2 ms·

Sorry, should have mentioned it is a ~7MB book. As far as conspiracy goes, can anyone offer up a mainstream explanation as to why public education is such a mas

by reedlaw 17y ago

Sorry, should have mentioned it is a ~7MB book. As far as conspiracy goes, can anyone offer up a mainstream explanation as to why public education is such a massive failure? If there is such an explanation, surely it would have led to reform by now. On the contrary, as public education spending continues to increase, literacy continues to decrease.

cabalamat 17y ago
No such explanation is needed; in the lack of powerful motivating forces for education (or anything else) to be good, it will be mediocre. PG makes the point that school is bad, not because it was deliberately designed to be, but because the design spec was to warehouse otherwise potentially disruptive young people, not particularly to educate them: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html """And as for the schools, they were just holding pens within this fake world. Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. And I have no problem with this: in a specialized industrial society, it would be a disaster to have kids running around loose."""
pmichaud 17y ago
I want to echo the other reply -- I've discovered in my life that whenever there is something wrong with a system, it's never a cabal deliberately undermining it. It's always some perverse incentive for a group to act badly. Look for the underlying perverse incentives.
catzaa 17y ago
Hmm… I can think of one reason. Public school is designed for the bottom 60%. Therefore the top 40% will always be dragged down towards that level. I also found (this may not be true in general) that the majority of public school teachers come from the bottom 60% and they have a serious lack of ambition.

2 ms·

Sorry, should have mentioned it is a ~7MB book. As far as conspiracy goes, can anyone offer up a mainstream explanation as to why public education is such a mas

by reedlaw 17y ago

cabalamat 17y ago
No such explanation is needed; in the lack of powerful motivating forces for education (or anything else) to be good, it will be mediocre. PG makes the point that school is bad, not because it was deliberately designed to be, but because the design spec was to warehouse otherwise potentially disruptive young people, not particularly to educate them: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html """And as for the schools, they were just holding pens within this fake world. Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. And I have no problem with this: in a specialized industrial society, it would be a disaster to have kids running around loose."""
pmichaud 17y ago
I want to echo the other reply -- I've discovered in my life that whenever there is something wrong with a system, it's never a cabal deliberately undermining it. It's always some perverse incentive for a group to act badly. Look for the underlying perverse incentives.
catzaa 17y ago
Hmm… I can think of one reason. Public school is designed for the bottom 60%. Therefore the top 40% will always be dragged down towards that level. I also found (this may not be true in general) that the majority of public school teachers come from the bottom 60% and they have a serious lack of ambition.