[extropy-chat] it's all understandable, except

[Ben Goertzel]

Hi,

> I understand most public schools in USia are in a really bad shape.
> There's no problem with public education e.g. in Finland, though,
> so it doesn't seem an intrinsic issue. Even the best system can't shine
> if it's not being managed right. We need to figure out how to
> manage things right. Actually, we already know, it's just that
> that knowledge hasn't percolated into the right political motorics cortex,

The US public education system is highly erratic.  There is very
little centralization....  So, some public school systems are great,
some are miserable, most are OK.

Where I live, in Montgomery County Maryland, the schools are pretty
strong in terms of the quantity of information transmitted, but pretty
weak in terms of encouraging individual investigation or creation.
There is a rigorous tracking system, so that bright kids who perform
well are tracked into various "magnet" or "gifted" programs and get
taught a lot of information.  In this sense the schools where I live
are way better than the vast majority of US school systems.  However,
rapidly cramming a bunch of mostly useful knowledge into kids' brains
is still not the best way of shaping their minds for future productive
achievements...  Home schooling allowed my kids to learn
self-motivatedly according to their own tastes and interests, with
guidance from me, and in my view this sort of approach is far better
preparation for e.g. a career in research or creative arts...

-- Ben