It's Official: Public Schools are Obsolete

Khan Academy ^ | Vanity (mostly) | Robroy

[RobRoy]

>>Do you know how the finance and economics sections are ?

Is that the traditional liberal marxist/keynesian crap or more classical ?<<

The cool thing is that as the parent you can check it out yourself. :-)

[ClearCase_guy]

Yup. The amount of good educational stuff on youtube is phenomenal. And that's just people in their basement saying, "Maybe I'll film myself doing this and put it on the net."

We're still at the beginning of all of this. The quality is just going to get better, the breadth of the material will only increase.

Sitting kids in rows of desks and droning at them all day long is going to look pretty silly very soon.

[RobRoy]

>>Do you know how the finance and economics sections are ?

Is that the traditional liberal marxist/keynesian crap or more classical ?<<

I do know that it talks about only gold and silver being real money. That fiat currency is only money if a government says it is.

[RobRoy]

Your post is one of the reasons I created this thread. I was hoping this sort of link would be added. Thanks!

[martin_fierro]

[ExTxMarine]

As it has been stated, some school districts spend $20+K per student by erecting these Taj-Mahal/Lincoln Memorial/Parthenon school houses and Administrative buildings.

The school districts could actually save money if they simply issued a computer to every kid, a wireless internet card and the Khan Academy website!

The kids would be better trained, their skill sets would GREATLY rise and the liberal diatribe of the day would be avoided!

I have said it before and I will say it again! This should be the future of ALL training in America! We could sell most of the buildings! Think of the cost savings:
Salaries: teacher, janitors, lunch ladies, administrators, etc...
Books: printings, shipping, storage, etc...
Buildings: maintenance, utilities, etc...
Food: instead of providing breakfast, lunch AND DINNER to 70% of the kids in the school, the PARENTS could use their WIC/Food Stamps to provide their own kids with - I don’t know, maybe - FOOD!

If we did this as an “accredited” solution, without all the state/government BS associated with homeschooling, we could easily save 60-70% off our current school costs!

I have been using Khan Academy to help my daughter keep up and move ahead with her math skills! She absolutely LOVES the site!

[Judith Anne]

I don’t see any particular need for Instructor or Management. That’s kind of a “public school” “government” kind of thing...

[wastedyears]

I’m surprised they didn’t spell it “teechrs.”

[Da Coyote]

It would be interesting to see SAT scores differentiated by public vs private schools.

We already know what happens when we differentiate by public vs home-schooled children. Heh.

Anyone child “educated” by someone possessing only an “education” degree is most probably not educated at all. ‘Twould be analogous to GM “managers” trying to teach mechanical engineering. Or to anyone in the West Wing trying to teach anything about business...or engineering....or morality...or....or....

[Third Person]

As homeschoolers of three children, my wife and I have been using KA for the last couple of years. It is a great supplement for all sorts of topics.

Khan is refreshingly balanced on a number of hot button issues... it's not your usual agenda driven NEA DNC propaganda.

For a real eye-opener, take a look at Khan's breakdown of the banking system, TARP, and the Geither plan!

Highly recommended for all.

[Netizen]

My son went through the public school system and he was in the top 1% across the nation.

[umgud]

If we cut public education funding to zero tomorrow, those students who want an education will still find a way to obtain one (with caring parents help).

If we expand public ed funding a thousandfold tomorrow, those students who don’t want an education, still won’t get one.

If gov’t won’t kill public ed, we’ll do it for them.

[swain_forkbeard]

Genuine Corinthian leather.

[wastedyears]

What would it do to businesses, what with the advent of faster and faster internet, free online video chat, and things of that nature? The traditional business office will become a thing of the past, and then we’ll end up like the movie Surrogates, with robotic replicas going to warehouses filled with the things we need.

We would almost never need to leave home, and then the vicious cycle continues.

[Golden Gate]

IBTV!



In Before The VIRAL!

[RobRoy]

I understand what you are saying, however, something I saw with Encarta version one really gave me a hint of the future. It was a short video showing how a jet engine works. It was an animated CG that clearly SHOWED the engine actually functioning. A teacher and textbook images don’t always do the job.

IOW, the information was so clear and easy to understand that there was not much need for follow up questions. That said, the idea of the site in the OP is that it is broken up into small enough parts that one can watch the videos multiple times and get help from the parents that can also watch them. It’s not perfect, but it is miles above most classroom environments. Try getting a teacher in a real classroom to redo yesterdays class because your child didn’t get it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It sounds like the computer classes your cousin’s son attended had no provision for supplemental support by a human. So if there was something in the written description he could not pick up on, he was out of luck.

[wastedyears]

But think of all those childhood education majors! They’ll be dooooooooooooomed!

[RobRoy]

>>Our son went through the public school system and did just fine. You get what you put into it.<<

My daughters did too. That said, they would have done MUCH better with this. Actually, an order of magnitude better.

[redhead]

For people who have a limited (or, no) access to the internet, here is the Robinson Curriculum. It is all on disks. I haven't priced it recently, but I wish I had seen it when my kids were in school.