
How to Fix the Country's Ailing Schools. And How Not To. - arghbleargh
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/opinion/sunday/how-to-fix-the-countrys-failing-schools-and-how-not-to.html
======
nickff
The piece ends with the following quote:

> _" People are... asking: ‘What do we need to do to save traditional public
> schools?’"_

And for the life of me, I cannot understand why people should be interested in
saving 'traditional public schools'(TPS). I know that TPSs are a stand-in for
a number of political values, but I have to say that emphasizing political
values and the status quo is quite disappointing when it comes to the
development of childrens' potential. In an age of rapidly improving
communications, with responsive websites and machine learning, as well as the
massive budgets devoted to 'education', we should be able to do better than
small incremental improvements to a model of schooling developed hundreds of
years ago.

Perhaps this article is a symptom of Thiel's diagnosis in "Zero to One", that
people do not believe that things can be drastically improved, so they rely on
incrementalism and a refusal to believe in anything specific. Another
possibility is that the author is simply trying to defend the status quo
against change, and appealing to cynicism and doubt to achieve this ends. I am
not sure which possibility I find more distressing.

~~~
empressplay
I agree with you. Provide a space with facilitators to keep kids out of
trouble and point them in the right direction(s), then just let them have at
it.

The whole grade and classroom system is horribly antiquated. Children with
ability will follow their more successful peers without any external impetus.
Those who lag "behind" (based on whatever metric you choose to use) can get
one-on-one assistance from instructors to determine where they're running into
trouble.

Personally, I think the "traditional" classroom has always been "broken" and
I'll be happy to see the back of it.

~~~
rubberstamp
Without experiment there won't be progress. New technologies should be adopted
to aid learning. Not talking about giving ipads, but about using internet to
help with accelerated learning. An analogue to this would be that we can't
learn basics of programming or become experts in them just by reading it. You
have to practice. Using internet materials to help explain things would do
great for both teacher and student. There are many wrong articles about stuff
out there, so things will have to be curated though.

Also currently there is a situation where not everyone is able to follow what
they truly like. That situation will change when there is a "place" where
anyone can learn about anything authoritatively(learning by oneself with
internet is very tedious and you never know if you are in right path).

------
greydius
I've always felt the system of using property taxes to fund public schools (in
the US. I dont know how other countries work) is completely unfair. Affluent,
lower population (and predominately white) school districts are well funded
while urban (predominately minority) school districts struggle. Also, when the
school board has the power to raise your property taxes, the can make it
impossible for lower income families to afford to live in places with good
schools.

~~~
DrScump

      when the school board has the power to
      raise your property taxes
    

I don't know of a jurisdiction that gives that power to school boards;
generally parcel taxes and such must be voted in (but such measures generally
win, since non-property-owners can vote as well).

------
dba7dba
It's not the fault of the schools or politicians or teachers. It's the
parents.

