Posted on 02/27/2005 11:34:56 PM PST by The Loan Arranger
WASHINGTON — Addressing the nation's governors, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (news - web sites) delivered a scathing critique of U.S. high schools Saturday, calling them obsolete and saying that elected officials should be ashamed of a system that leaves millions of students unprepared for college and for technical jobs.
Gates was speaking as the invited guest of some of the nation's most powerful elected officials, at a National Governors Assn. meeting devoted to improving high school education across the country.
"Training the workforce of tomorrow with today's high schools is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe," said Gates, whose $27-billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (news - web sites) has made education one of its priorities.
"Everyone who understands the importance of education, everyone who believes in equal opportunity, everyone who has been elected to uphold the obligations of public office should be ashamed that we are breaking our promises of a free education for millions of students," added Gates, to strong applause.
Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, chairman of the nonpartisan association, said high school education was in need of an overhaul to raise standards and to closely align instruction with the requirements of colleges and employers.
"It is imperative that we make reform of the American high school a national priority," Warner, a Democrat, said.
The governors' winter meeting coincides with a push by President Bush to extend elements of his No Child Left Behind initiative from the primary grades to the high school level.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Remind your Democrat friends of that when they talk about Republicans being for the rich. Soros, Kerry, Turner et al.
this is not breaking news either, similar stories were posted last night from different sources.
"The problems are unions in the schools. The problem is bureaucracy. I'm one of these people who believes the best thing we could ever do is go to the full voucher system." - Steve Jobs
Gates' highest degree is from high school.
Bill Gates went to Lakeside High School in N Seattle...the most elite HS in the state.
High school should be eliminated. School should be compulsory only throught the 8th grade (all that we need to teach can be compressed into 8 years of school if all the fluff is taken out). After grade 8 kids could enroll in higher education, trade or technical school, or simply enter the workforce. (This would also help the SS system by puting more workers into the system sooner).
Oh he's probably right on many things. But with outsourcing, offshoring, and illegal immigration, does he really have any idea how futile things can look to kids these days?
I agree with his comments, but he's not offering any solutions. I think all education should be run by corporations. Imagine wanting a job with Verizon because "Verizon High School" has a great computer science curriculum. Let corporations compete with each other for our cash and our children. If we don't like what Verizon H.S. is teaching our kids, we move them to AT&T High School. Or wherever.
"...and for technical jobs".
I imagine this is what he is really after. Something more like the old(?) Soviet style of figuring out what a kid is good at at a young age and then pigeonholing the kid into a career at the age of 15. Just like the automontrons that many countries put out - and that ours is leaning to. What - Johnny can't concentrate on his studies - have him take these pills and he'll start to fit in (CONFORM) just fine.
Gates called for a new design for American high schools, based on smaller schools with higher standards for math and language proficiency, instruction that is relevant to students' goals in life and better support from teachers and counselors....
He also called for a get-tough approach toward schools that fail. "When the students don't learn, the school must change."
Glad I read the whole article. Gates is talking some sense here, although I wish he's come all the way over to vouchers.
Since his foundation is spending big bucks on scholarships and other educational initiatives, Gates is probably on record with a much fuller educational agenda. In this article, he's advocating smaller schools, academic rigor, and greater relevance to "life goals." The first two points, most of us would agree with. "Life goals" raises some red flags. I wonder where he comes down on early high stakes testing, early tracking, and vocationalism vs. a broad liberal education. The devil's in the details.
Yeah - hold on there, Mr. Chicoms-good-for-future, let-Rossi-burn Gates. As someone else said, when would a lib like Gates ever support vouchers, which can work amazingly well - and quickly?
The schools can work. Vouchers are used to move from one sort - to another. The ones that don't work tend to be NEA, certified, official and entirely liberal. They do indoctrinate. Those kids do learn things. But do we really want NEA-indoctrinated Dem-voting drones working at Microsoft? or rather real people with what used to be called a liberal education going to Gates and Ballmer and whoever else and saying - not today, not this way, people will be harmed if we do this, or fail to do that. Microsoft could use a whole bunch more like that. They need educated folk, not tunnel-vision technicians. You can always school a techie. It takes something else to teach citizenship.
These are only part of the problem; according to my teacher pals, the biggest problem is parents who just do not care about their kids' education. Parents who never come to teacher conferences; parents who just don't care about their kids.
Changing this attitude is a lot more difficult than making the obvious institutional changes that are necessary.
The same applies to schools..."Teachers do best, that which the parents emphasize!"
We take an active interest in our son's education, keeping in close contact with his teachers. As a result, his grades are up significantly and he is more importantly, learning! Too many parents see school as day care while they are left free to "self-realize". School are not day care, any more than the BSA stands for "Baby Sitters of America.
Parents better wake up and realize that the most important job they will ever, ever have is that of raising their child!
Earth to Gates: College is obsolete too.
Kind of like free socialist security and free health care, eh Bill? You're not very good at root causes are you?
I found you ! I thought I was the only one in this world who thinks this way. By ending minimum wage, permitting ninth graders to go to trade schools or further their educations, we will get the cream. And we will get workers instead of the dross we have now.
These are only part of the problem; according to my teacher pals, the biggest problem is parents who just do not care about their kids' education. Parents who never come to teacher conferences; parents who just don't care about their kids.
Changing this attitude is a lot more difficult than making the obvious institutional changes that are necessary.
It is not the state's job to make parents care about their children's future. Nor is it the job of the state to take the place of parents. The parents you get are the luck of the draw.
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