5 ms·

It makes me sad that this modern world with so much progress elsewhere still can't get education right for our children.

by jonsen 14y ago

rdtsc 14y ago
Because schools are not the first in line for funding. Wars are. Elderly health-care and pensions benefits are. Other stuff as well. Why are schools tied to local property taxes? I could never understand that. That is all kinds of messed up. Schools funds should be first in line in the federal budget, alongside with the new "surgical strike weapons" and the new "aircraft carriers". Also, the politicians who are can vote and effect changes are sending their kids to private schools so they really don't care what everyone else does. As a society we allegedly claim that children are the most precious things we have and yet when it comes to education, our actions seem to betray our words.
- waqf 14y ago
  Not to disagree with anything you say, but it's not just funding. There's also an immense, yawning lack of consensus on what and how children should be taught. For example, I would expect much, much more science to be recommended by the typical HN commentator than by the typical teachers' union. The consequence is that the "traditional" high-school curriculum, which was invented well over a century ago, has barely changed since because nobody can get all the stakeholders to agree.
  - rdtsc 14y ago
    Start with funding. Pay teachers well. Make being a teacher the same as being a lawyer or a good engineer. > For example, I would expect much, much more science to be recommended by the typical HN commentator than by the typical teachers' union. Great point. I understand that some teachers wouldn't really understand a bad science text book/curriculum vs a good one, because they are not that good at it. Associate schools with local universities. Ask university math and physics professors to rate a curriculum., don't just rely on English majors being influenced by book publishers to determine how science should be taught Fundamentally education is so far down the list after wars spending, elderly care and other issues that it just gets the short end of the stick. If they approached it with the same budget and interest as they approach a new aircraft carrier fleet we'd have a world-class education system.
    - droithomme 14y ago
      If the goal is science literacy wouldn't it make sense to use a scientific approach to determining whether there is a correlation between spending and achievement in schools?
- apendleton 14y ago
  Everyone always blames it on money. It's more complicated than that. My city (Washington, DC), spent $29,000 per pupil on public schools last year. By that metric, it's one of the best-funded school systems in the country. Test scores here are mediocre at best, to the point that most families with the means to do so move out to the suburbs once they have kids. There are a wide variety of reasons for this phenomenon, and they'll vary depending on who you ask (urban schools are generally expensive to run, special-needs students are disproportionately expensive to educate, teachers' unions have a lot of clout, etc.).
- aidenn0 14y ago
  Where I live, there is a school district with exactly 1 elementary school, in the richest part of town that is funded at a rate of nearly 2x the dollars per student as the other school district (where the rest of the schools are).

It makes me sad that this modern world with so much progress elsewhere still can't get education right for our children.

by jonsen 14y ago

It makes me sad that this modern world with so much progress elsewhere still can't get education right for our children.

rdtsc 14y ago

Because schools are not the first in line for funding. Wars are. Elderly health-care and pensions benefits are. Other stuff as well. Why are schools tied to local property taxes? I could never understand that. That is all kinds of messed up. Schools funds should be first in line in the federal budget, alongside with the new "surgical strike weapons" and the new "aircraft carriers". Also, the politicians who are can vote and effect changes are sending their kids to private schools so they really don't care what everyone else does. As a society we allegedly claim that children are the most precious things we have and yet when it comes to education, our actions seem to betray our words.

waqf 14y ago
Not to disagree with anything you say, but it's not just funding. There's also an immense, yawning lack of consensus on what and how children should be taught. For example, I would expect much, much more science to be recommended by the typical HN commentator than by the typical teachers' union. The consequence is that the "traditional" high-school curriculum, which was invented well over a century ago, has barely changed since because nobody can get all the stakeholders to agree.
- rdtsc 14y ago
  Start with funding. Pay teachers well. Make being a teacher the same as being a lawyer or a good engineer. > For example, I would expect much, much more science to be recommended by the typical HN commentator than by the typical teachers' union. Great point. I understand that some teachers wouldn't really understand a bad science text book/curriculum vs a good one, because they are not that good at it. Associate schools with local universities. Ask university math and physics professors to rate a curriculum., don't just rely on English majors being influenced by book publishers to determine how science should be taught Fundamentally education is so far down the list after wars spending, elderly care and other issues that it just gets the short end of the stick. If they approached it with the same budget and interest as they approach a new aircraft carrier fleet we'd have a world-class education system.
  - droithomme 14y ago
    If the goal is science literacy wouldn't it make sense to use a scientific approach to determining whether there is a correlation between spending and achievement in schools?
apendleton 14y ago
Everyone always blames it on money. It's more complicated than that. My city (Washington, DC), spent $29,000 per pupil on public schools last year. By that metric, it's one of the best-funded school systems in the country. Test scores here are mediocre at best, to the point that most families with the means to do so move out to the suburbs once they have kids. There are a wide variety of reasons for this phenomenon, and they'll vary depending on who you ask (urban schools are generally expensive to run, special-needs students are disproportionately expensive to educate, teachers' unions have a lot of clout, etc.).
aidenn0 14y ago
Where I live, there is a school district with exactly 1 elementary school, in the richest part of town that is funded at a rate of nearly 2x the dollars per student as the other school district (where the rest of the schools are).