"Schools should be palaces."

[Cerridwen]

From "The West Wing"

The only thing I might add is that children would be taught as individuals; to their skill level regardless of their chronological age, to their interests, and to their learning style while encouraging a life-long love of learning and critical thinking. Languages, art, math, science, literature, history, logic, music, philosophy, and on and on.

Mallory, education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.

The video:

[LWolf]

1. Fund it, and I'm right with you.

Individualized education takes more staff, and more resources, than the factory/business model favored in the U.S..

Figure out a way to "do" it. While I'm still teaching. Please.

I would add "absolutely free of charge to its citizens, all the way through university."

[Cerridwen]

3. If we could get politicians to prioritize

education over "national security" and war; I think we'd have plenty of funding. Unfortunately, the only way to get them to prioritize education would be to tie it into "national security" and war. *sigh* That way lies insanity as we then wind up with militarized students training for war and spying.

This change will have to come from the "bottom" up and will take some decades after the decades it has taken to create this situation.

Well, I just depressed the hell out of myself.

[Cleita]

18. Take care of kids, when those poor day traders on Wall Street have to go without?

Surely, you know this nation can't afford it.

[niyad]

2. it is, of course, the ideal. how to fund it? let's see: cut the bloat from the mic--cut off the

oil subsidies, make the corporations and the rich pay their taxes. legalize and tax marijuana. that would free up a lot of money from the dea, etc.

[Cerridwen]

5. Agreed. I had another thought after I typed the above reply.

Get the "business model" out of the "business" of running schools. Broaden the definition of education to include all the trades; we're not all fond of or skilled at the "book learning" portion of education; thank heavens. Apprenticeship and mentor programs could be included...and well regulated so that we don't create another indentured class.

I always wonder how many great minds; scientists, doctors, architects, builders, planners, caregivers; we've lost due to an inability to pay for an education or the unavailability of centers for education because it "costs too much." As well as those whose talents in the arts we've lost because they have to "make a living". A talented poet I know went to law school to pay the bills. A talented potter I know is working as an engineer so she can afford to throw pots. I know scores of people who work at jobs they don't much care for just so they can afford to do that which they love.

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. K&R The how, is the question, I think the first step is to either come up with a new brand,

or get Americans to understand what socialism means. They love socialism in every form until someone calls it socialism, then they're prepared to to slash their own throats to stop it.

Stupid is as stupid does.

[Cerridwen]

8. Getting rid of the "crabs in a bucket" mentality might help.

Though I'm not sure even that is possible. I've seen too many people who have to drag others down so they can feel better about themselves; too many who don't want others to have something if they, themselves don't have it; too many people who can't seem to think outside their own "safe and secure" bubble.

Too many "crabs in a bucket" sitting as frogs in the slowly heating water. (How's that for mashing up metaphors?)

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. Mmm, metaphor mash. One of my favorite dishes.

Do you think it can be distilled?

[Cerridwen]

10. Possibly. Bet it "tastes like chicken." n/t

[Octafish]

6. Truth.

Yet our elected representatives refuse, choosing instead to give tax breaks to the wealthy. Decade after decade.

[Cerridwen]

7. Which strikes me as "penny wise; pound foolish" and very short-sighted.

Wouldn't those same wealthy people benefit from a well educated and happier populace? As would we all. Happier people, healthier, more productive.

That's mostly rhetorical; I felt like typing it.

[Octafish]

11. Ignorance.

In a democracy, it's how the wealthy maintain their privilege.

[Cerridwen]

13. Of course.

The astounding thing, is the ignorance of those who presume keeping others ignorant will in some way be of benefit for them without realizing the larger benefit to them of being surrounded by happy, educated, skilled, and healthy people.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. until parents are reintegrated into the education process

you can spend whatever you want and you will still have shitty schools. because the problem isn't with the schools... it isn't with the teachers... it's with the parents. the hint is, where you see succeeding schools, you see involved parents.

sP

[Cerridwen]

14. Which could conceivably happen if we had well educated people

who might also be parents?

I think we're heading into chicken and egg territory and that'll just lead us in circles.

In addition to parents and teachers (thinking of a Venn diagram) we could also include the students into the mix. All benefit from educated and trained people and all could add their education and skill to the process.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

15. not disagreeing with that at all...

it is certainly a troika... the problem is that two of the horses ain't pullin' so hard. i don't know the answer. we have spent about 60 years digging this hole. going to take more than quippy crap from me to fix it.

sP

[Cerridwen]

17. Agreed.

Nor will my "quippy crap" make much of a difference. Perhaps talking about it online will get people to thinking of things to do. Well, I can hope.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. How about this, mandated federal funding of all education, period?

People can open their own schools as they see fit for their own individual or regional needs, but no funding except through the DoE. Eliminating private schools would serve to provide a powerful incentive for the upper classes to participate in the process by eliminating the choice to withdraw into an insular system.

Of course the top-tier parasites will send their spawn to other countries to receive their traditional education in how things really work, but as our schools get better and better, this practice will become less necessary or even desirable. The evidence for this lies in the astonishing success of the pre-governor reagan California system. That one state, by providing virtually free education through university level, produced a staggeringly disproportional percentage of the social, technological, and philosophical progress we saw in the '60s, '70s, and '80s.

Imagine that kind of advancement times 50 states.