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>solution is obviously to expand the number of slots, Exactly! And then perhaps as we continue to raise the bar and challenge our students and teachers to high

>solution is obviously to expand the number of slots, Exactly! And then perhaps as we continue to raise the bar and challenge our students and teachers to higher academic levels earlier, we’ll raise the bar on education everywhere and start catching up to our peer nations. The anti-intellectualism that pervades the entire spectrum of US political beliefs is astounding.

fragmede 4y ago
This is no less evident than in online discourse sitting the Internet agree. Users see fit to shame other users for learning and making use of the knowledge available to them. You're god damn right I read the shit out of Wikipedia to figure out the basics of whatever thing is on the news today.
- jrs235 4y ago
  People just want you to tell them the answer you're looking for. They don't want to think, research, or defend a position they choose or chose to take.
sidlls 4y ago
I went through grad school and taught in university in the US. My perspective is a bit different. I agree in many ways the US is behind. But in some regions outside the US there seems to be a strong emphasis on rote/mechanical memorization that provides the appearance of good education, but it falls far short when a person is tasked with actually demonstrating an understanding of the material. Me and my US taught peers (of whatever ethnicity) almost always performed better on exams where the problems were similar to but novel compared with the homework, while these rote/memorizing people almost always did better on exams where the problems were essentially lifted from the homework (perhaps with irrelevant changes, such as slightly different numbers or what have you). It was an incredible eye opener, as I had always assumed the US had a trash education system in general. It’s more nuanced than that.
- quartesixte 4y ago
  An interesting problem for sure, but perhaps a result of self-selection bias? You and your other US peers represent the very tip of academic achievement in the country and perhaps are either the result of great teachers and/or programs that fostered that independent thinking, or were naturally inclined to do so anyways and your academic predispositions led you to where you are today. But let’s face it. The average American school never gets that far. And public schools in the US (based on the miles of anecdata published on the internet) seem to enforce rote memorization anyways. Standardized testing, teaching to the test, “my way or highway” teachers. So not only are we doing the same as our peer nations, but doing it worse. And any attempt to do critical thinking type teaching (a la Finland) gets lost in a sea of terrible schools, incompetent teachers, mediocre curriculums, and an education system that fatalistically lowers rigor and standards in favor of not challenging students to do better. No this is not a funding problem. Schools in the US have some of the highest per-student funding in the world. And those are also paradoxically the worst performing ones.

fragmede 4y ago

This is no less evident than in online discourse sitting the Internet agree. Users see fit to shame other users for learning and making use of the knowledge available to them. You're god damn right I read the shit out of Wikipedia to figure out the basics of whatever thing is on the news today.

jrs235 4y ago
People just want you to tell them the answer you're looking for. They don't want to think, research, or defend a position they choose or chose to take.

sidlls 4y ago

I went through grad school and taught in university in the US. My perspective is a bit different. I agree in many ways the US is behind. But in some regions outside the US there seems to be a strong emphasis on rote/mechanical memorization that provides the appearance of good education, but it falls far short when a person is tasked with actually demonstrating an understanding of the material. Me and my US taught peers (of whatever ethnicity) almost always performed better on exams where the problems were similar to but novel compared with the homework, while these rote/memorizing people almost always did better on exams where the problems were essentially lifted from the homework (perhaps with irrelevant changes, such as slightly different numbers or what have you). It was an incredible eye opener, as I had always assumed the US had a trash education system in general. It’s more nuanced than that.

quartesixte 4y ago
An interesting problem for sure, but perhaps a result of self-selection bias? You and your other US peers represent the very tip of academic achievement in the country and perhaps are either the result of great teachers and/or programs that fostered that independent thinking, or were naturally inclined to do so anyways and your academic predispositions led you to where you are today. But let’s face it. The average American school never gets that far. And public schools in the US (based on the miles of anecdata published on the internet) seem to enforce rote memorization anyways. Standardized testing, teaching to the test, “my way or highway” teachers. So not only are we doing the same as our peer nations, but doing it worse. And any attempt to do critical thinking type teaching (a la Finland) gets lost in a sea of terrible schools, incompetent teachers, mediocre curriculums, and an education system that fatalistically lowers rigor and standards in favor of not challenging students to do better. No this is not a funding problem. Schools in the US have some of the highest per-student funding in the world. And those are also paradoxically the worst performing ones.