7 ms·

I somehow doubt that sabotaging the kid's education would reduce his anarchism and individualism.

by auctiontheory 13y ago

hga 13y ago
But as long as that sabotage severely curtails his future, do they care?
- guard-of-terra 13y ago
  Would it? 2013 says it's pretty hard to curtail one's future. No single entity controls it, there's no gatekeeper. They just show their own misery.
  - hga 13y ago
    The headteacher appears to think he can keep this guy from getting a college education, and he might well be right. True, there's no single gatekeeper, but there are a zillion little ones, and too large a fraction of them will stop someone without a degree, or one without a higher tier one ... and probably more in the Great Recession when there are so many credentialed unemployed.
    - guard-of-terra 13y ago
      If this guy wants to be a politician, which he seems to do, then passing thru hostile gatekeepers is his job description. Anyway, even if he would not it's not as easy either. Imagine someone cold-calling univercities telling he's a headteached (whatever this means) and persuading not accept the student N. He'll be seen as a lunatic, wouldn't he?
      - hga 13y ago
        That's the thing we don't know. His attitudes aren't necessarily "lunatic" based on post-WWII U.K. history, and we don't know how much this sort of thing is still an "old boys club" in which he got a hearing from people who weren't entirely cold called. Conflict with a teacher cost Richard Gabriel of "Worse is Better" fame entrance to Harvard or MIT and a lot of subsiquent grief: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Gabriel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Gabriel
        guard-of-terra 13y ago
        If this would be true I would not be happy with the situation in the UK. But, if he's really going to be a politician, it would be very good for him to face this thing he's supposed to fight later on.
  - misuba 13y ago
    > 2013 says it's pretty hard to _further_ curtail one's future FTFY
thotpoizn 13y ago
Well, the anarchy could have been forgiven, but individualism? Put him up against the wall! I've looked at the blog in question ( http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/ http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/ ) - and it's obvious that the real problem was about his being critical of the school administration. His petty thug of a headteacher seems perfectly deserving of every bit of the attention he is about to receive.
- auctiontheory 13y ago
  Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone.
  - eCa 13y ago
    Or, in the words of The Clash[1]: You have the right to free speech As long as you're not Dumb enough to actually try it Considering how the school has reacted to his writings, I'd say that he is probably right. [1] http://www.metrolyrics.com/know-your-rights-lyrics-the-clash.html http://www.metrolyrics.com/know-your-rights-lyrics-the-clash...
  - mhurron 13y ago
    I always said he was up to no good.
scarmig 13y ago
Is kicking someone out of a building that bears more than a passing resemblance to a prison really sabotaging their education?
- sillysaurus2 13y ago
  ... Yes. As a self-taught programmer, I believe university is important. It gives quite a lot of advantages (mostly social ones, which are the most important). And undergrad universities select primarily based on school performance, so kicking him out definitely would've sabotaged his higher education. To piggyback on this comment in hopes of finding some assistance: I've been trying to figure out some long-term strategy of how to get into a top-tier university. I have the ACT scores for it, but I dropped out of highschool to go work in software. The decade of dev experience is certainly nice, and I've studied core CS theory on my own (xv6 and paxos for example), but I'd really like to attend a top uni in order to do graphics research. I wonder if it's even possible for a 25 year old highschool dropout to achieve this? I was thinking I could do well for a couple years at some local university, then apply to transfer to Penn, Stanford, etc. I've heard transfer students are more likely to be accepted. But I wonder what else I could do to increase my chances.
  - cinquemb 13y ago
    As someone who dropped out from Brown (and transferred credits from State universities I attended while in HS) and been engaging with newer educational things like project breaker[0], there are plenty of social advantages out there with "non-traditional" organizations that give more freedom and open just as many doors… Though yes, if you are trying do research, uni might be good, but there's plenty of university politics/culture involved that might make you want to drop out again (esp with research and such), despite it all… Besides, who's to say you can't do research outside of uni? [0] http://www.projectbreaker.org/ http://www.projectbreaker.org/
    - sillysaurus2 13y ago
      Well, I've been doing my best to research on my own, but at this point I need access to a high quality spectrophotometer in order to perform measurements of various materials' absorption spectrums under various lighting conditions. They can run ~$5k, so uni seems like my best bet. I figured I couldn't really just show up and ask to borrow their spectrophotometer... they'd probably want me to have a degree or some kind of credentials before trusting me at all. Project Breaker looks quite interesting. Thanks for letting me know!
protomyth 13y ago
Seems like it would just confirm his beliefs.

I somehow doubt that sabotaging the kid's education would reduce his anarchism and individualism.

hga 13y ago

But as long as that sabotage severely curtails his future, do they care?

guard-of-terra 13y ago
Would it? 2013 says it's pretty hard to curtail one's future. No single entity controls it, there's no gatekeeper. They just show their own misery.
- hga 13y ago
  The headteacher appears to think he can keep this guy from getting a college education, and he might well be right. True, there's no single gatekeeper, but there are a zillion little ones, and too large a fraction of them will stop someone without a degree, or one without a higher tier one ... and probably more in the Great Recession when there are so many credentialed unemployed.
  - guard-of-terra 13y ago
    If this guy wants to be a politician, which he seems to do, then passing thru hostile gatekeepers is his job description. Anyway, even if he would not it's not as easy either. Imagine someone cold-calling univercities telling he's a headteached (whatever this means) and persuading not accept the student N. He'll be seen as a lunatic, wouldn't he?
    - hga 13y ago
      That's the thing we don't know. His attitudes aren't necessarily "lunatic" based on post-WWII U.K. history, and we don't know how much this sort of thing is still an "old boys club" in which he got a hearing from people who weren't entirely cold called. Conflict with a teacher cost Richard Gabriel of "Worse is Better" fame entrance to Harvard or MIT and a lot of subsiquent grief: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Gabriel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Gabriel
      - guard-of-terra 13y ago
        If this would be true I would not be happy with the situation in the UK. But, if he's really going to be a politician, it would be very good for him to face this thing he's supposed to fight later on.
- misuba 13y ago
  > 2013 says it's pretty hard to _further_ curtail one's future FTFY

thotpoizn 13y ago

Well, the anarchy could have been forgiven, but individualism? Put him up against the wall! I've looked at the blog in question ( http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/ http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/ ) - and it's obvious that the real problem was about his being critical of the school administration. His petty thug of a headteacher seems perfectly deserving of every bit of the attention he is about to receive.

auctiontheory 13y ago
Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone.
- eCa 13y ago
  Or, in the words of The Clash[1]: You have the right to free speech As long as you're not Dumb enough to actually try it Considering how the school has reacted to his writings, I'd say that he is probably right. [1] http://www.metrolyrics.com/know-your-rights-lyrics-the-clash.html http://www.metrolyrics.com/know-your-rights-lyrics-the-clash...
- mhurron 13y ago
  I always said he was up to no good.

scarmig 13y ago

Is kicking someone out of a building that bears more than a passing resemblance to a prison really sabotaging their education?

sillysaurus2 13y ago
... Yes. As a self-taught programmer, I believe university is important. It gives quite a lot of advantages (mostly social ones, which are the most important). And undergrad universities select primarily based on school performance, so kicking him out definitely would've sabotaged his higher education. To piggyback on this comment in hopes of finding some assistance: I've been trying to figure out some long-term strategy of how to get into a top-tier university. I have the ACT scores for it, but I dropped out of highschool to go work in software. The decade of dev experience is certainly nice, and I've studied core CS theory on my own (xv6 and paxos for example), but I'd really like to attend a top uni in order to do graphics research. I wonder if it's even possible for a 25 year old highschool dropout to achieve this? I was thinking I could do well for a couple years at some local university, then apply to transfer to Penn, Stanford, etc. I've heard transfer students are more likely to be accepted. But I wonder what else I could do to increase my chances.
- cinquemb 13y ago
  As someone who dropped out from Brown (and transferred credits from State universities I attended while in HS) and been engaging with newer educational things like project breaker[0], there are plenty of social advantages out there with "non-traditional" organizations that give more freedom and open just as many doors… Though yes, if you are trying do research, uni might be good, but there's plenty of university politics/culture involved that might make you want to drop out again (esp with research and such), despite it all… Besides, who's to say you can't do research outside of uni? [0] http://www.projectbreaker.org/ http://www.projectbreaker.org/
  - sillysaurus2 13y ago
    Well, I've been doing my best to research on my own, but at this point I need access to a high quality spectrophotometer in order to perform measurements of various materials' absorption spectrums under various lighting conditions. They can run ~$5k, so uni seems like my best bet. I figured I couldn't really just show up and ask to borrow their spectrophotometer... they'd probably want me to have a degree or some kind of credentials before trusting me at all. Project Breaker looks quite interesting. Thanks for letting me know!

protomyth 13y ago

Seems like it would just confirm his beliefs.