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Thinking everything is a conspiracy is giving the assholes too much credit. The education system is an education system. It's bad because it's underfunded, mis

by msla 4y ago

Thinking everything is a conspiracy is giving the assholes too much credit. The education system is an education system. It's bad because it's underfunded, mismanaged, and pulled in multiple directions for political reasons, not to mention occasionally tasked with impossible jobs, such as keeping a roomful of emotionally disturbed children going in the same direction using only one underpaid teacher and a couple para-professionals. If it were actively designed to be malicious, it would be a lot more competent.

sixo 4y ago
I'm sympathetic to OP, it's not that it's a conspiracy--it's the survival criteria of the system. It has to "work" as an institution to go on existing. Things that make the institution of education more effective tend to happen: 1. It has to be compatible with the modern system of employment (feat the 40hr workweek, generally a commute, workers who typically fit into many companies in standardized roles) 2. Opportunities to make it more efficient that don't run directly contrary to its stated goal of educating tend to happen, e.g. standardized testing. And because students move around and it's inefficient for everybody everywhere to invent their own curriculum, they need to be standardized. 3. It needs to be legible meritocratically, to its own existence and measure performance, and also to usefully input into the employment system.
- jack_riminton 4y ago
  These are excellent points. Especially the last one, the veneer of meritocracy is an important socialisation tool as much at is a sorting tool
Lammy 4y ago
> Thinking everything is a conspiracy is giving the assholes too much credit. "maxwellhill"? :) https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/18/business/mcgraw-hill-and-maxwell-form-venture.html https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/18/business/mcgraw-hill-and-... / https://archive.is/bZKuA https://archive.is/bZKuA
sdiupIGPWEfh 4y ago
I read it as less conspiracy and more an example of, "The purpose of a system is what it does." Sure, it's a nasty, cynical take, but to some approximation, perhaps it may as well be true.

by msla 4y ago

sixo 4y ago

I'm sympathetic to OP, it's not that it's a conspiracy--it's the survival criteria of the system. It has to "work" as an institution to go on existing. Things that make the institution of education more effective tend to happen: 1. It has to be compatible with the modern system of employment (feat the 40hr workweek, generally a commute, workers who typically fit into many companies in standardized roles) 2. Opportunities to make it more efficient that don't run directly contrary to its stated goal of educating tend to happen, e.g. standardized testing. And because students move around and it's inefficient for everybody everywhere to invent their own curriculum, they need to be standardized. 3. It needs to be legible meritocratically, to its own existence and measure performance, and also to usefully input into the employment system.

jack_riminton 4y ago
These are excellent points. Especially the last one, the veneer of meritocracy is an important socialisation tool as much at is a sorting tool

Lammy 4y ago

> Thinking everything is a conspiracy is giving the assholes too much credit. "maxwellhill"? :) https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/18/business/mcgraw-hill-and-maxwell-form-venture.html https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/18/business/mcgraw-hill-and-... / https://archive.is/bZKuA https://archive.is/bZKuA

sdiupIGPWEfh 4y ago

I read it as less conspiracy and more an example of, "The purpose of a system is what it does." Sure, it's a nasty, cynical take, but to some approximation, perhaps it may as well be true.