring from teachers. People who are blindly praising Asian-style cram education really haven't actually experienced one in their youth at all; it is a fucking disaster at raising actual talent, and it robs you so much of your adolescence.

rahimnathwani 5y ago
"The talented ones often have enough motivation to study what they like, and they can do self-study well with just light attention/mentoring from teachers." There are many people who do not fit this category, but could still benefit immensely from good teaching. I know, because I was one of them.
- cyber_kinetist 5y ago
  Yeah, I agree. But not something that involves cramming for test scores, which is my main point.

yardie 5y ago

Billionaires could do this and yet chose not to. Do you ever wonder why American schools finish at 2-3pm rather than run the entire day as Western Europe? So that teachers could get that extra 3-4+ hours of doing the administration side of classroom work (grading, report writing, planning, etc). Even when parents request it there never appears to be enough money for afterschool programs, school districts create and withdraw them all the time depending on budget that you can't actually make plans for them.

donkarma 5y ago
western europe is a pretty big place dude, which country are you talking about?
spiralx 5y ago
Most American schools finish then because they start an hour or more before schools in most European countries, typical primary school (4-13 years) hours in the UK are 8:30 to 3:30 with an hour for lunch, France is 8:30 to 4:30 but with two hours for lunch and Spain is 9:00 to 5:00 with a two hour lunch as well. In Germany schools start between 7:30 and 8:30, but finish anywhere between 11:30 and 1:30. The number of hours of class per week in the US matches a lot of European countries, but most countries in Europe have schools start and finish later on in the day, and some have extended lunch breaks that also push the end of day forwards.

micromacrofoot 5y ago

I live in one of those neighborhoods and you would find that literally no one would enroll. Cram schools succeed in Asian countries because there's an enormous amount of pressure to pass entrance exams, in disadvantaged neighborhoods kids often aren't even pressured to the point of graduating high school at all.

908B64B197 5y ago

> I would fund Asia-style 'cram' academies in disadvantaged neighborhoods and make them free Cram schools are laughably useless. Works well at a national level with a large enough population but they are really a side effect of the intense competition and pressure for the few decent university spots available in Asian countries (per capita). It's basically optimized to pass a test, not learn, and heavily rewards rote memorization.