[ExI] common core educations standards, was: RE: far future

[Kelly Anderson]

On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 4:51 PM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Jan 21, 2014 2:20 PM, "Kelly Anderson" <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I was offered a gifted placement, but it would have involved my parents
> driving me 12 miles to school every day because my school didn't have a
> program. The special education kids didn't have to do that. So perhaps this
> is just a personal rough spot with me.
>
> Like Spike said, a cheap "program" that works is to make sure the gifteds
> are doing the minimums everyone else is doing, then get out of their way as
> they go beyond.
>
I made the most of the school library. I'm glad I did all that reading back
then. It gave me a real boost. But imagine what would have happened if they
had really gotten me excited by having the equivalent of a Maker Space at
the school? I am sad that I didn't do auto mechanics and welding in high
school. That would have served me much better than a lot of stuff I did
take.

> > I don't want to abandon them. I want to give them the best education we
> can. I just don't want to stop the truly gifted to do it, which is what
> common core and no child's behind left alone do, IMHO.
>
> I don't see how these stop the truly gifted...other than by not focusing
> more resources on them, at the expense of ("abandoning") everyone else.
> And again, the truly gifted don't need as much as the rest (though more
> would of course be nice).
>
If we got the truly gifted into robotics, programming, nanotechnology,
building their own tunnelling electron microscopes at school and the like,
it would make the world of tomorrow better for everyone else.

> > It worked well for several thousand years in China. People were picked
> to be the top of government based on passing exams. Since this is the
> longest lasting civilization since Egypt, I would hardly call it a failure.
>
> For thousands of years, there was a group of kingdoms - sometimes more
> united than others - in that part of the world.  It is known as China.  But
> don't mistake for a moment that it was the same century to century, any
> more than the collection of kingdoms known as medieval Europe were.
>
Since about 200 BC, it was more or less united under the Emperor. I suppose
you could say the same thing about the Pope, but that started later, and
ended sooner.

> Also, the exams had a greater (by the numbers) effect on those who failed,
> by ensuring that most people at least studied a common culture.  Arguably
> the same is true of public education today for those who do not go for
> postgraduate degrees.  (It used to be "who do not go to college", but that
> has changed in recent years.)
>
I think college is a waste of time for everyone who doesn't take a
productive course of study. Things like Political Science, Gender Studies,
History, Psychology and the like, don't do much for the student except
excite their learning muscles. Financially it doesn't accomplish shit for
them.

> > I don't want AI to creep into this particular conversation. We could
> start a new thread though.
>
> Just noting one likely long term solution.
>
I know, I just don't want to discuss it here.

-Kelly
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