Asimov may have been one of the first to popularize the term "robotics", but I believe its credit should be given to Karel Capek, the originator of the term "robot". Since the -ics suffix signifies the study or knowledge relating to the root word, "robotics" is a fairly obvious extrapolation from "robot", and does not signify a new idea IMHO.
A famous entertainer once remarked, you'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Apparently that's true of politics as well.
HTML says whitespace is not significant. Python says it is. Nuff said.
In other news, apples are red, so oranges must suck? Do I really have to point out the fact that HTML and Python are two completely different creatures designed to do completely different tasks?
It's not just HTML either. Whitespace isn't significant in any natural language, nor in any other computer language I'm aware of.
You're missing my point. Most languages, including Ruby, essentially still have significant whitespace, it's just not enforced. Try replacing all whitespace tokens with a single space in your language of choice and you'll quickly see how whitespace plays a very important role in programming languages. And btw, significant whitespace is also featured in Haskell, Occam, and YAML.
The computer world simply isn't well equipped to deal with significant whitespace. Any time you copy/paste code around, you run the risk of messing up indentation / whitespace. it's much harder to accidentally miss a } or 'end'
I guess all those Python programmers must be tripping over themselves on a regular basis. Hell, I don't even know how I manage to code my Python programs in a few days what would have taken me a few weeks to do in Java or C++. Yeah, significant whitespace is horrible. That's why Python's popularity has only risen in the last decade since its inception. I'm not sure what browser you're using, but I suggest you upgrade (Firefox is especially nice). I've never had trouble copy/pasting Python code around. Granted, this is still a poor measure of a language since most code is shared in files.
Don't get me wrong. If python required significant whitespace *and* closing tokens, that would be better. That way you'd have the best of both worlds. An editor could fix bad indentation because of the tokens, and you'd be guaranteed to have properly indented code for all working code.
With significant whitespace, there'd never be a need to "fix" indentation, so any tokens would be meaningless. I think you're associating Python's whitespace with the use of tabs. Standard Python whitespace is four spaces per level of indentation, which is quite explicit.
And, the truth is, Python does have redundancies. In this very discussion we've had people complaining about how you get the length of things in python using len(foo), but others explaining that you can actually use foo.__len__().
Wrong again. __len__ is a utility function meant to be overridden in the class definition by programmers who know what they're doing. It's not meant to be called outright. The reason for this is, the underscores represent a reserved namespace that allows the Python developers to introduce new functionality without breaking backwards compatibility. You shouldn't be so quick to criticize a language you seem to know little about.
Significant whitespace doesn't eliminate style wars, nor does Python eliminate redundancies. Python code is clean and readable, just like Ruby code. Ruby code, by not being whitespace-dependent is much more copy-and-paste-and-share-with-the-world-friendly.
Yet ironically, the Python community dwarfs that of Ruby. Actually, I suppose that's not really ironic after all.
Isn't the usual common-sense motive behind plagiarizing to "steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own" (m-w.com)? Therefore, plagiarizing text and then posting it anonymously would tend to be self-defeating. Besides, based on another reply, that poster may very well have been the original author, in which case you own her an apology.
Can Idle truly indent that python code properly? Without an end token, how does it know whether 'print "world"' is part of the conditional block, or is simply a statement following the conditional block?
Because the conditional block contains an end token, the indentation system can figure out how far to indent things.
If you write Python code in IDLE, the indentation will be taken care of as you write it. Not after the fact. But you're misunderstanding Python. Unlike C or Java, the whitespace is part of the syntax. Forgetting to indent in Python is the same as forgetting to use a curly brace in C/C++. Can your system figure out where to add a missing brace? Both compilers will complain. The only difference is with Python, the whitespace and scope declarators are the same, so your work is less.
I don't know of any programmers who are frustrated by having to end their code blocks, and those few extra keystrokes are worth it if it means that my editor can fix indentation across the entire file if I choose.
Why would your indentation be broken? I understand your argument. It's a common one among programmers unfamiliar with significant whitespace. You've never known order to whitespace. To you, whitespace is a variable, to be substituted and interpreted by the programmer, and to be "fixed" if it doesn't fit your "style". What you fail to realize is that this is all meaningless and is irrelavant to the true purpose of your code, which is to DO something. With significant whitespace, there are no style wars, no "broken" indentation to be "fixed", no redundent syntax. Just clean, readable code.
2) In Python people tend to prefer, for example, to find the length of an array by saying:
length( array ) instead of array.length (the latter being the way you would do it in Ruby). Of course Pythonistas are now screaming that you can also say: array.__length__ (or something similar) in Python as well.
The underscores are invaluable in securing a "utility" namespace in which Python can continue to evolve new basic functionalities without compromising backwards compatibility. Suppose Python didn't use this notation, and that these basic functions were accessed as array.len(). What happens when the developers want to introduce a slick new feature, such as iterators? You could use array.iter(), or array.iterator(), but there are good odds someone is already using this notation. However, with a utility-specific namespace the developers could introduce array.__iter__() and continue Python's evolution without worrying about breaking someone's code.
Python will require me to go line by line and insert spaces or tabs.
No offense, but that's a load of crap and evidence that you've never actually coded anything in Python. If you had, you'd know that Python comes with a fully functional editor called IDLE, which includes auto-indentation. You can also select whole chunks of code and press ctrl+] to indent or ctrl+[ to unindent. Explicit scope declarators serve no purpose but to frustrate the programmer who forgets to declare that last '}' of 'end' statement. All Python forces you to do is write clean, readable code.
What I find unacceptable in Python is that whitespace (tabs) determine the logical flow. I once wrote a script on Windows and moved it to UNIX; the UNIX editor handled tabs differently, and my script wouldn't work without a few hours of attention just to set the spacing right.
Having been a rapid C++ programmer, this was my largest complaint against Python when I was first introduced to the language, but now I consider it one of Python's strengths. Most languages that ignore whitespace invariably have cultures or conventions for defining "proper code indentation". This leads to a redundant mess where you (the programmer) still respect whitespace, often with conflicting "styles", but also respect the language's syntax for doing the exact same task. Python cuts through that crap by throwing out explicit scope declarations ('{', '}', 'begin', 'end', etc), as every language rightly should. This results in shorter, cleaner, more easily readable code. Btw, you can still use ';' in Python, it's just not mandatory.
As for your "complaint" about crossplatform whitespace, that's the fault of your editor, not Python (I've yet to find a decent editor that doesn't allow you to view whitespace). The recommended Python indentation is four spaces, which is interpreted the same on all platforms.
Overall, I have to admit Ruby is at least Python's equal in most regards, but it's lack of whitespace is one of the main reasons I haven't considered seriously adoption.
Is Ruby really "more powerful than Perl and more object oriented than Python"
In regards to Python's OO design, this was perhaps true when Ruby was first envisioned. At that time, Python's object oriented features were indeed just being implemented, much as an after-thought as Ruby's creator complains. However, with the release of Python 2.3, the paradigm of "everything's an object" has been adopted. So no, today Python and Ruby are at least equally object oriented, so I wouldn't let that be a factor. Personally, I prefer Python's attention to whitespace as it results in cleaner, more uniform code.
I don't see the logic behind the monocle design. It's distracting and uncomfortable for your eyes to concentrate on two distinctly different images. I once had a college professor who got a free demo for one of these monocle-style displays, and he said it was unusable for this very reason.
Kerryisms: "We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
is also a "simple falsehood--a lie", or more accurately, an urban myth. That same quote has also be attributed to President Bush, but as reported by snopes, it's actually from former Republican Vice-President Dan Quayle.
At the risk of sounding redundant, how is MontaVista's implementation significantly better or different from pre-existing real-time Linux interfaces, such as FSMLabs' RT Linux or DIAPM's RTAI?
How so exactly? A third party candidate, whom a large majority of Americans and the main stream media (unfortunately) care little about, is doing something they care even less about.
Just
searched CNN for anything, literally *anything*, on Badnarik and found 0 results. That's just about the exact opposite of recieving "prominent headlines".
The difference is that GPL-infringing people want to make money out of GPL'ed software. File sharers don't want to make a buck out of the files they share. If they do, they should be punished.
Whether illegal file sharers are making money or not isn't the point. The point is they're unfairly consuming a product without compensating the creator/owner. With GPLed code, this compensation would be in the form of reGPLing your modifications. With copyrighted files, it's paying for them. Either way, it's still wrong to ignore the creator/owner's wishes.
So you compare suing, as a single developer or a small group of 3-4 people, a company with employed lawyers because they make money out of your product to the crackdown on school/college students by a billon megacorp.? Because they shared a bunch of files?
Yes, that is the comparison, and it's a valid one.
Or are you implying it's ok for student's to pirate content, simply because they're small, from a "billion megacorp" simply because they're big? How juvenile.
How is that insightful? Currently, what if someone changes your vote from A to B candidate? The "one voter, one vote" would be equally screwed. If someone's going to tamper with the system, no election method is truly safe. However, I think you're confusing vote with ballot, which is understandable since they're essentially the same under the current system. Whereas with approval voting a person would indeed be voting for multiple candidates, they would still only have one ballot (Approval = one voter, one ballot). One, easily recountable ballot. That's no harder, yet far fairer, than the current system.
Personally, I prefer Range voting, which is similar to Approval but instead you assign a weight value to each choice according to preference (1st choice = 1, 2nd = 1/2, 3rd = 1/4, etc).
The demand of election reform over our current plurality voting method in order for the non-trivial roles of third parties is epitomized by Duverger's Law. However, IRV isn't necessarily the only or best solution. Both Approval voting and Condorcet voting are generally considered more accurate. This is a good explanation as to IRV's shortcomings, as well as an insight into other methodologies.
Killing babies, though... man. That's a moral issue, not a religious one. Even the most vocal proponent of "choice," which is just a euphamism for "death," Mrs. Roe is now wishing that she hadn't had an abortion. Not only is it mindless killing, it is also a psychological burden to most would-have-been mothers.
This is the kind of oversimplification that will ensure you're philosophy never reaches mainstream acceptance. Choice is as much about life as it is about death, but more importantly, it's about freedom. You may consider an unborn child a "person", but physically that child is still part of it's mother. And as long as that physical connection remains, neither you nor I have a right to dictate a choice that will effect that mother and child infinitely more than ourselves. I would agree that in most cases, abortion isn't a wise solution, but in cases of rape or extreme health problems, it may be the best course of action. In either case, I trust the woman to make the right decision.
For a beginner, a computers can be an excellent opponent, if just to learn the basics. The nice thing about Go is that if you find the computer too easy you can make the game harder by giving it some handicaps, essentially giving the computer a head-start. GNU Go, included with Hikarunix, is rated about 9 kyu, plenty strong for a beginner.
Although I'd agree that little can substitute a face-to-face game in real life, Hikarunix includes clients that allow you to connect to all the popular Go servers, such as IGS, KGS, and NNGS, to play against real people. Although don't discount the computer programs (which are often available on the servers as well). They may not be able to beat the grand masters, but programs like GNU Go and The Many Faces of Go are more than challenging for the aspiring Go player. This is especially relavant in the US, where Go does not have the same name-recognition as Chess, so it can be hard to find an opponent for real world games.
Generally, no. The job of public schools is to instill knowledge, not values. At least, not until we as a society can agree on what constitutes the One-True-Value-System. My point was that we should break down the task of education in a way that makes further tasks less difficult. To summarize my point in a corny proverb: Teach a man some knowledge, and he'll learn for a day; Teach a man the value of knowledge, and he'll learn for the rest of his life. If parents, and especially children, learn to realize the value of education then schools would notice significantly less resistance to their instruction. Granted, you make a good point; in that how do we instill these values? I must admit, I have no easy answer. Of course, if the answer to this question were easy, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
While I agree with the sentiment of your message, I feel the need to play the devil's advocate. Yes, I'd love to have someone in office representing my viewpoint, but I also want someone who has experience enough not to run the country into the ground. If your candidate has both qualities, than more power to you, but either way, don't be so quick to discount career politicians just because they like politics.
Well then let's look at some current examples. Some of the poorest school districts in the country, such as Chester PA, have experimented with hiring private companies to run their schools. Test scores are the same or worse than before, due to the same problems. Namely, children living in impoverished neighborhoods seem to, *shock*, have problems learning. Yet what are the other options? School vouchers? That only really works if there are decent yet affordable private schools within reasonable travel distance of the voucher recipient, and a lack of good schools in poor neighborhoods, and the neighborhoods themselves, is the problem to begin with.
It's indisputable that some schools have their problems, but blanketing all our public schools as "broken" is melodramatic if not outright incorrect. I certainly don't think disbanning the public school system is going to solve the problem. Having myself gone through the "horribly broken" public school system, I think I received a decent education. Perhaps my school was the exception, but I doubt it. Personally, I think the problems with low-performing schools lay more in the surrounding neighborhoods then the schools themselves. Perhaps if we reduce crime and instill values that encourage dedication to learning and good nutrition we'd find children more receptive.
Slashdot Mirror
Asimov may have been one of the first to popularize the term "robotics", but I believe its credit should be given to Karel Capek, the originator of the term "robot". Since the -ics suffix signifies the study or knowledge relating to the root word, "robotics" is a fairly obvious extrapolation from "robot", and does not signify a new idea IMHO.
A famous entertainer once remarked, you'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Apparently that's true of politics as well.
I've heard nothing but good things about Fry's, but that does little for those of us who live on the East coast.
HTML says whitespace is not significant. Python says it is. Nuff said.
In other news, apples are red, so oranges must suck? Do I really have to point out the fact that HTML and Python are two completely different creatures designed to do completely different tasks?
It's not just HTML either. Whitespace isn't significant in any natural language, nor in any other computer language I'm aware of.
You're missing my point. Most languages, including Ruby, essentially still have significant whitespace, it's just not enforced. Try replacing all whitespace tokens with a single space in your language of choice and you'll quickly see how whitespace plays a very important role in programming languages. And btw, significant whitespace is also featured in Haskell, Occam, and YAML.
The computer world simply isn't well equipped to deal with significant whitespace. Any time you copy/paste code around, you run the risk of messing up indentation / whitespace. it's much harder to accidentally miss a } or 'end'
I guess all those Python programmers must be tripping over themselves on a regular basis. Hell, I don't even know how I manage to code my Python programs in a few days what would have taken me a few weeks to do in Java or C++. Yeah, significant whitespace is horrible. That's why Python's popularity has only risen in the last decade since its inception. I'm not sure what browser you're using, but I suggest you upgrade (Firefox is especially nice). I've never had trouble copy/pasting Python code around. Granted, this is still a poor measure of a language since most code is shared in files.
Don't get me wrong. If python required significant whitespace *and* closing tokens, that would be better. That way you'd have the best of both worlds. An editor could fix bad indentation because of the tokens, and you'd be guaranteed to have properly indented code for all working code.
With significant whitespace, there'd never be a need to "fix" indentation, so any tokens would be meaningless. I think you're associating Python's whitespace with the use of tabs. Standard Python whitespace is four spaces per level of indentation, which is quite explicit.
And, the truth is, Python does have redundancies. In this very discussion we've had people complaining about how you get the length of things in python using len(foo), but others explaining that you can actually use foo.__len__().
Wrong again. __len__ is a utility function meant to be overridden in the class definition by programmers who know what they're doing. It's not meant to be called outright. The reason for this is, the underscores represent a reserved namespace that allows the Python developers to introduce new functionality without breaking backwards compatibility. You shouldn't be so quick to criticize a language you seem to know little about.
Significant whitespace doesn't eliminate style wars, nor does Python eliminate redundancies. Python code is clean and readable, just like Ruby code. Ruby code, by not being whitespace-dependent is much more copy-and-paste-and-share-with-the-world-friendly.
Yet ironically, the Python community dwarfs that of Ruby. Actually, I suppose that's not really ironic after all.
Isn't the usual common-sense motive behind plagiarizing to "steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own" (m-w.com)? Therefore, plagiarizing text and then posting it anonymously would tend to be self-defeating. Besides, based on another reply, that poster may very well have been the original author, in which case you own her an apology.
Can Idle truly indent that python code properly? Without an end token, how does it know whether 'print "world"' is part of the conditional block, or is simply a statement following the conditional block?
Because the conditional block contains an end token, the indentation system can figure out how far to indent things.
If you write Python code in IDLE, the indentation will be taken care of as you write it. Not after the fact. But you're misunderstanding Python. Unlike C or Java, the whitespace is part of the syntax. Forgetting to indent in Python is the same as forgetting to use a curly brace in C/C++. Can your system figure out where to add a missing brace? Both compilers will complain. The only difference is with Python, the whitespace and scope declarators are the same, so your work is less.
I don't know of any programmers who are frustrated by having to end their code blocks, and those few extra keystrokes are worth it if it means that my editor can fix indentation across the entire file if I choose.
Why would your indentation be broken? I understand your argument. It's a common one among programmers unfamiliar with significant whitespace. You've never known order to whitespace. To you, whitespace is a variable, to be substituted and interpreted by the programmer, and to be "fixed" if it doesn't fit your "style". What you fail to realize is that this is all meaningless and is irrelavant to the true purpose of your code, which is to DO something. With significant whitespace, there are no style wars, no "broken" indentation to be "fixed", no redundent syntax. Just clean, readable code.
2) In Python people tend to prefer, for example, to find the length of an array by saying: length( array ) instead of array.length (the latter being the way you would do it in Ruby). Of course Pythonistas are now screaming that you can also say: array.__length__ (or something similar) in Python as well.
The underscores are invaluable in securing a "utility" namespace in which Python can continue to evolve new basic functionalities without compromising backwards compatibility. Suppose Python didn't use this notation, and that these basic functions were accessed as array.len(). What happens when the developers want to introduce a slick new feature, such as iterators? You could use array.iter(), or array.iterator(), but there are good odds someone is already using this notation. However, with a utility-specific namespace the developers could introduce array.__iter__() and continue Python's evolution without worrying about breaking someone's code.
You're forgetting another important fact.
It works.
Btw, didn't the adapter already have an external antenna (albeit much smaller) before the hack?
Python will require me to go line by line and insert spaces or tabs.
No offense, but that's a load of crap and evidence that you've never actually coded anything in Python. If you had, you'd know that Python comes with a fully functional editor called IDLE, which includes auto-indentation. You can also select whole chunks of code and press ctrl+] to indent or ctrl+[ to unindent. Explicit scope declarators serve no purpose but to frustrate the programmer who forgets to declare that last '}' of 'end' statement. All Python forces you to do is write clean, readable code.
What I find unacceptable in Python is that whitespace (tabs) determine the logical flow. I once wrote a script on Windows and moved it to UNIX; the UNIX editor handled tabs differently, and my script wouldn't work without a few hours of attention just to set the spacing right.
Having been a rapid C++ programmer, this was my largest complaint against Python when I was first introduced to the language, but now I consider it one of Python's strengths. Most languages that ignore whitespace invariably have cultures or conventions for defining "proper code indentation". This leads to a redundant mess where you (the programmer) still respect whitespace, often with conflicting "styles", but also respect the language's syntax for doing the exact same task. Python cuts through that crap by throwing out explicit scope declarations ('{', '}', 'begin', 'end', etc), as every language rightly should. This results in shorter, cleaner, more easily readable code. Btw, you can still use ';' in Python, it's just not mandatory.
As for your "complaint" about crossplatform whitespace, that's the fault of your editor, not Python (I've yet to find a decent editor that doesn't allow you to view whitespace). The recommended Python indentation is four spaces, which is interpreted the same on all platforms.
Overall, I have to admit Ruby is at least Python's equal in most regards, but it's lack of whitespace is one of the main reasons I haven't considered seriously adoption.
Is Ruby really "more powerful than Perl and more object oriented than Python"
In regards to Python's OO design, this was perhaps true when Ruby was first envisioned. At that time, Python's object oriented features were indeed just being implemented, much as an after-thought as Ruby's creator complains. However, with the release of Python 2.3, the paradigm of "everything's an object" has been adopted. So no, today Python and Ruby are at least equally object oriented, so I wouldn't let that be a factor. Personally, I prefer Python's attention to whitespace as it results in cleaner, more uniform code.
I don't see the logic behind the monocle design. It's distracting and uncomfortable for your eyes to concentrate on two distinctly different images. I once had a college professor who got a free demo for one of these monocle-style displays, and he said it was unusable for this very reason.
Just wanted to quickly note that your sig:
Kerryisms: "We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
is also a "simple falsehood--a lie", or more accurately, an urban myth. That same quote has also be attributed to President Bush, but as reported by snopes, it's actually from former Republican Vice-President Dan Quayle.
At the risk of sounding redundant, how is MontaVista's implementation significantly better or different from pre-existing real-time Linux interfaces, such as FSMLabs' RT Linux or DIAPM's RTAI?
It should shake the debate up a bit.
How so exactly? A third party candidate, whom a large majority of Americans and the main stream media (unfortunately) care little about, is doing something they care even less about.
Just searched CNN for anything, literally *anything*, on Badnarik and found 0 results. That's just about the exact opposite of recieving "prominent headlines".
The difference is that GPL-infringing people want to make money out of GPL'ed software. File sharers don't want to make a buck out of the files they share. If they do, they should be punished.
Whether illegal file sharers are making money or not isn't the point. The point is they're unfairly consuming a product without compensating the creator/owner. With GPLed code, this compensation would be in the form of reGPLing your modifications. With copyrighted files, it's paying for them. Either way, it's still wrong to ignore the creator/owner's wishes.
So you compare suing, as a single developer or a small group of 3-4 people, a company with employed lawyers because they make money out of your product to the crackdown on school/college students by a billon megacorp.? Because they shared a bunch of files?
Yes, that is the comparison, and it's a valid one. Or are you implying it's ok for student's to pirate content, simply because they're small, from a "billion megacorp" simply because they're big? How juvenile.
Or maybe i'm just Apathetic.
Come on people, help me out. FreeIPods.com [freeipods.com]
Sorry, I'd link on that link, but I'm just too apathetic. Isn't apathy fun?
Don't complain about apathy unless you're willing to be vocal about reform.
How is that insightful? Currently, what if someone changes your vote from A to B candidate? The "one voter, one vote" would be equally screwed. If someone's going to tamper with the system, no election method is truly safe. However, I think you're confusing vote with ballot, which is understandable since they're essentially the same under the current system. Whereas with approval voting a person would indeed be voting for multiple candidates, they would still only have one ballot (Approval = one voter, one ballot). One, easily recountable ballot. That's no harder, yet far fairer, than the current system.
Personally, I prefer Range voting, which is similar to Approval but instead you assign a weight value to each choice according to preference (1st choice = 1, 2nd = 1/2, 3rd = 1/4, etc).
The demand of election reform over our current plurality voting method in order for the non-trivial roles of third parties is epitomized by Duverger's Law. However, IRV isn't necessarily the only or best solution. Both Approval voting and Condorcet voting are generally considered more accurate. This is a good explanation as to IRV's shortcomings, as well as an insight into other methodologies.
Killing babies, though... man. That's a moral issue, not a religious one. Even the most vocal proponent of "choice," which is just a euphamism for "death," Mrs. Roe is now wishing that she hadn't had an abortion. Not only is it mindless killing, it is also a psychological burden to most would-have-been mothers.
This is the kind of oversimplification that will ensure you're philosophy never reaches mainstream acceptance. Choice is as much about life as it is about death, but more importantly, it's about freedom. You may consider an unborn child a "person", but physically that child is still part of it's mother. And as long as that physical connection remains, neither you nor I have a right to dictate a choice that will effect that mother and child infinitely more than ourselves. I would agree that in most cases, abortion isn't a wise solution, but in cases of rape or extreme health problems, it may be the best course of action. In either case, I trust the woman to make the right decision.
For a beginner, a computers can be an excellent opponent, if just to learn the basics. The nice thing about Go is that if you find the computer too easy you can make the game harder by giving it some handicaps, essentially giving the computer a head-start. GNU Go, included with Hikarunix, is rated about 9 kyu, plenty strong for a beginner.
Although I'd agree that little can substitute a face-to-face game in real life, Hikarunix includes clients that allow you to connect to all the popular Go servers, such as IGS, KGS, and NNGS, to play against real people. Although don't discount the computer programs (which are often available on the servers as well). They may not be able to beat the grand masters, but programs like GNU Go and The Many Faces of Go are more than challenging for the aspiring Go player. This is especially relavant in the US, where Go does not have the same name-recognition as Chess, so it can be hard to find an opponent for real world games.
Is it not the job of schools to "instill values"?
Generally, no. The job of public schools is to instill knowledge, not values. At least, not until we as a society can agree on what constitutes the One-True-Value-System. My point was that we should break down the task of education in a way that makes further tasks less difficult. To summarize my point in a corny proverb: Teach a man some knowledge, and he'll learn for a day; Teach a man the value of knowledge, and he'll learn for the rest of his life. If parents, and especially children, learn to realize the value of education then schools would notice significantly less resistance to their instruction. Granted, you make a good point; in that how do we instill these values? I must admit, I have no easy answer. Of course, if the answer to this question were easy, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
While I agree with the sentiment of your message, I feel the need to play the devil's advocate. Yes, I'd love to have someone in office representing my viewpoint, but I also want someone who has experience enough not to run the country into the ground. If your candidate has both qualities, than more power to you, but either way, don't be so quick to discount career politicians just because they like politics.
Well then let's look at some current examples. Some of the poorest school districts in the country, such as Chester PA, have experimented with hiring private companies to run their schools. Test scores are the same or worse than before, due to the same problems. Namely, children living in impoverished neighborhoods seem to, *shock*, have problems learning. Yet what are the other options? School vouchers? That only really works if there are decent yet affordable private schools within reasonable travel distance of the voucher recipient, and a lack of good schools in poor neighborhoods, and the neighborhoods themselves, is the problem to begin with.
It's indisputable that some schools have their problems, but blanketing all our public schools as "broken" is melodramatic if not outright incorrect. I certainly don't think disbanning the public school system is going to solve the problem. Having myself gone through the "horribly broken" public school system, I think I received a decent education. Perhaps my school was the exception, but I doubt it. Personally, I think the problems with low-performing schools lay more in the surrounding neighborhoods then the schools themselves. Perhaps if we reduce crime and instill values that encourage dedication to learning and good nutrition we'd find children more receptive.