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Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week to All the CS Teachers

I have tremendous admiration for all teachers, especially computer science teachers who (presumably) could make more money working as engineers in the industry, but instead choose to educate others and help them chase their dreams. You are an inspiration and thank you! I hope that people recognize the importance of education and, especially in the United States, start to value education more. I worry that most education in the U.S. will become privatized because budgets continue to be cut and good teachers decide to leave for other opportunities. Thoughts?

tonyedwardspz 3y ago
Much appreciated. Thanks for posting.
RecycledEle 3y ago
Thank You. And now we all have personalized tutors in LLMs.
MichaelAO 3y ago
Why are you afraid of privatization? The government monopoly hasn't exactly been stellar.
- skavi 3y ago
  not ready to give up on equality of opportunity yet.
  - endisneigh 3y ago
    This doesn’t exist to begin with. “Good” school districts are already far more expensive to both rent and purchase real estate in.
    - c8formal 3y ago
      Therefore we should not bother making things better?
      - endisneigh 3y ago
        I didn’t say that?
        c8formal 3y ago
        "Equality of opportunity" is the goal to aspire to. Of course we can only approach it, so your distinction does not make much sense to interject here.
        endisneigh 3y ago
        Private schools and the equality of opportunity have no relation inherently. So I’m not sure what your point is. Equality of opportunity is also an impossible thing to achieve.
- mattmanser 3y ago
  Go look at what privatization did to water and trains in the UK. It's turned into absolute trash. Utter, absolute disaster. Everything privatized by the Tories has been a complete civic disaster. Massive sewage discharges, foreign shareholders stripping assets with zero investment for the future, late trains, bad rolling stock. A complete disaster. Like American healthcare. Don't wish this shit on your worst enemies. Anyone arguing otherwise is either a rich grifter trying to sponge from the public purse or a poor moron who's been convinced by the rich grifters to vote against their own best interest. Capitalism does not work on utilities like schooling, healthcare, energy, water, public transportation, etc. at all. It's used as a way to strip public funds by corruption and bribery. Just like we know communist governments don't work, we also know privatising public services don't work.
- Larrikin 3y ago
  Government services work just fine in other countries where there isn't one party that gets into power to make sure the service fails so they can pocket the tax money instead.
ajdoingnothing 3y ago
I have tremendous admiration for all teachers, especially computer science teachers who (presumably) could make more money working as engineers in the industry, but instead choose to educate others and help them chase their dreams. You are an inspiration and thank you! Nice post – I'd like to echo those words. The (Assistant/Associate) Professors, lecturers and researchers @ research institutes I have seen could easily move to the industry and make plenty of money (whilst facing less politics and get more funding/time for their research), yet their love for teaching and inspiring students is admirably greater.
endisneigh 3y ago
> I worry that most education in the U.S. will become privatized because budgets continue to be cut and good teachers decide to leave for other opportunities. Not sure why people say these things. Just like public schools, private schools have a variety of achievement levels and opportunity.
- alexdanilowicz 3y ago
  Oh certainly — I don't mean to undermine private schooling at all. (I happen to be the product of one.) I should have rephrased: My worry is that schooling will become more and more expensive.
atomicnature 3y ago
Very thoughtful, and I agree 100%. Democracy depends heavily upon educated citizenry; getting students interested in learning something is the most important civilisational job. Quality of teachers sliding is an early indicator of a sinking civilisation. I recently was musing about this myself and wrote a small essay about it: "Beyond GDP: Measuring the True Worth of a Civilization's People" [1] [1]: https://journal.hexmos.com/beyond-gdp/ https://journal.hexmos.com/beyond-gdp/
b20000 3y ago
teachers are important and awesome and underpaid. do they know that after that effort teaching kids CS in high school and college, and when their kids worked really hard to pass with flying colours, these kids have to endlessly grind leetcode and other bullshit timed coding tests to stay relevant and make a living?

tonyedwardspz 3y ago

Much appreciated. Thanks for posting.

RecycledEle 3y ago

Thank You. And now we all have personalized tutors in LLMs.

MichaelAO 3y ago

Why are you afraid of privatization? The government monopoly hasn't exactly been stellar.

skavi 3y ago
not ready to give up on equality of opportunity yet.
- endisneigh 3y ago
  This doesn’t exist to begin with. “Good” school districts are already far more expensive to both rent and purchase real estate in.
  - c8formal 3y ago
    Therefore we should not bother making things better?
    - endisneigh 3y ago
      I didn’t say that?
      - c8formal 3y ago
        "Equality of opportunity" is the goal to aspire to. Of course we can only approach it, so your distinction does not make much sense to interject here.
        endisneigh 3y ago
        Private schools and the equality of opportunity have no relation inherently. So I’m not sure what your point is. Equality of opportunity is also an impossible thing to achieve.
mattmanser 3y ago
Go look at what privatization did to water and trains in the UK. It's turned into absolute trash. Utter, absolute disaster. Everything privatized by the Tories has been a complete civic disaster. Massive sewage discharges, foreign shareholders stripping assets with zero investment for the future, late trains, bad rolling stock. A complete disaster. Like American healthcare. Don't wish this shit on your worst enemies. Anyone arguing otherwise is either a rich grifter trying to sponge from the public purse or a poor moron who's been convinced by the rich grifters to vote against their own best interest. Capitalism does not work on utilities like schooling, healthcare, energy, water, public transportation, etc. at all. It's used as a way to strip public funds by corruption and bribery. Just like we know communist governments don't work, we also know privatising public services don't work.
Larrikin 3y ago
Government services work just fine in other countries where there isn't one party that gets into power to make sure the service fails so they can pocket the tax money instead.

ajdoingnothing 3y ago

I have tremendous admiration for all teachers, especially computer science teachers who (presumably) could make more money working as engineers in the industry, but instead choose to educate others and help them chase their dreams. You are an inspiration and thank you! Nice post – I'd like to echo those words. The (Assistant/Associate) Professors, lecturers and researchers @ research institutes I have seen could easily move to the industry and make plenty of money (whilst facing less politics and get more funding/time for their research), yet their love for teaching and inspiring students is admirably greater.

endisneigh 3y ago

> I worry that most education in the U.S. will become privatized because budgets continue to be cut and good teachers decide to leave for other opportunities. Not sure why people say these things. Just like public schools, private schools have a variety of achievement levels and opportunity.

alexdanilowicz 3y ago
Oh certainly — I don't mean to undermine private schooling at all. (I happen to be the product of one.) I should have rephrased: My worry is that schooling will become more and more expensive.

atomicnature 3y ago

Very thoughtful, and I agree 100%. Democracy depends heavily upon educated citizenry; getting students interested in learning something is the most important civilisational job. Quality of teachers sliding is an early indicator of a sinking civilisation. I recently was musing about this myself and wrote a small essay about it: "Beyond GDP: Measuring the True Worth of a Civilization's People" [1] [1]: https://journal.hexmos.com/beyond-gdp/ https://journal.hexmos.com/beyond-gdp/

b20000 3y ago

teachers are important and awesome and underpaid. do they know that after that effort teaching kids CS in high school and college, and when their kids worked really hard to pass with flying colours, these kids have to endlessly grind leetcode and other bullshit timed coding tests to stay relevant and make a living?