Public education is better than no education.
31 sats \ 0 replies \ @jgbtc 23 Jul
No education is not really a thing. Humans are always learning no matter what, especially children. It just might not be what society or the government consider proper things to learn.
reply
That's not particularly clear from the available evidence. For that to be true, government schools would have to be producing about $20k in value per student per year. It's often hard to find any positive effect of government schooling, much less $20k worth.
reply
Isnt the 20k an investment for the future? Would you rather have a bunch of adults that arent educated? Wouldnt that bring even more of a social rift into our society?
reply
20k per student is a contribution for the teachers union pension
reply
I don't think most people retain any significant amount of knowledge from government school. You can basically see that in how kids who are unschooled often outperform kids who went to government school.
We judge investments on their return. If people don't measurably advance their knowledge because of government schooling, then it's an investment with a terrible return. For $20k you could pay for many hours of private tutoring. You have to think about what those resources could otherwise do.
reply
Im not sure. Basic life skills like math and science are somewhat important. Even english.
reply
If only kids were actually learning those things, beyond what they would learn on their own.
Education is great. School sucks.
reply
Schools make the education happen. You can rag on public education all you want, but it is needed in our society. Yes, it might be becoming bloated, and may need to be trimmed, but it is still needed.
reply
Schools are one way to implement education. Homeschooled kids outperform government schooled kids for much lower costs.
You can assert the necessity of government education all you want, but it doesn't make it true. Unless you simply mean the daycare function of schools and the facade of learning are needed to maintain society in its currently degraded form, because then I'd agree with you.
reply
it's not right to waste taxpayer funds
reply
Many students are deficient in math and reading based on their test scores
reply
You can basically see that in how kids who are unschooled often outperform kids who went to government school.
Unschooled or home schooled?
reply
Im pretty sure he is talking about homeschooled. Because people that are unschooled rarely succeed in life. I might be wrong, but that was my impression.
reply
I think so, to, but don't want to assume.
reply
No, I'm talking about unschooling, which is a semi-specific form of education. To my knowledge they don't do much worse than kids who go to government school. Maybe they rarely succeed at a high level, but that's true of government schooled kids, too, and for vastly greater cost.
reply
Interesting. I am going to have to do some research on this. I have never heard of unschooling before. @TNStacker you?
Reads like a form of homeschooling to me
Really? like Baltimore and St Louis?
reply
I am still under the belief that public school is better than no school.
reply