[ExI] Improving schools

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> 



 

How I’d Change School

By Mark Sisson

 

>…Dave, there is so much to say on this timely topic, but I want to make this brief and deal with only one aspect from the article…spike

 

 

We have a new ist to add to the list of ills in our world.

We have had for a long time schools accused of being racist, sexist, classist, thisist and thatist, and have no doubt it is true regardless of what they do to combat these things.

OK well, covid came along and they had to shut it down, not necessarily because it is so dangerous really but because the insurance rates for doing so are out of reach.  Insurance companies don’t care about the ists, only about their potential costs and liability should the schools open and a bunch of students catch.  Well, OK we get that: if bad things happen, insurance companies pay and they must pass on the expense to insurance customers.  Somebody has to pay for everything.  Insurance companies cannot manufacture wealth any more than the government can.

When the shutdowns came, it was clear enough that remote learning was an inferior form of education for most students.  But it isn’t racist: all were shut out regardless of that, same with sexist, same with economic status, so it was none of the usual ists to close the doors and open the computers.

What I have found most striking from the start is that although most students don’t do as well, the better students do just fine, the learn as well outside class as in, and the best students do better with online learning than in person (fewer distractions.)

Well, we need a new ist to describe the outrage that there is yet another factor causing the academic high achievers to achieve even more than before while the low achievers get almost nothing.  The mean SAT score goes down while the sigma goes up.  Clearly it isn’t fair. 

So what do we call that?  Smartist?

spike

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