"NOTHING IS MORE CERTAINLY WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF FATE THAN THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE TO BE FREE. ESTABLISH THE LAW FOR EDUCATING THE COMMON PEOPLE..."
--Thomas Jefferson
--Thomas Jefferson
Posted on 01/07/2012 3:23:43 PM PST by Sprite518
It might also become a backdoor recruitment channel for undiscovered brainiacs worldwide.
It’s always been predicted, by economists, that in a free market society, wealth tends to flatten over time. So the fact that third world countries have improved their ability to teach their populace is reflective of that.
But it also reflects that it is the West that got fat and lazy. The fact that some kid in Bombay choose to maximize his opportunity to study hard science, math and engineering should have that opportunity that the world presents itself. It is the fault of West that most of our kids use their time unproductively.
I just want to modify it with the technology we now have instead of a 20th century approach.
Plus S&H, of course.
But wait, there's more! Order in the next 10 minutes and we'll double your order. (Just pay separate shipping and handling.)
Yeah I thought it was great - it’s called the Khan Acadamy. Here is a story about it and I was wrong it is even earlier than high school.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1
The guy started out (he’s an MIT grad so it fits the thread!) by teaching his nephew by video, then he started putting the videos on youtube for his nephew to do practice work, and he saw that his videos were getting thousands of hits. From there he got the idea that a kid watching the video who doesn’t get it can rewind it and watch it again and again until he does get it, where in the classroom they may be too embarassed to ask, or, maybe the class has no time. Eventually he opened the Acadamy where the kids come in to meet with the teachers and show what they have learned, rather than to learn. Brilliant!
Schools need to change and we need more innovative ideas like this one to see which ones work better. The days of the giant school system have to come to an end. They are very close to doing more harm than good, by neglecting half the kids, holding maybe 10% of them back (due to the top 10% not having opportunity to go faster or learn) and the other 40% are stuck learning things that they need to learn, but at the same time not really given much of a chance to figure out what they are good at and what they may want to do with their lives.
Been there, did that, FRiend.
Education begins with the will of the Individual to utilize what's available to them. Knock and the door will be opened; ask and you will receive.
Need Free programming tools to learn a new trade?
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/visual-csharp-express
And these low cost little gadgets...
...just waiting for industry and imagination to put them to use.
Individuals increasingly have access to tools with which to facilitate their own education; and with that, comes the ability to escape the tyranny of those who would keep them ignorant and enslaved via the tyranny of their own appetite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfR9nDsvBk8&
Got Aquaponics?
What most "technical people" are missing is having learned the art of marketing themsleves and their skills to employers, and understanding that no one will worship you simply for the degree(s) that you earned, but for the delivery of real, measureable value to the employer's bottom line.
Industrially career-inclined scientists succeed handsomely once they realize that they are in the "business of science," and learn to both develop and sell their skills sets with that point in mind.
FReegards!
Thanks. ;^)
Like everything else money can buy against what it can't.
Yes, shipping and handling that will only cost twice as much as the item you ordered :^)
“Like everything else money can buy against what it can’t. “
A large portion of the mess we find our economy in today can be linked to the foolishness taught in our so called MBA programs.
Fer sure. And what can't, can be linked to the foolishness taught in all the other ones. It's an epidemic of folly and hubris.
Celebrating 30 years in my career, born as it was into the recession of 1982 (12% unemployment, 12% interest rates, squeezing out in the Reagan years what at the end of the Carter years was 21% inflation) believe me, I get it probably better that you do.
I sell myself as able to add value to a business, and they like that, but they have the delusion that they can bring a guy off the factory floor and train him to hit "start" and get the same results.
You sell "what" about yourself? If I was on the shop floor I wouldn't mind being brought into the lab to train to do something of a more technical nature, if my employer believed I could do it. Back in 1982 I had freshly minted dual bachelors degrees in Biology and Chemistry and I would have killed to have an opportunity to train and to move into some thing like that. My industry is pharmaceuticals and biotech, specializing in Chemistry and Manufacturing Controls. What's your industry?
I've seen company labs running with calibrations they did YEARS ago for analyses that should be calibrated daily.
When I see that kind of thing on audits I write them up. If daily calibration is what is required (e.g., analytical balances, etc.) and they are not doing it for a month, or a year, or years as you say, in the pharmaceutical world they are considered to be outside of regulatory strictures which govern current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) as enshrined and enforceable by FDA legislatively in 21 CFR 210, 211.
But the work gets done cheaply, even if it isn't what it is supposed to be.
In the pharma industry, I make it clear that my clients can pay me now or pay me later -- when it is more expensive to deal with product embargoes, fines, regulatory actions, Consent Decrees, etc. I advise them how to do it right, or how to craft the language for their applications to obtain product approvals and to keep the products they wish to sell on the market.
That's what I sell, and that's what industry buys. Have clients at present who have chosen to call in the firm I own to help them with emerging from Warning Letters issued by FDA and Consent Decrees issued by the DOJ based upon FDA inspection actions. I have teams of independent regulatory compliance consultants who are serving on each of these projects at this minute.
Either you are making your employer or client a boat load of money or you are saving them a boat load of money. If you are doing neither you are adding no value to your employer or client's bottom line.
I've seen this dozens of times in many industries.
How many different industries do have experience in where this is the case?
Someone like me can go in, do things right from the first day and keep things right and credible, but they might have to pay a few dollars more an hour.
Hopefully that is the case and the more they pay, the more you're worth.
FReegards!
Amazing what you can do with those little Arduino’s.
Yes indeed. Look what KRFoerster is doing with one, for example...
"Ardiono Aquaponics"
"Finished my 2nd grow bed addition. This one is controled by an arduino and a few relay modules. The arduino controls the sump pump and then acts as a safety for a sump pump failure. If pump fails the switch tells arduino to turn off the water to growbed number 2. Which saves my fish! Cool. I am working on a Temp sensor addition for the Greenhouse and the fish tank. Really excited on how it is turning out. Thanks for watching and good luck with you own experiments."
"I'm not much of a programmer but I'm learning"
Heh. Yep. And he's doing just fine.
FReep on, brothers.
Good companies will pay handsomely for high quality technical expertise. I know this because they pay me, my firm, and my team huge $ to help them get product Quality back under control and back within regulatory compliance expectations. What you have described sounds like you have only been able to land jobs at a few shlock houses in you career so far.
They want it cheap, and they want to hire it in the form of contractors. This is not the way to make new technology happen.
You wrote that you work or have worked at a Contract manufacture of pharmaceuticals (the products was next shipped to be pressed into tablets). Was it a problem that another firm chose to hire your firm to do this task?
I hired contracted manufacturers to synthesize a unique active pharmaceutical ingredient on which I am named on the patent. I did the same for formulation development. There are plenty of contact manufacturing facilities that make new technology happen. You just have to work for the right ones.
I would not advise anyone to go into the sciences--the courses are tough, you end up spend 20 class hours for a 5 hour credit because of the lab courses, and then when you graduate, you find yourself reporting to some slug with a marketing degree.
Sounds like you are still too close to the time of having completed your undergrad education to appreciate where it can take you. I started at the bottom in the lab and own my own company today. In 1982 I earned a mere $13K. This year I will clear $1MM.
As far as having Quality personnel in a company reporting into some marketing dick, I saw that at a pharma firm once. FDA did too. They weren't happy. FDA cited them. The pharma firm called my firm in to advise them, to negotiate with the Agency, to reorganize their Regulatory Affairs and Quality Operations departments and to assist with the "redeployment" of some "lesser performing" management entities. That task (1) minimized their exposure, (2) got FDA of their back (because they could have been put out of business), and (3) corrected their problems going forward. Ka-ching: value added.
It only gets better as you gain experience, because your experience is downgraded--"entry level" jobs with 3-5 years industrial experience. This country has to get serious about employing the technical people we already have before hatching out legions more.
You need find a firm and to be employed by a firm that is defined by excellence. Only you can downgrade your experience. Showing up on time for 3 - 5 years is a minimum expectation, not a value added. Experience is not only defined by "time in," it is also defined by value added. Whatever value you have ever added to an employer is what you have to sell to your next employer.
Dumping on your own education is like pissing into your shoe. Like I said, only you can downgrade your experience. Don't piss on your assets.
FReegards!
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