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Personalized Learning: the Best Education Or the Worst?
theodp writes: In an exclusive interview with Education Week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked about why he is shifting his K-12 giving priorities to personalized learning. While acknowledging that there's not yet any independent, large-scale research to show personalized learning's effectiveness, Zuck argues that "the model just intuitively makes sense." But just days later, Fordham University professor Mark Naison wrote in the Washington Post about why the personalized learning efforts of 'a growing number of those with investment capital seeking profitable outlets,' which presumably includes Zuck, make him 'incredibly pessimistic' about the future of public education. That Zuck — like fellow personalized learning cheerleaders/funders Bill Gates and former U.S. Education Chief Arne Duncan — seemed to be unaware of studies on personalized learning studies that date back to the '70s is troubling. But people don't "Like" 40+ year-old Ed.gov papers, so Zuck could be forgiven for not seeing them and, as a result, believing that the personalized learning plan dashboard his Facebook engineers knocked out truly is the ground-breaking solution to 'one of education's biggest problems' that Melinda Gates cracks it up to be.
the social skills
I'm sorry, I don't need Programmed social skills of the far left, who are more concerned with Transgendered 3rd graders than they are with reading, writing and math.
So, while your kids are learning the pillars of Islam, while at the same time you're paranoid about Jesus, my kids learned how to read, write and do math.
I don't want my kids to learn socialized skills being taught in schools today. It is called being a responsible parent.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The problem is that we haven't found a way to to it *economically* or *practically* for all those students whose parents can't afford to hire an individual tutor.
Nothing in life, including life, is guaranteed. Let's not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Let those who can afford it buy the best education they can for their kids. If most cannot hire personal tutors then that's no different than most people also not being able to afford luxury yachts.
It's literally impossible for everyone to be rich because "rich" is a relative term. There will always be luxuries that the wealthy have access to while everyone else can't afford it. But the rising tide floats all ships. As the free market increases the wealth in the world things will get better for everyone. If one is impatient then let them strive for wealth.