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> Education does so much more for spreading democracy than > drones do, but our monetary priorities don't reflect > this, unfortunately. Education ofte
by cturner 12y ago
> Education does so much more for spreading democracy than
> drones do, but our monetary priorities don't reflect
> this, unfortunately.
Education often gets reduced to money arguments. Is there a relationship between the amount we spend on education and the quality of it?
As I see it - not beyond a point which is fairly low. You need to pay enough that people who are given to be teachers can live a comfortable life doing what they love.
The hard bit is the culture - having people around who are motivated to be a teacher for its own sake. And not because it's simply a stable job, or for the prestige associated with it.
We try to use money to blast momentum into broken culture - Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, poor neighbourhoods in our own countries. Sometimes
- Fede_V 12y agoThink of it this way - a teacher makes a very small fraction of what a programmer makes. With that kind of pay, and the kind of bureaucratic restrictions they have to work with, how easy do you think it is to recruit top tier ambitious talent?
- cturner 12y agoYour point about the bureaucratic restrictions is a good explanation for the kind of things that affect education - and it has nothing to do with money. To return to my earlier point - it's dumb to reduce the education debate to just a question of money. Even if you paid teachers quadruple, the bureaucracy would put off a lot of talent.