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Bill Gates on State Budgets and Education
Some Sunday food for thought and a follow-up to my comment on Bill Gates being worried about public pensions. Bill Tufts of Fair Pensions For All blog
sent me Gates' TED lecture (see video below). It's worth listening to
as Gates raises many legitimate points, especially as it concerns
transparency of accounting rules.
On education reforms, Gates has his share of critics. Bruce Krasting wrote an excellent comment on "Ponzi Science".
I will add that there are way too many ''rocket scientists'' on Wall
Street earning outrageous bonuses doing nothing but programming useless algorithms
(and structured finance but that's down considerably) while the real
scientists working at Bell Labs, MIT, Harvard and many, many other
research centers get almost no funding whatsoever.
Sam Blumenfeld of the New American discusses Why Bill Gates' Billions Will Not Improve Education. I quote:
So
we know that there are great independent-minded teachers in the
system, but they must keep a low profile in order to survive in a very
hostile environment. If Gates really wants to know what is going on in
teacher training these days, he ought to visit with Sue Dickson. She’ll
tell him stories that will curl his hair.But to Ms.
Weingarten, teacher quality is something of a mystery. She said, “But
there’s this notion of really figuring out what the best teachers do
and trying to scale that up.”
Would you hire Ms. Weingarten to be president of anything but a teachers’ union?
Of
course, if you visit a primary school classroom today, you will know
why our schools can’t produce enlivened children with intellectual
curiosity, who love reading books and conversing at an adult level. They
are now seated around little tables facing classmates who may be
talking or pestering them or coughing in their faces. Everyone is doing
something else. The teacher is now a facilitator roaming around the
room. She is using a reading program called Whole Language which turns
children into dyslexics. There are all sorts of things making it
impossible for many students to concentrate, so they acquire the new
school disease called ADD, and are put on a powerful drug like Ritalin.
The
curriculum is now made up of politically correct subject matter:
global warming, multiculturalism, alternate fuels, organic nutrition,
values clarification, sex ed, death ed, drug ed, diverse life styles,
sensitivity training, and anything else the educators can dream up.
Gates, unfortunately, believes that the key to the problem is in improving teacher performance. Obviously, he doesn’t
know what goes in in today’s colleges of education. He said: “If you
improve teachers today, the country doesn’t see the benefit of that for
15 years or so. So to be in this business you have to have a long-term
view….So you can’t be too impatient.”
Again, Bill is way off
track. A good, solid intensive phonics reading program in all of the
primary schools of America would be all that is needed to send American
education soaring to the moon. But apparently Bill Gates doesn’t know
this, and none of the education charlatans will tell him this. Too bad
he’s going to waste his money on phony reforms.
But one comment that really got my attention was posted by Valerie Strauss over at the Washington Times, Why Bill Gates is wrong on class size:
This
was written by educator Anthony Cody, who taught science for 18 years
in inner-city Oakland and now works with a team of science
teacher-coaches that supports novice teachers. He is a National
Board-certified teacher and an active member of the Teacher Leaders Network. This post appeared on his Education Week Teacher blog, Living in Dialogue.
Here is an open letter to Bill Gates written by Cody:
Dear Mr. Gates,
I
am writing to you because you have been getting a great deal of
attention for your ideas about education, and from my perspective here
on the ground in an impoverished urban district, I think you might be
making some mistakes.I read your recent commentary in the Washington Post (How Teacher Development Could Revolutionize Our Schools),
and reports from your presentation to governors, where you advised
them to raise class sizes in the rooms of the most effective teachers.
In your comments
to the governors, you said "there are too many areas where the system
fails. The place where you really see the inequity is the inner city. "You presumably are hoping to redress this inequity when you make this proposal:
"What
should policymakers do? One approach is to get more students in front
of top teachers by identifying the top 25 percent of teachers and
asking them to take on four or five more students. Part of the savings
could then be used to give the top teachers a raise."
I am
glad you are aware of the inequities. But your suggestion that caps on
class sizes be lifted does not suggest to me that you actually have
much understanding of the nature of these inequities. First of all, do
you actually believe that in the short time frame in which these
governors are trying to balance their budgets, they are going to
magically revamp their teacher evaluation systems so as to not only
identify the best teachers, but also make sure that ONLY the best
teachers have class size increases?
What is actually happening
is that, partly buoyed by your suggestion that class sizes should not
matter, there are going to be wholesale increases in class size across
the board, for every teacher, at every grade level. In Oakland,
principals have been told to prepare for cuts ranging from $300 to $900
per student. The only way to achieve such savings will be to lay off
teachers and significantly boost class size.
And there is no
mechanism that can be put in place to reliably identify the top 25% of
our teachers, no money to pay them extra for taking on these students,
and if the class size increases were only limited to a fourth of the
teachers, the savings this would provide would be inadequate.
In point of fact, the teacher turnover rate is one of the biggest problems we face in Oakland's schools.
This instability makes it difficult to build the kind of caring,
collaborative, reflective community that allows us to improve as
professionals. This turnover is not a function of our teacher evaluation
system. While improving our evaluation system is worth doing, it will
not fix this problem. Getting rid of ineffective teachers is not the
key. The key is keeping the good ones and helping them become better. A
good evaluation system is part of this, but it is much more than this.
We need to pay attention to the working conditions, and make sure
teachers are well-supported.
One of the most important working conditions, especially in high poverty schools, is small class size.
As a middle school teacher, my student load was capped at 160 a day.
That meant about 32 students in each of my five classes. Just imagine
160 papers to grade every day, and you get a picture. It is not uncommon
for teachers to spend half of their weekends grading papers. The
quality of the attention we can give our students is diluted every time
you add to that number.
And if you are in a high poverty
school, the chances are pretty much 100% that in every class you will
have students who are currently experiencing traumatic events in their
lives. I am talking about domestic and neighborhood violence,
homelessness, eviction, parents incarcerated. As this report indicates,
as many as a third of students in our tough neighborhoods suffer from
post-traumatic stress disorder. These problems all seep into the
classroom, sometimes overtly, and sometimes through acting out
behaviors. And larger class sizes make these behaviors even more
difficult to handle.
This is not just my opinion. There is a large body of research
that supports a strong link between class size and student
achievement. And I would be very surprised if the private schools your
children attend have large class sizes. On average, private schools
attended by the children of the wealthy have class sizes roughly half
those in neighboring public schools.
As class sizes increase
across the board, as they are likely to do, we are going to see
turnover rates rise among teachers. I serve as a mentor for beginning
science teachers, and have built a program to try to support and retain them in Oakland.Sadly,
more than half of my own mentees are leaving this year, after working
only two or three years as teachers. If you ask them why, they will
tell you, that the stress and challenge of the job is simply
overwhelming. All of them are promising, bright young teachers. They all
have huge gifts to offer their students. But the challenges they face
leave them feeling defeated. Increasing their class size will only make
this worse.
You are one of the wealthiest men in our nation. Do you see the challenges our poor communities face due to inadequate resources? Are you aware that the top one percent of our people have more than a third of the net worth
of our nation? And they keep getting more and more tax breaks? The
best thing you could do for schools would be to launch a campaign aimed
at getting wealthy corporations and individuals to pay their fair
share of taxes, so that the public schools, which rely on tax dollars,
are not primarily funded by the middle class, which is hurting so badly
now.
And: I was thinking about the math involved in Mr. Gates'
proposal. Let's take a school staffed by 40 teachers. You identify 25%
as the "best," and give these ten teachers four students more each.
That means you have served an extra 40 students, allowing you to reduce
your staff by ONE teacher. That saves you approximately $75,000 a
year, in salary and benefits. But according to this proposal we need to
pay these teachers more, so if we pay them say $5,000 each, we have an
expense of $50,000. So our net savings is $25,000. This is a drop in
the proverbial bucket compared to the cuts our schools are facing.
Please check your math, Mr. Gates.
There are
serious problems with the US education system. It's failing a whole
generation of students. And things aren't better elsewhere. In the UK,
an increasing number of universities could be at risk of going "bust" because of funding cuts and higher tuition fees.
Finally,
the crisis in education is linked to another crisis, the jobs crisis.
There was an interesting roundtable discussion on ABC's This Week with
Christiane Amanpour on creating jobs in America. You can click here to watch it.
There are no real long-term solutions to job creation and with youth
unemployment at an all-time high in most developed countries, I worry
that we are heading down the wrong path which will exacerbate income
inequality. Without solid job creation, the discussion on pensions is
pointless. Below, I embedded Gates' speech.
»
- advertisements -
Kids need smaller class sizes, more recess, single sex classes, male teachers for boys, female for girls, and a radical overhaul of how and why we teach.
1) Class length of no more than 45 mins, followed by 45 mins of recess/independent learning.
2) Stagger the classes to achieve reduced class size, i.e. 15 kids in class, 15 in recess at a time.
3) Eliminate testing.
Read 'A Mathematician's Lament' for a vision of math (and by extension, all) subjects taught properly.
http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
Editing my post because I was "tired" when posted.
I believe that the US education system is failing but I'm not sure why. A few weeks ago I watched "Waiting for Superman" (worth watching). The film explicitly targets easy tenure (and therefore the teacher's union in general but implicitly).
I tend to think that explanation is somewhat facile. I received a great public education in Canada and teachers here are part of a union and have tenure. My seven year-old neice is reading at a level beyond what I was at her age and she too is in public school (Canada).
I think the problem might be more systemic. American universities will give a degree to anyone who has the money to pay for it. No one flunks out and grades are inflated. And these people become teachers. I remember a number of years ago applying to grad school in the US. A few of us were worried because we didn't have a perfect grade point average. Our profs (most who went to school in the US) told us not to worry because admissions departments recognized that Canadian universities gave out "real" grades.
Addendum : I noticed that some poster above mentioned whole word reading - doesn't work - if your kid is in a program like that get them out or start teaching them how to read at home. Whole word reading comes after you have mastered the basics - namely sounding words out.
all interesting but irrelevant
the leaves are all differnet colored . Why hack at the leaves for an answer.
go to the root . Understand economics and not trite whatever's
Try some Mises, some Austrian economics . even read a gasp Book, try Tom Woods
Roll Back.
the bullet to your head and plunder is explained
You're A Nobody Gates: No One Listens to You
If it wasn't for Paul Allen's brains and Gates' Daddy's $$ billion foundation pals... Gate's would be a dickweed Apple salesman with a bad haircut...
If you've ever seen the questions on "Smarter than a 5th grader" then you know the true capacity of a high quality education. I recognize the questions, but the answers often elude me.
The fact that a majority of the time is spent on things we don't need or will not remember points to the fact that the importance of education is developing the neural network to allow for cognitive thought. It should develop things like the ability to learn when it is needed and to develop an intellectual curiosity about knowledge.
What is most interesting is a superficial look at the two best cultures in learning and practical achievement. The Jewish and the Oriental cultures share a language style that reads from right to left and then, of course, English is right to left. Not an absolute, it should at least raise a curiosity into the best way to develop an effective neural network by the 5th grade as the methods currently employed seem to need enhancement for while a 5th grader can tell you the hypotenuse of a rectangular curve, chances are it's lost by 6th grade and totally forgotten with puberties onset.
ROFL. This is so insane. Once again, 'numbers' instead of using ones head. It's like the educators want someone else to do their jobs? Or they are impatient and want to know everything and get everything in their career done NOW!!! (WTF???)
It's like the old...always turnover 20 percent of your workforce type thing.....it's STUPID. So by that measure, you'll DEFINITELY fire MANY well qualified, and perhaps even future backbone of your company types....just because of some bullshit rule that says turnover 20 percent??? It's the same fucking sophistry.
Now it's destroying our future via fucking up our education. Let's use BULLSHIT tests, that we read all wrong (because we love bullshit like housing price models that go up year after year), and we gauge some arbitrary number [that some lame-o making way too much convinced us meant something], which we then conclude it means (incorrectly) we've separated the good teachers from the bad (it doesn't).
Then based on this....we (don't) know what to do, and either 'punish', 'fire', 'takeover', or 'outsource to the private sector for a nice corporate laced and propagandized education...to produce little fascists'. Because, something must be done....the tests (don't) show us that. Now we can use the draconian rules in this to effect change (whatever that means, no matter who profits).
We teach for a test. We don't teach context. We cram it all in. Adding more sophistry every year. If you add all the bullshit + teaching for the test in you are left with probably 2/3 of the normal time to teach the rest [if that]....I actually think it might have been THAT bad by the mid 90's...what is it now????? Has to be alot more. [my school district was one of the ones participating in the precursor type tests..sorry for blowing the bell curve] (and since we can't have smart teachers...that are well educated...or actual work experience...since they cost more...we'll just pay for the poorer ones, and cycle them through faster with these tests) Which when [NOT IF] they fail, we can come in and 'cut, cut, cut', or give it to our crony friends, who will siphon off state money to 'privately fascistly educate' our children. The fascist Public/Private model.
People also forgot to ask, can our teachers teach well, when they are ONLY teaching for a test? Or does that whole structure, LIMIT their effectiveness as a teacher? Oops.
IS our children learning? Nope. Not even when the test tells us they IS.
But then again why should the children learn? The adults sure don't, and haven't, given extra time, age, wisdom, and being paid for it.
I bet some of the best teachers, whose students DON'T pass, still learn much more than those who teachers strictly teach the test, and their students pass with flying colors. You cannot replace thinking, with bullshit. Any teacher that comes from the private sector with a desire and ability to teach will take less (many when the reach their 50's-60's). But only 1/100 of them are going to take $25k. Most of the rest will do it for 40-70.
Now (or the desired idiocy to be implemented) without seniority, or other allowances for work experience, they'll go right to the bottom of the pay scale. [in scottsdale it's a 30-40 year graph...I saw it in middle school and high school many times....which they also want to take away) The bottom of the graph is SHIT. You only get paid well after about 15 years in the same school district (unless you get some allowance).
One size fits all, 1-40 years teaching experience, doesn't matter. Worked somewhere high up, doesn't matter. (which means these people won't BOTHER applying). We don't want to pay it, because the TEST doesn't CAPTURE IT. (to anyone not an idiot this isn't a reason not to hire, it's a reason to FIRE THE TEST...another reason WHY we should get rid of it) It sort of creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you can't teach well because you have to teach for the test, then such a test, will show you that you are paying more, for someone who won't increase the 'test' scores. (again as if the test scores MEAN ANYTHING!!!!)
ANY MONKEY can teach for a test, and have the scores be what they are.
On top of all this, think of what an equalization means. You see, then their 'cost' of bad teachers goes 'up', thus creating a 'need' to have this bullshit in place, to 'rid' ourselves of bad teachers, since they'll cost more...since we raised THEIR wages, and DROPPED the GOOD TEACHERS! [in other words...PURPOSELY fucked shit up, so we'd have another excuse to take the next step]
Meanwhile those that are good and paid more, will retire or leave. (and as some go, they'll retire, get a pension for LONGER...[their rightful right], and sometimes get paid again to substitute teach elsewhere). So where are the savings? (oh yeah, it just pushes more onto the pensions...and we know what their plans are for those...NEEDLESSLY AXE THEM)
You also have the motivation. Why continue getting smarter for the benefit of your children, if you aren't going to get paid more? Some teachers, would say, I'm getting paid more every year (I heard my own teachers say so growing up), so I should do what I can to learn more. Well, take that away, and what do you have? Our smartest teachers, won't reach THEIR potential as teachers. But don't worry the test won't catch that either.
Why oh why do we go down this idiot road? Simple Everyone wants to know if they are 'wasting' money on education. (????WTF??? fiscal idiots)
We have unleashed the beast. Our desire to 'cut costs' have destroyed our educational system. [40+ years of cuts] Not just from direct cuts, and school closings, but in order to 'justify' (again WTF??? education needs no justification)our expenditures, people want 'to know' what they actually know or not. Somehow the idiots need to see it all boiled down to yes/no.
They can't think, they need something to TELL them. If it can't be tested on, is that knowledge not needed or real or beneficial? Doesn't matter, it only matters that there is a mechanism in place that tells them. Accuracy doesn't ever get into the equation.
Oh yes, these idiots believe in these tests like Obama believes in bailouts, or Bush believed in torture. It's sort of like welfare payments, in most cases, the enforcement costs more than the savings. Or damn near it, which means the only savings they get, go back into the costs of finding those 'savings'. Talk about a fucking waste. The same idiocy....over and over again. No one actually thinks anymore. Keep teaching corporatism, fascism, sophistry, and the test and I'm sure we can be better students. The test will NO DOUBT tell us so. If not, more money for our friends to steal.
No one will do what is needed, because it takes money AND COMMITMENT. We have to give it all back in tax cuts, kickbacks, bailouts, etc. Account for every dime to welfare or schooling, but don't (don't EVER) account for tens of trillions in bailouts and corporate bullshit. (and somehow it appears they got half the people as complete suckers oblivious to this fact). We must prove to ourselves we aren't wasting money on education via these tests??? Really?
1. We don't need to do this. (getting rid of these tests will allow our children to learn more and ACTUALLY increase their level of education...not to mention it will stop pissing them off meaning they might be inclined to listen more)
2. Even if someone wanted to (there is no real way NOW and probably EVER to reduce education down to what they ASSUME and DEMAND MUST BE...a universal test about one's education...and have it be applicable everywhere.)
3. Glass-Steagall would result in the debt taken off state hands....which would do what for school districts? Oh yeah, be able to spend on what they need (or who they need to hire)....TO EDUCATE our children.
Once again the banksters strike and cause a mess, because without their hell foisted upon us, this who question becomes moot. (well once we TEACH the retards that these measures are bullshit) And just remember, I didn't even get into an inner-city Compton kid getting the same test and the same measure as, some kid who lives in a school districts surrounded by mcmansions. The idiots ignore this all, and quite frankly most of the above, most had figured out 10 years ago. I don't think anything I mentioned above, I didn't say in some form that long ago. (and there are far better people that me at this)
In a nutshell. We're just being PENNYWISE, POUND FOOLISH. (with our children)
All hail the guru. Couple of questions for this amazing genius:
(1) What on earth do you know about the management of unionized workforces?
(2) Why not import 10 million Indian teachers on H1B visas to get 'er done the way you imported developers at MS?
(3) Why not export all children to China for their schooling to achieve significant cost reductions?
(4) Did you learn product improvement after you retired? Didn't see much of that when you were on the job.
(5) And we're all listening to you, why exactly?
Exactly.
Why would any one listen to a college dropout with defective software and a chili bowl haircut about anything??
We need to move past the concept of essentially "when you are 7 you learn how to add, when you are 8 you learn how to multiply, when you are 9 you do fractions, when you are etc." We attempt to teach by age which is as sensible as teaching by shoe size. Display subject mastery then move on. Some students will move faster than others in different areas than others. We need to get over this. Our schools fail because we attempt to teach some happy medium to 25 students of widely varying ability all at the same time (age or foot size). Hence, the lowest common denominator wins out. God forbid you think about putting these students in groups by academic ability (something we are perfectly willing to do on the football, baseball, soccer, etc. fields by atheletic ability).
it's called "public education" not private. like the idea of course but "it's the sytem we have." i would argue teachers need to be paid far more than firemen or police since they excercise far more effective "public control"--if that is the government "mission" so to speak. having said that "paying for wars" is the most important thing. without that you have no police, no firemen, no teachers--etc, etc. for some "this is great news"!--especially Wall Street. Until of course "it's not because my evil money isn't working for me the way it normally does." again "think Warlocks."
I think you are right on target with "display subject mastery, then move on". If you follow that logic, you would remove grade level and just have a multitude of competencies. Students would be expected to master (not just pass each one with their class so they can move forward).
I have this belief that if every person graduating high school had a mastery of mathematics through basic calculus, we would not have some of the idiotic ideological divides; we would be able to actually solve problems.
How do I put a picture in here?
My Daughter (5th grade) came home with a warning notice PINNED TO HER BACKPACK from the school PTA (also in Spanish of course) to call the legislature because cuts would end Buses, Aides, and ESL.
I'd like to put it here.
?
Hey, Ebworthen... Take her out of the broken system and teach her yourself. You'll need about half the time that you play on ZH. See my other post here. If you have found ZH and haven't gotten junked too much, you have the first ingredient for what it takes to successfully homeschool. A brain that still works. Second ingredient, love for your kid that surpasses love for tv and stuff. Your ball.
It's easy. Just go to any pic on the net, right click on the image and click on "copy image location". Then go to the icon to the right of the 'anchor' in the toolbar under your Reply, right click and paste it into image URL, hit insert and voila, all done!
Education: Let the kids decide. Must have a 3.0 gpa and/or have 85% attendance.
Voting in General: If over 85% of your income comes directly from the government, I'm mainly talking welfare and SS, for over 3 years you lose your voting privileges.
Having to pass a citizenship test should be included as well.
Get it on the ballot. You have my vote. Don't forget mandatory drug testing for any taxpayer provided benefits.
Twain saw the obvious; that schooling is not only different from education, but also that schooling is a hindrance to education. Schooling is something done to you; education is what arises from a mind pursuing threads of curiosity, which then cumulatively blossom into creativity.
The reason teaching is a high-stress occupation is because quelling the curiosity of young minds is hard work. Ritalin eases the chore.
Professional educators have devised all kinds of sophisticated teaching methods to do what children naturally want to do. You should listen to the crap the modern teacher is taught how to teach. In typical form, they will take credit for the natural successes of the smart kids and find blame for failing to keep the others from falling behind. The education system isn't too different from politics and central banking in that regard.
ADD has developed in kids because of the constant need to be entertained, and in most cases can be overcome by discipline and diet. IMO
While in the end parents have the right to do what they feel is best for their kids education, consider these points. Also, I've taught for ten years in various schools. I've taught students from pre-school age to business classes. So I do have first hand experience in this:
Adding more students to an already crowded (and overworked teacher's situation) isn't the answer.
How would Gates feel if he spent half the weekend reading reports from his managers?
Why doesn't Gates publically call for all teachers to get an immediate pay raise comparable to other jobs? Is he afraid of the public backlash? Is he afraid of being labeled as a "socialist"?
Teaching to a test doesn't work. However, there's so much pressure on schools to get federal money that this basic fact goes out the window.
Not all but many teacher training programs don't allow for creative leeway to develop innovative ideas. Many say this is how it's done. Either do it or you're out of the course. How come no one ever talks about that?
How come teachers have to spend their own money on class supplies and even in any cases to buy food for some students who didn't have breakfast at home? Can you name on other job where employees have to pay for their own job materials?
How come many in Congress label teachers (and other public sector people) as greedy when they get these benefits:
Over $100,000 a year in salary.
Full salary during unlimited sick leave.
Govt. health coverage (universal health care).
Travel paid for by taxpayers.
Does Gates see the hypocracy in this? Apparently not.
How come many in Congress label teachers (and other public sector people) as greedy when they get these benefits:
Over $100,000 a year in salary.
Full salary during unlimited sick leave.
Govt. health coverage (universal health care).
Travel paid for by taxpayers.
Exactly, practice what you preach, lead by example. Hypocrites.
Bill Gates drives me nuts. He's a typical computer programmer; he knows nothing about the way the real world works and he can't think straight or critically in any common sense manner. I wish to fuck he would just sit down and shut up.
C'mon! Bill Gates isn't an idiot but like many who try to tackle complex policy issues, they try to boil it down to a few simple ideas which runs the risk of oversimplification. Does he have his agenda? Of course he does, everyone has an agenda. The uber-wealthy of America don't want to pay their fair share of taxes so they're attacking public pensions and public education. I think gates brings up some excellent points, but it's not as simple as he states. Anyways, I like his father a lot and listened carefully to him on Larry King when he said that the wealthy have to start paying their fair share of taxes. If I had a choice, I'd rather have dinner with William Gates Sr. only because he's unbelievably wise. Listen to him in a conversation with Charlie Rose. Below, Part 1 of Bill and his father on Larry King.
And listen to Part 3 of the Larry King interview and what both men say on taxes. No doubt Jr. paid $6 billion in taxes (also got a lot of it back through his foundation) but Sr. understands the importance of a progressive tax system:
Enough of this guy already. He's on Facebook and Twitter? Loves the Rockefellers too. Wow, deep stuff Leo.
Gates ignorance on the state of the economy is stunning. Oh, and dead wrong too.
Charlie Rose = Bilderberg
Bill Gates = Bilderberg
http://www.prisonplanet.com/eugenicist-bill-gates-to-attend-2010-bilderb...
Exactly. Body Odor Gates and his father, the guy who failed to teach his son personal hygiene, are going to save us by taxing rich people [that earn a salary - people like the Gates and Buffet, of course, don't earn salaries]. They really think we are all stupid. At least I know how to bathe and brush my teeth, how about you, Gates?
Admirable, necessary, but not sufficient.
I was wrong about you Moe. You all right.
+100
"I never let my schooling interfere with my education".
Mark Twain
I love that quote from Mark Twain. Here are some of his most famous ones concerning the stock market:
"October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The other are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February."
"There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it and when he can."
Why does everyone talk around the subject of bad kids? Mothers who abused drugs and alcohol produced impaired children. We attempt to educate them and have problems. We attempt to teach really bright kids and really dumb kids in the same thing in the same class room. We assume that the brightest members of our society like Bill Gates have some magic solutions in areas that they have little hands on and broad experience with.
The successful 1st grade teacher has more to offer than Bill Gates, but who listens.
Let Gates go into a “bad area” and run a successful school on a budget and assets that community has access to. Then we listen. We are all ready for good solutions. Better yet, maybe Bill can do it in several areas to cross section the results.
"Mothers who abused drugs and alcohol produced impaired children."
The government seems to incentivize this behavior. Who are these children of value to?
Since we're investested in education on this thread, here's something I heard about on Fox News today that might be of interest:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/05/exclusive-nasa-scientists-clai...
Serious implications.
I for one welcome our new, alien masters.
People--assuming they do exist elsewhere--closer to the Big Boom than us are likely a billion years ahead of us. We may be their long lost children.
In any case, I hope they're nice.
Don't worry...they have a tricameral legislative body who are too busy quibbling over which of their seven parties should have drilling rights to the unevenly distributed methane clusters to deal with the likes of us.
Superay has made a good point....it could be a culture based problem, more evident in the "inner city schools". There is no parental guidance or discipline. You have to go to the source of the problem....50%+ of these kids are born to single, unwed moms. Without this how do you expect kids to sit down and learn anything??? For the well to do...it is a problem of getting the kids off ritalin, checking in the I-pods at the door. You have to make a connection with the kids....ie., school and education are your main job at this point of your life. The rest, go out in the street or local sand lot and play ball, learn the value of teamwork, enjoy yourself you are only young once.......
how people keep handing over their money thru the most regressive tax in the world, PROPERTY TAXES to fund this is something i have not understood for over 13 years (how long i have own my house)
i refuse to be raped anymore, so these digusting people, teachers and administrators , can retire in luxury
Gates is a very smart guy. He thinks that if we move more money into the US educational system we can make everyone smart just like he is and everyone will be earning PhD salaries. But the real world is constraint by the IQ bell curve and money would be better spent on training for the jobs that one has a natural aptitude and infinity for. This recently published Harvard review was correct-not everyone needs or wants to go to college:
http://reason.com/blog/2011/02/04/harvard-study-maybe-everyone-s
“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."
John W. Gardner
Replace the word finance with the word philosophy and you get an idea of what ills the US.
Of course this is correct; but it's not politically correct; so it will go no where. As soon as you start discussing IQ, or SAT scores, you run head on into the African American test score problem, and that's it for that discussion.
Bill Gates has become more of a tool than a craftsman. Why does he even a have a platform outside of computer-geek crap?
You think that's amazing, Jane Fonda is our National Nuclear Engineer. Our "culture" asks "famous" people their opinions on everything; but especially on what they know absolutely nothing about.
Because he could sell a sliver of his portfolio and buy your whole neighborhood?
Does that mean we have to listen? Even here on ZH?
You clicked the 'play' triangle and the link that lead you to it.
actually gates has become an evil mad scientist. you don't want to take his vaccines? too bad. he will develop a mosquito that will inject you with it! no, i'm not making this up.
http://crosscut.com/blog/crosscut/18610/A-vaccine-delivering-mosquito,-a...
The crux of the problem is that we spend (too much?) on the elderly and the young, neither of which contribute meaningfully to the economy, and take in too little to cover this largesse. Unfortunately, the young don't pay taxes (yet) and the old can still vote. We can either implement a system where only people who are working are allowed to vote or wait until the young begin firebombing retirement homes.