Bill Gates: U.S. Education Harder to Improve Than Infant Mortality Rates (xconomy.com)

gthuang88 writes: In a Q&A with Harvard students, Bill Gates said his foundation's work on K-12 education in the U.S. has had little impact, at least compared to its success in reducing infant mortality in developing countries. The challenge with education, he said, is that it is "essentially a social construct" that depends on creating the right culture of accountability and interactions -- and funding, of course. Gates said if he had a magic wand for the U.S., he would fix education, and for the rest of the world, nutrition.

He also said if he were a college student now, he would study artificial intelligence -- and that he was jealous that someone in the room could solve the problem of creating an AI that can read a book and pass an AP exam.
Gates predicted this generation of graduates will "solve" cancer, as well as the pesky problem of infectious diseases.

And even though his foundation's 20-year effort has failed to improve educaion -- "we'll keep going."

Comments

All students aren't equal

[tomhath]

The education system is fixated on teaching all students the same curriculum. That will never work; any teacher will tell you that a small percentage of the students are really fast learners, some will get by, and some are just plain dumb. Teachers refer to students among themselves as Track 1, Track 2, and Track 3.

The way to fix education is to pour as much resource as you have into teaching the Track 1 kids, because they'll get the most out of it. Quit forcing the rest of the class to put up with Track 3 students who are disruptive or slow. The idea of paying the most attention to the best students is an anathema to liberal/progressive thinkers who believe everyone is equal and should be given an equal chance.

Re:All students aren't equal

[Ogive17]

So your solution is to give up on 80-90% of the students because they require more help to learn?

I believe Bill Gates is correct, the root of the problem isn't necessarily funding but changing our societal norms. There are large subsets of Americans that do not value education and they pass those values on to their kids.

In Japan they have different types of high schools. Some are college prep and some are vocational prep. I do agree that we cannot treat all kids like they are the same but they should all be given the same chance to succeed.

It is not profitable to cure cancer

[nehumanuscrede]

It will never happen by anyone who lives in a country like the US. Besides the decline in education, the mindset is wrong.

Capitalism ensures that an ongoing treatment of a disease is far more profitable than curing one.

As a result, the Nobel for curing something like Cancer will never have an American name attached to it.