But in the Zuck version, students work alone in front of screens, in social isolation…
Students get to work in isolation - unlike the poor saps who work at FB’s open-floor-plan office.
If your pet technology can’t innovate away the cost centers what’s the point?
Any sort of of focus on working to improve teacher effectiveness is just hideously retro legacy pedagogy. Boring and sooo not disruptive.
The revolution in education occurs once you replace the expensive allocation of expertise to individual classrooms with a few expert systems and some babysitters; so that the resources so freed can be allocated to shareholders and administration(did I say ‘administration’? I meant “leadership”. Visionary Leadership.)
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The Reagan cult lionizes literally any Big Idea, and dismisses any level of public spending as “throwing money at the problem”. That worked in the seventies because governments had been trying to properly fund services, and back then it might have been legitimate to ask if an extra 10% on schools would be spent effectively.
But after decades of this argument, it’s become farcical. Progressive candidates could just say “yeah: I will absolutely throw money at the problem. I will double schools’ budgets with no questions asked. Because of course it will be spent well; schools that can’t afford books or teachers or toilet paper know exactly where money needs spending. And I’ll fund it by a 0.5% cut in defence.”
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What’s with new parents and weird alternative schools?
His youngest kid will not be subjected to this nonsense.
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I grew up in Tulsa, on the wrong side of town to boot, and had a excellent education. All of my English teachers were great. I was allowed to a book report on The Graduate in Jr. High (I couldn’t even see the movie at that age, altho of course I did). My Economics teacher was highly innovative. He knew that economics and politics were inextricably linked so we learned both. My Speech class was just amazing. I learned why I hated ads so passionately. My High School did not need to bus in blacks because it was (accidentally, I guess) integrated. I can’t imagine what they’ve done to the school system these days. My sister was a 2cd grade teacher in Kansas who retired early because she just got disgusted with what they were doing to the schools there. Computers, obviously, have their place in schools these days, but they are using them wrong.
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Molly Ivins said something like: But we haven’t actually tried throwing money at the problem.
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Good system, pioneered by a former teacher / principal from Mountain View. Lectures are replaced with online learning, students do group projects. Mentor groups of 20-25 kids stay together for all 4 years. The software is really just a time scaled Gantt chart that tracks progress.
It’s not perfect, but it’s really supportive, and the results for college acceptance seem to be pretty good, especially for first generation college applicants. It’s definitely better preparation for a modern work environment than the 19th century model of lectures and papers.
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Do you think that such knowledge just emerges out of thin air? Do you think that those of us who teach at universities and produce knowledge can exist on air? Producing knowledge is WORK and should be compensated as such.
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They believe in their own expertise. Not in the expertise of those who disagree with their brilliant ideas.
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