[ExI] Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don't Give A Shit?

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Dave Sill via extropy-chat



 

>…Yes to all of that. Once upon a time, when kids reached high school they gravitated toward one of two tracks: college prep or trade school (prep).  That's kind of degraded since every parent seems to want their kids to get a degree, and trades are looked down upon. …Where high school really needs to improve, though, is in the teaching of life skills like: managing finances, decision making/problem solving/critical thinking, parenting, negotiating, studying, communication, finding and keeping a job, etc. Those are areas where a little education could yield significant improvement in quality of life.  -Dave

 

 

Dave, consider how we have used the term escape velocity.  Orbit mechanics guys use it the literal way: the velocity needed to escape the surly bonds of earth, get up there, coast around indefinitely, etc.

 

We starry-eyed dreamers and future gazers talk about forms of immortality, a time when medical technology advances so quickly that lifespans and health spans increase a year every year, so we achieved escape velocity in medicine, in a figurative sense.

 

Your commentary above reflects a very traditional view of life and society, the one which has served us so long and so well, the one I certainly grew up with and know.  Think now about what escape velocity means to a lot of young people today.  They are dreaming of ways to escape the dreary 9 to 5 their parents and grandparents knew and accepted.  There are plenty of alternate paths today, and some of them are not dreadfully uncomfortable really.  I wouldn’t choose those alternatives, but I ain’t young.  Were I a teenager now looking at my options, I might well choose an alternative path, and it wouldn’t require very much of the kinds of things schools have to offer.

 

Society today is making it ever easier to be a freeloader, particularly if one is young, capable, self-sufficient and healthy.  We are collectively approaching escape velocity from office life, at least for some.

 

spike

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