3 ms·

I have a strong predilection for systems with incentives to make a good product. This is especially true when the product is as important as education. Maybe yo

I have a strong predilection for systems with incentives to make a good product. This is especially true when the product is as important as education. Maybe you are right and our time would be best spent on developing ways to educate people by working around the public school system rather than trying to change it. For example, you could pay a tutor in the marketplace to provide the service you mentioned in your last paragraph instead of convincing all the voters in your school district that it is a good idea. I do think the benefit of these optional activities will be limited as long as the 30-40 prime hours spent in school each week are of such low value. And in general I am opposed to such waste. Politics does require a lot of work to make any useful changes. However, I don't think ending the public monopoly would be impossible. Voters managed to do it in Sweden and the Netherlands. My purpose was more to point out a relevant fact about our current educational system than to encourage everyone to drop their startups and start lobbying their state Congress.

greendestiny 18y ago
My point is that many advances can be had without getting rid of public education, those advances are not of only marginal utility and they do not compete with changing public education. You frame everything in terms of libertarianism unnecessarily and dismissing positives because they don't advance your ideology seems unwise.
- Prrometheus 18y ago
  I think we both have valid points. If the internet were as developed when I was in school as it is today, I would have still been bored in school but I would have learned a lot more after I got home from school. On net, I probably would have been better educated. We CAN still improve education while the 30-40 hours spent at school each week are a complete write-off. I still think we would have a better world if that were not the case.
  - greendestiny 18y ago
    I agree, especially since I support voucher systems. In truth though, I think technological and other improvements in education will lead to the education freedom we both want, rather than the other way round. Innovations in learning could render the whole public education system outdated, whereas at the moment alternatives don't impress me.
    - Prrometheus 18y ago
      I apologize, I've edited my comments on this thread substantially because I misread your comments the first time around. Also, I have a tendancy to post a "first-draft" comment and then edit it to be better over time, which is annoying to others because every draft is public.
      - greendestiny 18y ago
        No worries, I get that, I think the thread still makes sense. Always in this sort of thread I'm left wondering whether the initial conflict (when I generalize about your opinions) is a necessary sort of dramatic tension to draw out further discussion. I guess any opinion has unstated qualifiers, but starting with them seems to unsatisfying.

greendestiny 18y ago

My point is that many advances can be had without getting rid of public education, those advances are not of only marginal utility and they do not compete with changing public education. You frame everything in terms of libertarianism unnecessarily and dismissing positives because they don't advance your ideology seems unwise.

Prrometheus 18y ago
I think we both have valid points. If the internet were as developed when I was in school as it is today, I would have still been bored in school but I would have learned a lot more after I got home from school. On net, I probably would have been better educated. We CAN still improve education while the 30-40 hours spent at school each week are a complete write-off. I still think we would have a better world if that were not the case.
- greendestiny 18y ago
  I agree, especially since I support voucher systems. In truth though, I think technological and other improvements in education will lead to the education freedom we both want, rather than the other way round. Innovations in learning could render the whole public education system outdated, whereas at the moment alternatives don't impress me.
  - Prrometheus 18y ago
    I apologize, I've edited my comments on this thread substantially because I misread your comments the first time around. Also, I have a tendancy to post a "first-draft" comment and then edit it to be better over time, which is annoying to others because every draft is public.
    - greendestiny 18y ago
      No worries, I get that, I think the thread still makes sense. Always in this sort of thread I'm left wondering whether the initial conflict (when I generalize about your opinions) is a necessary sort of dramatic tension to draw out further discussion. I guess any opinion has unstated qualifiers, but starting with them seems to unsatisfying.