tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post8124271194061401827..comments2024-03-15T20:52:26.967-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Bill Gates admits he's blown $2 billion on Ayers Brothers small schools boondoggleUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-25530267765318706842009-02-08T01:53:00.000-08:002009-02-08T01:53:00.000-08:00Boy, the fun I could have had with a fraction of t...Boy, the fun I could have had with a fraction of the dough Gates has wasted...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-53089627176736435892009-02-07T04:45:00.000-08:002009-02-07T04:45:00.000-08:00No, I'm not a teacher and I've never been one. But...<I>No, I'm not a teacher and I've never been one. But I hear what they say.</I><BR/><BR/>What's your problem with choosing a handle and sticking to it? How many handles do you have?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-51507020483754867242009-02-06T18:01:00.000-08:002009-02-06T18:01:00.000-08:00This may seem a stupid question but I know that a ...<I>This may seem a stupid question but I know that a German billion is not the same thing as a US billion.</I><BR/><BR/>US million = German Million <BR/>US billion = German Milliard<BR/>US trillion = German BillionAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79262261717062336522009-02-06T13:52:00.000-08:002009-02-06T13:52:00.000-08:00I've actually been to one of these schools for a f...I've actually been to one of these schools for a few days (no, not as a student). While I yield to none in my scorn and loathing for revolutionary leftists, the small school idea has some merits. Unless you are a star jock who needs to play on a strong team, big schools are bad. Students become lost in the maze and once the number of teachers gets above 15 or 20, their worst tendencies are no longer checked by peer pressure. (BTW, I am quite familiar with school boards and ed administration and as a result strongly agree with "Zylonet"'s criticisms.)<BR/><BR/>Ayers may well have intended the small schools to be Gramscian nests boring from within, but that did not seem to be the case at the school I saw.<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.windwardhigh.org/" REL="nofollow">Windward High School, Ferndale WA</A><BR/><BR/>Incidentally, it was the larger, public, Ferndale High School where a lesbian was elected Homecoming King a few years ago. If I had children in the area's public high schools, I'd actually prefer they were at Windward.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-68563157240012025512009-02-06T10:37:00.000-08:002009-02-06T10:37:00.000-08:00The problem with schools it's not teachers, it's t...The problem with schools it's not teachers, it's the lack of competition and the administrative structure. My wife is a teacher and the administration function within the teaching community is unbelievably bad. School boards and districts are the most uncaring, unconcerned entities in the world. In our experience, teachers are rarely the problem. <BR/><BR/>All the money in the world, isn't going to improve our schools. We need a free-market system where incredible wealth can be earned. I believe it was Mises who correctly asserted that the function of a government employee was not to produce, but to protect his job. This is exactly what school administrators do. Everything is about furthering their power and securing their position. Nothing is done to make schools more productive. Moreover, this mentality can never be changed in a state run institution because such institutions lack incentive to beat the competition. So many people cannot wrap their minds around the obvious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-63855668977995031582009-02-06T09:45:00.000-08:002009-02-06T09:45:00.000-08:00I'm getting a little wonky in my head when I read ...I'm getting a little wonky in my head when I read about all these trillions and billions. OK, so millions are out of fashion, I got that. But what is the difference between a trillion and a billion? This may seem a stupid question but I know that a German billion is not the same thing as a US billion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-18172262570733354682009-02-06T08:26:00.000-08:002009-02-06T08:26:00.000-08:00Man oh man oh man.Too much to say, too little time...Man oh man oh man.<BR/><BR/>Too much to say, too little time to even think it [much less say it].<BR/><BR/>But two thoughts:<BR/><BR/>1) Steve, I think this might be the best investigative piece you've ever done [assuming it's original to you], and<BR/><BR/>2) Good God, this story is so depressing on so many different levels that my circuits are overloading just imagining the idea of thinking about the horror of it: America's wealthiest man funds America's most notorious terrorist in an ostensible effort to prove that smaller schools will increase the educational attainment of the exponentially increasing portion of all American children whose average IQs are no higher than 85, which effort was in reality a diversion of multiple billions of dollars of said wealthiest man's wealth into said anarcho-luddite-maoist terrorist's anarcho-luddite-maoist political power structure, resulting in the placement of an anarcho-luddite-maoist puppet in the presidency?<BR/><BR/>This is like the sorts of tragicomedies which brought Lenin and Mao to power.<BR/><BR/>In another 75 years, who will write the <I>Dr Zhivago</I> chronicling our downfall?<BR/><BR/>Maybe some fellow in China?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-70749758956816877302009-02-06T07:33:00.000-08:002009-02-06T07:33:00.000-08:00It's interesting to note that if Bill Ayers and hi...It's interesting to note that if Bill Ayers and his psycho-killer-groupie wife had had their way back in their SDS days, Bill Gates would never be a billionaire and wouldn't have the money to squander on Ayer's foolish schemes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-72377368724109287032009-02-06T07:25:00.000-08:002009-02-06T07:25:00.000-08:00Steve,Bill mentions the success of inner city char...Steve,<BR/><BR/>Bill mentions the success of inner city charter schools. Can you parse that? Is it a case of investments working if there is zero education to begin with? That is the positive effects do happen if one starts off at a very low level.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-76193402283052316102009-02-06T06:34:00.000-08:002009-02-06T06:34:00.000-08:00Pharisee is a word that needs to be reintroduced t...Pharisee is a word that needs to be reintroduced to the vernacular.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-68466732355510322992009-02-06T06:27:00.000-08:002009-02-06T06:27:00.000-08:00Is anyone else unsurprised to learn that Steve Job...Is anyone else unsurprised to learn that Steve Jobs is <A HREF="http://thevoiceforschoolchoice.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/jobs-on-education-for-jobs/" REL="nofollow">a school choice guy</A>?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-18918776523765022512009-02-06T00:22:00.000-08:002009-02-06T00:22:00.000-08:00Excellent article. As usual you manage to dig out ...Excellent article. As usual you manage to dig out the titbits. Like the Ayers sleaze. Typical lefties. Go on about imagined corruption and sleaze amongst conservatives but waste no time passing the extorted money round to their family and friends. <BR/><BR/>Another good one: "They have travelled to foreign countries like Cuba and Mexico to learn about social justice. " Yea, lots of social justice there. That's why those satisfied Cubans and Mexicans travel to America, to come teach those bitter gringos what social justice is about.<BR/><BR/>All this shit that Gates, Obama and Ayers are up to would just be hilarious if it were not our money they are using (yes Gates has too much of our money as well), and that they are stuffing up the countries we try and live in.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-17483963276147782352009-02-06T00:04:00.000-08:002009-02-06T00:04:00.000-08:00Gates comes across as the IT version of the succes...Gates comes across as the IT version of the successful chrome-toothed car salesman who is looking for social acceptance (righteousness). Everyone knows Gates made his money by leveraging the system in order to become a monopoly and then squeezing the public; And by destroying many technically superior companies; And by buying ideas from others; And he uses HB1’s to displace American workers so that he can make another sleazy buck. M$ products have been consistently overpriced for decades. If anything Gates should offer to reimburse all us suckers who paid too much for their junk. That would be a good deed in the sense of Lazarus the tax collector.<BR/><BR/>But because its software, people think its something intellectual so it’s like academic or something and thus Gates must know what he’s doing. So what does Gates, who cared more about making money than doing school, know about schools?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-44580623505276689552009-02-06T00:02:00.000-08:002009-02-06T00:02:00.000-08:00At least Gates is rarely seriously mentioned for p...At least Gates is rarely seriously mentioned for political office. But with all that money he could still do a lot of damage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-9521139665878004182009-02-05T23:39:00.000-08:002009-02-05T23:39:00.000-08:00Just a couple of reasons this assertion makes no s...<I>Just a couple of reasons this assertion makes no sense - 1) reorgs/new initiatives don't replace classroom time with "office politics" time. It is just extra paperwork (busywork) that is done after hours.</I><BR/><BR/>I'll agree that the mere time-servers don't like reorgs and new initiatives, but the ones who fancy themselves "educators" just love that shit. It's not that reorgs are a welcome respite from teaching the multiplication table. It's that reorgs and other pretentious busy-work make these dimwitted trend-mongers feel as if they're doing something much more important that just drilling facts and skills into the skulls of recalcitrant kiddies. You see, they're <I>revolutionizing</I> the pedagogical process! They're <I>educators</I> showing everyone how daringly theoretical and morally superior they are compared to mere teachers of facts and skills!<BR/><BR/>No, I'm not a daringly theoretical and morally superior educator and I've never been one. But I hear what they say.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-70036090846070634162009-02-05T22:29:00.000-08:002009-02-05T22:29:00.000-08:00Bill Gate's father was a political activist at the...Bill Gate's father was a political activist at the U. of Washington in the 1940s and 1950s -- working to defend the rights of Communist and fellow traveler professors.<BR/><BR/>There's a built in sympathy for leftist in the family history.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11560522431896017339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-70230678784661690962009-02-05T22:25:00.000-08:002009-02-05T22:25:00.000-08:00Many teachers and administrators don't mind all th...<I>Many teachers and administrators don't mind all the reorganizations because sitting around playing office politics versus each other is more fun than trying to get students to memorize the Times Tables.</I><BR/><BR/>I think you're straying too far from your zone of competence. Just a couple of reasons this assertion makes no sense - 1) reorgs/new initiatives don't replace classroom time with "office politics" time. It is just extra paperwork (busywork) that is done after hours. 2) Teaching hardly attracts the kind of people who like to stir the pot for its own sake. Once you've figured out how to be a benevolent authoritarian (some people are incapable of striking the right balance) in a classroom of sugared-up, hormone-raging latchkey kids, the last thing you're interested in is a lot of tinkering just for the heck of it.<BR/><BR/>No, I'm not a teacher and I've never been one. But I hear what they say.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-63741326001942460342009-02-05T21:14:00.000-08:002009-02-05T21:14:00.000-08:00You know, Malcolm Gladwell might have actually had...You know, Malcolm Gladwell might have actually had a good idea, when you get beyond the football analogy. Start teachers right out in an internship instead of a credential program, then weed out the ones that don't do well. Yeah, don't bet the farm on it without more data. But it wouldn't be expensive to try on a moderate scale. Actually, the less desirable places to teach in California already do that, although you have to do your credential too, eventually. Biggest problem is they lose the best teachers to better districts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-84381146208801960462009-02-05T20:48:00.000-08:002009-02-05T20:48:00.000-08:00Just follow the student test scores (across multip...Just follow the student test scores (across multiple classes and years, adjusted for prior performance by those students and their backgrounds, so there are rewards for teaching both dumb and smart kids), and turf the ones who do badly. Obviously using sperm and eggs from MIT students to conceive every kid in America would do much better, streaming kids by IQ, and other politically incorrect approaches could be good, but there's real room for performance gains from just eliminating the stupidity of completely disconnecting money and tenure from student improvement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com