4 ms·

My current theory is that we've basically gotten addicted to importing the world's smartest kids so we have been unwilling to invest in our own children.

OGEnthusiast 11mo ago
It's also odd how no one ever asks whether the reason child care is necessary and a single-income household isn't earning enough anymore to make a living because Americans are effectively competing with the entire world for housing and jobs.
- mrtesthah 11mo ago
  Probably because that’s not true.
hammock 11mo ago
What makes you say that when New Mexico is now offering free childcare?
- swsieber 11mo ago
  I would not say that free childcare is an investment in children.
- xboxnolifes 11mo ago
  Free childcare is an investment in working parents, not the children.
- siliconc0w 11mo ago
  One state offering something is a start but we're still far behind maternity, pre-k, childhood nutrition, and primary or secondary education in general for most of the population relative to peer nations. Plus this administration's cuts to Medicare or SNAP which will also hit the poorest kids the most. Plus the national debt they are saddled with. Our children's well being (physical health, mental health, education, etc) is routinely ranked toward the absolute bottom compared peer nations.
  - trollbridge 11mo ago
    … behind in childhood nutrition? Between the WIC program, snap, and school meals there is plenty of resources. It’s true that it’s means tested, but I’m not entirely sure we need to be providing free meals for rich people.
g9yuayon 11mo ago
> so we have been unwilling to invest in our own children. The school districts like SFUSD are actually sabotaging the growth of our kids in the name of equity. They're committed to ideas from people like Jo Boaler, and they tried very hard to dumb down the curriculum. The real tragedy is that kids from wealthy families will just get other means of education to make up the difference. It's the kids who desperately need the quality education who are going to be left behind. If it were up to me, I'd send those people to jail (yes yes, I know. I'm just angry and lashing out)
- lordnacho 11mo ago
  I looked up this lady on Wikipedia, but I couldn't find any obvious problems. It says she's a math educator with degrees from known universities and lots of published research?
  - g9yuayon 11mo ago
    https://stanfordreview.org/jo-boaler-and-the-woke-math-death-spiral/ https://stanfordreview.org/jo-boaler-and-the-woke-math-death..., and wikipedia on Math Wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_wars Personally, I find Boaler's advocacy extreme. Her famous quote: "Every student is capable of understanding every theorem in mathematics – and beyond – the mathematics curriculum. They just need the opportunity to struggle with rich tasks and see mathematics as a conceptual, creative subject.” This sounds inspiring, but in practice she advocated the policy of truly dumbing down math curriculums and text books. To say the least, shouldn't she at least demonstrate that she could understand any theorem? But instead, she advocated that SFUSD eliminate algebra from 8th Grade . Another example was that the curriculum that she advocated, College Preparatory Mathematics, was so boring and trivial. She also said something along the line "Traditional mathematics teaching is repetitive and uninspiring. We give students 30 similar problems to do over and over again, and it bores them and turns them off math for life.” What's funny is that the alternatives that Boaler prescribed were quite uninspiring and low level: https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/ https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/. All I can derive from her policies and complaints is that she couldn't do math. Why people would listen to someone who sucked at math about math education is beyond me.
venturecruelty 11mo ago
Man, the "anti-immigration" square on my HN bingo card has a hole in it from all the pen marks. Anyway, we stopped investing in kids because kids aren't profitable in the next quarter, like everything else that's beneficial to society and not the eight wealthy people currently running it. Hope this helps.
- buzzert 11mo ago
  Since when did public (government) schools become run for profit?
  - venturecruelty 11mo ago
    Since Milton Friedman.
EasyMark 11mo ago
Definitely one of the few policies that Trump "championed" that I supported him on; severely curtailing H1B visas going forward. Those who are here can be grandfathered in, but going forward the program should be wound down, and we invest in our own civilians and youth.
qgin 11mo ago
Another way to say it might be that we've been shielded from the effects of not investing in our own children by the immigration of smart and educated young adults, where countries with less immigration are more acutely aware of how well its own educational system is performing.

OGEnthusiast 11mo ago

It's also odd how no one ever asks whether the reason child care is necessary and a single-income household isn't earning enough anymore to make a living because Americans are effectively competing with the entire world for housing and jobs.

mrtesthah 11mo ago
Probably because that’s not true.

hammock 11mo ago

What makes you say that when New Mexico is now offering free childcare?

swsieber 11mo ago
I would not say that free childcare is an investment in children.
xboxnolifes 11mo ago
Free childcare is an investment in working parents, not the children.
siliconc0w 11mo ago
One state offering something is a start but we're still far behind maternity, pre-k, childhood nutrition, and primary or secondary education in general for most of the population relative to peer nations. Plus this administration's cuts to Medicare or SNAP which will also hit the poorest kids the most. Plus the national debt they are saddled with. Our children's well being (physical health, mental health, education, etc) is routinely ranked toward the absolute bottom compared peer nations.
- trollbridge 11mo ago
  … behind in childhood nutrition? Between the WIC program, snap, and school meals there is plenty of resources. It’s true that it’s means tested, but I’m not entirely sure we need to be providing free meals for rich people.

g9yuayon 11mo ago

> so we have been unwilling to invest in our own children. The school districts like SFUSD are actually sabotaging the growth of our kids in the name of equity. They're committed to ideas from people like Jo Boaler, and they tried very hard to dumb down the curriculum. The real tragedy is that kids from wealthy families will just get other means of education to make up the difference. It's the kids who desperately need the quality education who are going to be left behind. If it were up to me, I'd send those people to jail (yes yes, I know. I'm just angry and lashing out)

lordnacho 11mo ago
I looked up this lady on Wikipedia, but I couldn't find any obvious problems. It says she's a math educator with degrees from known universities and lots of published research?
- g9yuayon 11mo ago
  https://stanfordreview.org/jo-boaler-and-the-woke-math-death-spiral/ https://stanfordreview.org/jo-boaler-and-the-woke-math-death..., and wikipedia on Math Wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Math_wars Personally, I find Boaler's advocacy extreme. Her famous quote: "Every student is capable of understanding every theorem in mathematics – and beyond – the mathematics curriculum. They just need the opportunity to struggle with rich tasks and see mathematics as a conceptual, creative subject.” This sounds inspiring, but in practice she advocated the policy of truly dumbing down math curriculums and text books. To say the least, shouldn't she at least demonstrate that she could understand any theorem? But instead, she advocated that SFUSD eliminate algebra from 8th Grade . Another example was that the curriculum that she advocated, College Preparatory Mathematics, was so boring and trivial. She also said something along the line "Traditional mathematics teaching is repetitive and uninspiring. We give students 30 similar problems to do over and over again, and it bores them and turns them off math for life.” What's funny is that the alternatives that Boaler prescribed were quite uninspiring and low level: https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/ https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/. All I can derive from her policies and complaints is that she couldn't do math. Why people would listen to someone who sucked at math about math education is beyond me.

venturecruelty 11mo ago

Man, the "anti-immigration" square on my HN bingo card has a hole in it from all the pen marks. Anyway, we stopped investing in kids because kids aren't profitable in the next quarter, like everything else that's beneficial to society and not the eight wealthy people currently running it. Hope this helps.

buzzert 11mo ago
Since when did public (government) schools become run for profit?
- venturecruelty 11mo ago
  Since Milton Friedman.

EasyMark 11mo ago

Definitely one of the few policies that Trump "championed" that I supported him on; severely curtailing H1B visas going forward. Those who are here can be grandfathered in, but going forward the program should be wound down, and we invest in our own civilians and youth.

qgin 11mo ago

Another way to say it might be that we've been shielded from the effects of not investing in our own children by the immigration of smart and educated young adults, where countries with less immigration are more acutely aware of how well its own educational system is performing.