Quoted by rueger:
'The most blunt assessment came from Microsoft chief Bill Gates, who has put more than $700 million into reducing the size of high school classes through the foundation formed by him and his wife, Melinda. He said high schools must be redesigned to prepare every student for college....'
It's comforting (and simultaneously disheartening) to see that old Bill is talking out of the same fallacious American trap so many people spend their whole lives operating under. Namely, it's the 'college as end-sought' theory, where parents spend their whole lives pushing little Timmy to 'go to college' without (in many cases) considering what it MEANS to go to college and more importantly, that all colleges are not equal. Combine that with the fact that a substantial portion of graduates are majoring in 'business' (I got my info from Paul Fussell and will dig it up if you all really need it) and you end up with a country that regards college as some categorical end-all be-all without noting that Oral Roberts University is not providing the same education as the University of Pennsylvania. Trade schools are getting promoted to the level of 'universities' by the expedient method of having a name change and eventually the more nebulous and esoteric 'majors' of classics, history and physics will keep being replaced by generations of business and 'administration' majors. So what kind of college does Bill want to prepare children for? Saying 'college' doesn't mean a whole lot.
High schools are not obsolete. They're not efficient or full of advanced learning, but every student I've known who wanted either of those things found a way to get it elsewhere (other programs or simply with the weight of their own interest.) People work up to the level of their interest, kids no different than adults. Most of them learn how to run in a crowd figure out what other people think, get places on time (theoretically), do what they need to get by, and they keep doing it for the rest of their lives. I think it should be about more than that, but for that you'd have to change not only school, but the character of students.
Proof that the only idea that still exists in movie-making is 'Let's drag X up and recycle it.'
I predict the Beowulf movies will be at least as good as Troy and Alexander.
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Quoted by rueger: 'The most blunt assessment came from Microsoft chief Bill Gates, who has put more than $700 million into reducing the size of high school classes through the foundation formed by him and his wife, Melinda. He said high schools must be redesigned to prepare every student for college....'
It's comforting (and simultaneously disheartening) to see that old Bill is talking out of the same fallacious American trap so many people spend their whole lives operating under. Namely, it's the 'college as end-sought' theory, where parents spend their whole lives pushing little Timmy to 'go to college' without (in many cases) considering what it MEANS to go to college and more importantly, that all colleges are not equal. Combine that with the fact that a substantial portion of graduates are majoring in 'business' (I got my info from Paul Fussell and will dig it up if you all really need it) and you end up with a country that regards college as some categorical end-all be-all without noting that Oral Roberts University is not providing the same education as the University of Pennsylvania. Trade schools are getting promoted to the level of 'universities' by the expedient method of having a name change and eventually the more nebulous and esoteric 'majors' of classics, history and physics will keep being replaced by generations of business and 'administration' majors. So what kind of college does Bill want to prepare children for? Saying 'college' doesn't mean a whole lot.
High schools are not obsolete. They're not efficient or full of advanced learning, but every student I've known who wanted either of those things found a way to get it elsewhere (other programs or simply with the weight of their own interest.) People work up to the level of their interest, kids no different than adults. Most of them learn how to run in a crowd figure out what other people think, get places on time (theoretically), do what they need to get by, and they keep doing it for the rest of their lives. I think it should be about more than that, but for that you'd have to change not only school, but the character of students.
Proof that the only idea that still exists in movie-making is 'Let's drag X up and recycle it.' I predict the Beowulf movies will be at least as good as Troy and Alexander.
And I'd like to thank the academy of other folks with too much time on their hands, who've made me what I am today.