It's even more than that too. In Fuller's idyllic world of ivory towers that 1 in 10,000 never gets a chance to make the breakthrough that changes the world. Who the fuck is teaching them? Who is growing their food? Who is manufacturing their computers, mining the raw material for their batteries and powering their labs? The system works from the bottom up, not the top down. People have to work to get food, that's rung #1 on the ladder. Excess food can be traded so that other people don't need to farm/hunt/gather and can create shelter. Those people can trade what they make so that others can teach. And there are 9,997 more steps necessary to allow that 1 in 10,000 genius to change the world. Without them needing to work that genius isn't even born.
That quote by Fuller is one of the 10 dumbest things ever said by an intelligent person.
I'm certainly not advocating throwing endless funds at a problem, but this inverse statement is fucking retarded. If you have an underfunded school with student:teacher ratios of 45+ additional funding is at least one step in the direction toward providing more effective education.Okay - but just to reverse that -
No matter what approach you take demanding more funding is not going to right the ship of a failing school.
So what's the answer then? Because if I'm on the right and saying "Most of those people are capable of doing something productive in their life such as digging holes, fixing cars, garbage pickup, package delivery" does that mean the left's answer is "Sorry, there is no hope for you, you're screwed" ?
I'm certainly not advocating throwing endless funds at a problem, but this inverse statement is fucking retarded. If you have an underfunded school with student:teacher ratios of 45+ additional funding is at least one step in the direction toward providing more effective education.
I don't think either the left or the right have good answers for this problem. Nobody really wants to acknowledge it. Our society is built upon the idea that you work for your money. What if there is no work that you can usefully do? That seems to be the case for more people than we would like to admit.
Is universal basic income the answer? I don't know.
I don't think as much goes to administration as you think, and you can only cut it back so much. I do think a lot of money gets wasted on special programs that are either never implemented correctly or are not given enough time to see results before wasting money on the next program. I also think administration should be streamlined so administrators aren't wasting so much time on tasks that could easily be done by unlicensed people for lower pay. 4-8 licensed administrators doing everything from teacher development, to discipline, to facilities and activities management, down to lunch/bus duty. What's the sense in that? Keep 2-4 licensed people to really focus on teacher development and other core educational functions and redistribute the rest of the duties to less expensive positions. But at the end of the day, you still need your administrators, counselors, support staff, etc. etc., and making my proposed adjustment is only going to yield you a few more teachers.It's not a funding problem; it is a problem where we spend those funds. The U.S. is consistently near the top of the list of nations on spending per student, but near the bottom on performance per spending. I'd love to see less money spent on administration and bureaucracies, and more spent on the people who actually teach our children. We don't need more money for education. We need to quit spending it on people who will never teach a child.
I don't think as much goes to administration as you think, and you can only cut it back so much. I do think a lot of money gets wasted on special programs that are either never implemented correctly or are not given enough time to see results before wasting money on the next program. I also think administration should be streamlined so administrators aren't wasting so much time on tasks that could easily be done by unlicensed people for lower pay. 4-8 licensed administrators doing everything from teacher development, to discipline, to facilities and activities management, down to lunch/bus duty. What's the sense in that? Keep 2-4 licensed people to really focus on teacher development and other core educational functions and redistribute the rest of the duties to less expensive positions. But at the end of the day, you still need your administrators, counselors, support staff, etc. etc., and making my proposed adjustment is only going to yield you a few more teachers.
You have to take care of Maslow's hierarchy first.Chicago is living fucking proof that regardless of how much money you throw at education it makes absolutely zero difference.
Chicago.Chicago is living fucking proof that regardless of how much money you throw at education it makes absolutely zero difference.
I was most of the way toward getting an elementary ed degree when I switched gears and went into IT. When I interned and started speaking to teachers, I knew I wouldn't make it...I have a huge problem with asshats in authority and the school system is a giant example of it. Hell I have enough problems dealing with pointy-haired bosses in IT!
It's a shame because it's an important job, way more than what I do now. Couple this and some other issues* with shit-for-pay here in FL at least and I was out.
*One of these was hearing about male teachers (I'm male) getting blackballed just for being accused of inappropriate behavior toward students. This was WAY before metoo. One guy got run out of the job after a girl accused him, she later admitted she made it up because she was pissed about a grade she had received...but he was screwed. Then you get into dealing with the parents....
Edit: just wanted to add that unfortunately I know that some schools don't have a policy like this here in FL...how do I know? Because my son forgets to do his homework more often than you'd think is possible, and gets a big fat zero for it.
I don't think as much goes to administration as you think, and you can only cut it back so much. I do think a lot of money gets wasted on special programs that are either never implemented correctly or are not given enough time to see results before wasting money on the next program. I also think administration should be streamlined so administrators aren't wasting so much time on tasks that could easily be done by unlicensed people for lower pay. 4-8 licensed administrators doing everything from teacher development, to discipline, to facilities and activities management, down to lunch/bus duty. What's the sense in that? Keep 2-4 licensed people to really focus on teacher development and other core educational functions and redistribute the rest of the duties to less expensive positions. But at the end of the day, you still need your administrators, counselors, support staff, etc. etc., and making my proposed adjustment is only going to yield you a few more teachers.
That is a fallacy, there is plenty of work, unfortunately living wages, pensions, healthcare, safety, labor, environmental rules and regulations interfere with the profits from that work,
So the owners convinced the us government to make outsourcing and H1b' s easier, pay lip service to the illegal problem outside of a few raids and the occasional business owner held legally responsible, while raking in the profits and using legal tax avoidance schemes they lobbied the law makers to put into law,
Meanwhile the ever struggling/diminishing middle class was told those jobs are beneath them and they should get an education because better pie in the sky high paying jobs are coming so they can live the American dream while paying off those expensive non-discharge able student loans,
And now that we see how that isn't working out and in order to keep the populace from realizing how badly they have been fucked they promote ideas like universal basic income which is just another form of glorified trickle down welfare that they don't intend to pay for themselves but all our smart liberal types who should know better from trickle down Reaganomics believe that somehow that will happen and save the day.
Become a politician of course.You're not following the debate. What if there is no work that you are INTELLIGENT enough to do? Read the posts a few pages back about US Military IQ requirements.
If you are too stupid for the US military to hire you to do ANYTHING, what is there for you to do in life?