Gates Foundation Teams Up With Vaccine Maker to Produce $3 Covid-19 Shots

[Same Lazy Element]

Life skills, not academic argument skills.

So most home schoolers teach their kids how to flip burgers?

Education is training for your mind, just like lifting weights is training for your muscles. You don't say "i am not going to do pushups because it's not a movement that's useful in everyday life". Same way 99.9% of stuff I learned in school (high school, college and PhD) i have never used in real life. However, it's learning all that useless stuff that gave me the intellectual toolkit to learn new stuff that I use every day. FWIW, that's how I managed to stay relevant in a business where most people wash out.

 

[Overnight]

So most home schoolers teach their kids how to flip burgers?
...

Flipping burgers is not a skill that needs to be taught. That is not a "life" skill.

So you are saying home-schooling can teach only the lowliest of skills, like how to use a spatula and how to use a toothpick, and secondary education can only teach advanced statistical mathematics and other outrageously inane STEM shit.

What are you saying?

Seems you are saying that the people who go to very expensive schools and earn P.h.D.'s in science never ever end up flipping burgers. They ALL have 6-7 figure jobs no matter what?

 

[Overnight]

...Same way 99.9% of stuff I learned in school (high school, college and PhD) i have never used in real life. However, it's learning all that useless stuff that gave me the intellectual toolkit to learn new stuff that I use every day...

Indeed. It is the "learning how to learn" that gave you all that ability, not the knowledge imparted therein.

We don't need to go to fancy schools to learn how to learn. Parents can do the same job even more effectively than an anonymous curriculum.

 

[Tradex]

Education is training for your mind,

We are NOT arguing about the value of education, all we are saying is that the quality of "education", as we know it today, has seriously deteriorated in the last 50 years or so.

(Those interested can read "Dumbing Down America: The War on Our Nation's Brightest Young Minds" for instance.)

 

[Tradex]

We don't need to go to fancy schools to learn how to learn.

Well said, Overnight.

 

[Same Lazy Element]

We don't need to go to fancy schools to learn how to learn. Parents can do the same job even more effectively than an anonymous curriculum.

That's exactly what I am questioning. Not doubt a loving parent can teach a kid how to read/write at an early age. I can't, however, imagine an average human that can provide an upper-school student the diversity of knowledge that a formal education would. A few autodidacts that I've met were an exception, not a rule.

Flipping burgers is not a skill that needs to be taught. That is not a "life" skill.

Well, I don't know how to do that, maybe I should learn

So you are saying home-schooling can teach only the lowliest of skills, like how to use a spatula and how to use a toothpick, and secondary education can only teach advanced statistical mathematics and other outrageously inane STEM shit.

I am saying that education is primarily about setting up an ability to learn. That includes exposing your child to all sorts of knowledge/mental approaches that an average human does not know or remember.

Seems you are saying that the people who go to very expensive schools and earn P.h.D.'s in science never ever end up flipping burgers. They ALL have 6-7 figure jobs no matter what?

While I never did say that, probabilistically it's true. This is not to say that some people did not decide to take a step back and enjoy life (my coworker who used to run a trading desk is teaching high school math right now, for example).

 

[Tradex]

I am saying that education is primarily about setting up an ability to learn.

That was true 50 years ago, now "education" is all about forming docile workers (slaves) incapable of critical thinking.

 

[Same Lazy Element]

We are NOT arguing about the value of education, all we are saying is that the quality of "education", as we know it today, has seriously deteriorated in the last 50 years or so.

There is education and then there is "education". It's hard to expect that a degree from Trump university will provide you with the same ability to learn as let's say Moscow State University (*). However, you should not discard the idea of proper formal education because it has been corrupted and diluted. If anything, the best model is probably to supplement the formal education with tutoring/reading/hobbies.

* or any other top tier school, though I purposefully selected one that provides almost no network effect in the West like a top US or European school would

 

[Overnight]

...I can't, however, imagine an average human that can provide an upper-school student the diversity of knowledge that a formal education would...

Good grief man. A month in front of a TV with a cable package including channels such as History, Discovery, NatGeo, NatGeo Wild, Science, Food Network, A&E, etc will cram in more information in that month, in a rounded way, than a whole year in a typical public primary-school curriculum. And will be more enjoyable in the manner of learning, rather than that boring shit in the classroom.

Do that, and rote memorize the multiplication tables, and we'll all be right as rain.

(I think the multiply table rote method is a very valuable skill that can be taught at home. If there's one math skill to learn, learn that one, and the rest will follow logically.)

 

[Relentless]

Unless you are an incredible polymath, I really doubt you can provide your kids with the same education as a good school could. For example, could you teach calculus or linear algebra? Do you know anything about modern molecular biology or biochemistry? How about symbolic logic?

There is a reason why billionaire/millionaire kids flock to schools like Dalton and why successful startup founders usually have Ivy League schools on their CV (even if they have dropped out). Proper education includes a broad variety of subjects and teaches people how to use that knowledge in their everyday lives. Without that foundation, most people who "think for themselves" are ignorant idiots. There are some very rare exceptions like that guy who does the Fed commentary, but these are very rare.

So most home schoolers teach their kids how to flip burgers?

Education is training for your mind, just like lifting weights is training for your muscles. You don't say "i am not going to do pushups because it's not a movement that's useful in everyday life". Same way 99.9% of stuff I learned in school (high school, college and PhD) i have never used in real life. However, it's learning all that useless stuff that gave me the intellectual toolkit to learn new stuff that I use every day. FWIW, that's how I managed to stay relevant in a business where most people wash out.

There seems to be a disconnect. Since when do people refer to the homeschooling segment of a youth's life as higher education? I'm talking grade school which is arguably more important anyway as the foundation of one's ability to function in every day society.

Even at the discussion of higher education though - I wouldn't send anyone in that direction unless their career goals / interests lead them in that direction. Why the hell would anyone want to feed universities absurd amounts of money (to fill administrative pockets - not better quantify quality of available teaching) for questionable educations that don't guarantee jobs in the first place? If your pursuits in life require to jump through the hoops of a degree then by all means - some things are outside of one's control.

Since you claim you've attended higher education all the way through to the PhD level you might should take a minute and do your homework. Home-schooled kids test higher across the board.

There's a whole lot more I could get into but there is really no point. I've talked with PhD's from Ivy League schools that are so stupid that it makes one wonder what the requirements actually are to get said titles. I've also talked to people that went to CC or never even attended higher education (or even dropped out grade) that could run circles around these 4 year+ grads or PhDs before they could even discover their head from their ass.

I'm not saying that all of them are like that but sometimes it is just like wow.... do they just hand out Masters / Doctorate degrees now?

Anyway I agree that some of the education is to expand the brain's abilities as opposed to needing all of it for direct application in the workspace - but I'm a little appalled by how much clout you actually put towards it.