Posted on 07/26/2021 7:00:20 AM PDT by Heartlander
My grandson will start high school. The school only has about 350 students. He has escaped into a serious meritocracy where he will need to work his ass off to survive.
“Over time, our educational deficit with other countries, notably China, particularly in the acquisition of practical skills in mathematics, engineering medical technology, and management, has grown, threatening our economic and political pre-eminence.”
At least 90% of the young US population is not smart enough to benefit from such education. That’s why we have government provided daycare...also known as public schools.
Those kids will gain nothing from more advanced curriculum and competent teaching.
No reason to invest the money.
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The unemployable rate is already around 50%. The Socialist dream of a guaranteed basic income cannot be avoided, now.
At least 90% of the young US population is not smart enough to benefit from such education. That’s why we have government provided daycare...also known as public schools.
In Japan, a kid’s only real job is to do well in school. In larger cities, where most live, admission to high schools is competitive. Parents spend money to send their kids to after-school schools—cram schools to improve their chances to get into a good high school. Doing poorly in school is not only a disgrace to the kid, but to his family as well.
Now contrast that with America. Many parents and even educators are saying we push students too hard. If a student doesn’t get good grades (forget about actually learning anything) why it’s everyone’s fault except the kid’s. And in many places, as the article points out, a major function of the school is to ‘keep the kids off of the streets’ as opposed to actually educating them.
China is and will continue to be a force to be reckoned with. It is likely the only ancient civilization still functioning intact today. Its culture has valued eduction for thousands of years, its population is blessed with very high IQ, and maybe for the first time in its history it is able to afford to educate most of its citizens. There are what, four or five times as many Chinese as there are Americans, so with education so widespread now, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are so many Chinese engineers, scientists, mathematicians, etc.
The biggest advantage we have is freedom, but we seem to be in the process of tossing it away.
“In Japan”...the average IQ is 103.
In America it’s below 95.
Young kids of color coming up now (Hispanics are over 50%, Blacks another 12%) are cursed with an average IQ close to 85.
Again, there is no quality or quantity of education that will make a difference to these kids. Most will never be able to make change or understand anything they struggle to read.
It’s farcical.
Yep, it’s called a Bell Curve.
The solution is obvious. Do away with merit in the job market, too. The last company that tried to recruit me presented a really appealing picture in their recruitment pitch and in my first two interviews with people with whom I would actually be working. Then they turned me over to some yutz in HR who was far more interested in my stance on LGBTQWTF issues and intersectional allyship than in my job history, skill set, or what I could do to add value to their product line.
I thanked them for their time and walked.
—”No reason to invest the money.”
A comparison.
Our son-in-law is a plumber, another relative is an MD Physician.
Out of the chute, the plumber is $50/hour for his regular 40 hr job. And often 40 or more hrs on the side.
He has some lean times in the depths of the 0bama years.
The MD has a one-year internship, then another year unpaid fellowship... Buy into a practice $$$, very expensive equiptment$$$ and many hours every week.
10 years in the Plumber buys a very nice house with acreage.
15 years the Doc has a very nice house built on a barrier island. Now mostly debt-free he is in the fast lane. The Plumber is also debt-free.
The plumber has to cut hours to be a soccer coach.
His regular job carries him well but at a slower pace.
Some of his friends are starting their own businesses with luck a better path.
A big city plumber can financially do as well as a small market Doc. No match if both are working in a large city.
Reading is the key to learning.
My high school education in the 1970s was a colossal joke (think "Welcome Back Kotter") but reading got me through. As a result, people just assume I have a college education based on how I communicate both written and orally.
As for college, I never went except a few night courses on specific topics that my employer mostly paid for. So zero college debt for me and my income is well above the average of college grads even in my age group.
Lastly, I should mention that the public libraries are still FREE. Since I was about 10 years old, I've had a weekly habit of going to the public library and checking out a stack of books. I did this even when in the military.
Even if I read only a portion of them, I'm getting something out of it. I also like to pull books off the shelves at random. What do you have to lose? If I don't like the book I randomly picked, it just gets returned the next week anyhow. But more often than not, that random book sends me down a new path of learning. That is how I expand my base of knowledge.
Reading is the key to learning.
The move to using the internet/smartboad to teach is not doing the kids any favors. It’s not as if the kids are starved of screen time.
They need to be able to read and I tell them that reading is not just calling out words in your head, but the transfer of ideas from the book into your brain—that’s the whole point of reading.
Here's an idea how about ending wage crushing H-1B visas? That one thing would change the paradigm dramatically in favor of US CITIZENS!!!
The unemployment rate for the beautiful people is 0 percent. So maybe one should spend money on plastic surgery and loose weight. Looking good will get you anywhere.
At best they( < 90 IQ ) should drop out after middle school an start to some kind of vocational apprenticeship.
“At best they( < 90 IQ ) should drop out after middle school an start to some kind of vocational apprenticeship.”
Not even the Army wants them.
They cannot read and follow detailed instructions.
The plumber, besides having no social clout, will spend most of his working life in the freezing cold or summer heat and will suffer long term physical problems. I want good “indoor work” myself.
Yes, I get it. But they would make good grunts and cooks.
He was a big believer in using books to supplement his history lessons. For instance, he would have us read "Call of The Wild" to learn more about the Gold Rush in Alaska and "Red Badge of Courage" to learn more about the Civil War. He did not want us just memorizing names and dates but also understanding the context of the history he was teaching us.
I doubt either of those books would pass muster in a "politically correct" classroom today - much less an elementary classroom! But those were different times.
When my own children were growing up, Harry Potter books were quite the thing. I encouraged my kids to read them because it got them away from the computer screen for a while. I know a lot here despise the Harry Potter series but it got my children interested in reading on their own so I will always be thankful for that. None of them ever read to the extent that I do but at least they have shelves of books in their own homes and have made reading regularly a part of their lives.
“Take this meal plan and recipes for 100 and cut it down for 30 for the officers mess”
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