People like to talk about the way it used to be. These people are not always wrong about the past. For the past 4 decades schools have been slowly cutting back on programs for students. Of course this is not the way it is explained. The educational poobahs Have a lot of great new programs to cover up the fact that less education is being provided.
This is happening because of a subtle shift. The idea of public education is a fairly new idea in America. It is only about 150 years old. Public education used to mean the government provided a school and teachers. Your child came and learned, if your child did not learn that was the parents problem and ultimately the students problem.
Over the past four decades and especially Geo Bush's No Child Left Behind law. Schools have now been forced to accept the responsibility for the problem of kids who will not learn. Which is a problem that can only be solved by the student and his family. This in addition to the fact that every student is an individual who is better in some subjects than others. This is a hard fact to accept in an educational system who's mantra is every child can do anything if they try hard enough. I wish that was true. So school districts have tried to implement any program that can be dreamed up so every student can achieve and succeed at something. So we can have equality of outcome.
There is no such reality as equality of outcome. There is only the opportunity to improve yourself and your quality of life, and the lives of your loved ones. It does not matter where you live in the free world this truth does not change.
Let us look into the future. The two biggest expenses for any school district are teacher salaries and the physical infrastructure. Suppose in twenty five years the schools offer all their classes on the Internet. Save a lot of money that way, and deliver the educational product as a efficient and productive system that can be updated quickly and is available to all the people all the time. Sounds good!
What about those people who do not take advantage of the educational service/product being offered by the government free of charge. What happens when we have millions of people who are barely literate? Could these people be the cheap source of labor that will bring manufacturing back to America? We could have are own private Mexico right here. Which means we will also have the gangs, crime and rioting they have there.
There are no easy answers to this problem, It will be interesting to see how this shift in education will play out. This is the fascinating aspect of history. How subtle shifts cause major changes in a society, and what comes next!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
the chinese century and you can take it with you
Watching the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics one could only be thoroughly impressed with the Chinese. It was a truly incredible and moving show, but it also showed us a lot about the Chinese we did not know.
There has been a lot written about the 1.3 billion people in china. Our biggest corporations have gambled a lot of time and money to the Chinese market. The old joke was that a billion people would need a lot of deodorant. Ha Ha.
Well after seeing the technology and the huge number of people who all performed flawlessly in the opening ceremony's. It is clear while we have been selling them right guard they have been developing technology way beyond anything we have, and organizing into a country that can meet the goals it sets for itself. It all began in the 1980s when we started building factories in china to build our computers. It would appear that they kept a few computers for themselves. Of course it was the height of American arrogance to think the Chinese would stay our manufacturing slave colony forever.
The 21 century belongs to china. One important reason is her enormous population. It is historical fact that for a country to prosper it needs a large, healthy, and educated population. While America has refused to consider universal care and has dumbed down public education and made Private education so expensive it has turned into a survival of the fittest scenario. The Asisn countries have done the opposite and have prospered. Perhaps instead of figuring out new ways milk every last drop of equity out of anything possible and leave only debt in our wake. We should try putting America back on track with that quaint old fashion idea " Made In America "
On a totally different subject. There has been a subtle population shift in America. As more suburban homes have gone into foreclosure. more and more of these homes have been rented to section 8 people. This has resulted in a rise in crime in what used to be expensive suburban communities. Which has resulted in lowering already falling home prices.
The main motivator in this is the federal section 8 program. Which subsidises 60% of the rent for the poor people in the program. It has the unfortunate effect of putting the local police in position of having to deal with big city crime that never would have occurred if it had not been for a federal program that gave people something they did not earn. It also puts the local school districts in a position where these districts have to deal with problem students, and more of them.
The interesting part is that the federal government has from forced busing to forced integration now to forced housing imposed programs on the states and municipalities. That only move the problems from the inner cities to the suburbs. The question " is this fair to anyone involved and has it worked " This is an issue that is at the heart of the racial problems in this country. Is this they way to solve this problem?
There has been a lot written about the 1.3 billion people in china. Our biggest corporations have gambled a lot of time and money to the Chinese market. The old joke was that a billion people would need a lot of deodorant. Ha Ha.
Well after seeing the technology and the huge number of people who all performed flawlessly in the opening ceremony's. It is clear while we have been selling them right guard they have been developing technology way beyond anything we have, and organizing into a country that can meet the goals it sets for itself. It all began in the 1980s when we started building factories in china to build our computers. It would appear that they kept a few computers for themselves. Of course it was the height of American arrogance to think the Chinese would stay our manufacturing slave colony forever.
The 21 century belongs to china. One important reason is her enormous population. It is historical fact that for a country to prosper it needs a large, healthy, and educated population. While America has refused to consider universal care and has dumbed down public education and made Private education so expensive it has turned into a survival of the fittest scenario. The Asisn countries have done the opposite and have prospered. Perhaps instead of figuring out new ways milk every last drop of equity out of anything possible and leave only debt in our wake. We should try putting America back on track with that quaint old fashion idea " Made In America "
On a totally different subject. There has been a subtle population shift in America. As more suburban homes have gone into foreclosure. more and more of these homes have been rented to section 8 people. This has resulted in a rise in crime in what used to be expensive suburban communities. Which has resulted in lowering already falling home prices.
The main motivator in this is the federal section 8 program. Which subsidises 60% of the rent for the poor people in the program. It has the unfortunate effect of putting the local police in position of having to deal with big city crime that never would have occurred if it had not been for a federal program that gave people something they did not earn. It also puts the local school districts in a position where these districts have to deal with problem students, and more of them.
The interesting part is that the federal government has from forced busing to forced integration now to forced housing imposed programs on the states and municipalities. That only move the problems from the inner cities to the suburbs. The question " is this fair to anyone involved and has it worked " This is an issue that is at the heart of the racial problems in this country. Is this they way to solve this problem?
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