fuck this year seriously

"Let's change the public education system in the US, increasing teacher wages, decreasing tuition costs and student debt so every child has equal opportunity regardless of parental wealth. We might need a tax increase somewhere, but it will pay off massively in the long run"

"Nah I rather just help people by posting a black JPEG to Insta"

@sudocode Laughed way too hard on this one. Now I have to clean up all this coffee.

@Jilano Critical thinking? in Murica?

ok then - Go ahead and educate them.

Reminder: most AntiVax are "educated". COVID-19 took care of that problem.

@Nanos Low entry cost to education and great public schools has worked here in the Netherlands (I say has, because there's a big push to make education less accessible).

But on average, we tend to score in the top 10 of countries with low income gaps, and come in at 6 (after all 5 Scandinavian states) in the ranking of social mobility — meaning: It doesn't matter where you came from, your success is determined by merit, ambition and effort.

Yes, there is some waste, our implementation is far from perfect. There are people who "studied" for 10 years and partied more than they learned. There are people who are left behind in education because of austerity measures here as well.

But the United States is fucking 27th. 26 countries are better at the American Dream than the USA.

I do consider myself a capitalist, even close to libertarianism at times.

I just draw the line at education. Everyone deserves an equal start. After that... survival of the fittest, bitches.

@Jilano Hence the missing "critical thinking" skill.
These days people choose thier facts to fit thier exisiting bias - education requires you to throw away your bias...

@Nanos

Luck and genetics play a role.

But intelligence and knowledge are like physical strength -- some people's genes prevent them from becoming athletic gods (academical geniuses), but training can still elevate all who participate.

It's not necessarily about throwing expensive education at people -- it's about developing and improving a very solid broad base level of affordable public education.

If the quality gap between the cheapest and most expensive education is huge, you end up with very little social mobility -- and eventually a class war where those with an unfair chance at education will revolt.

I come from a poor-as-fuck family, whose parents both died when I was 12. Only because we have a reasonable public education system interwoven with a good support system of psychologists and coaches, did I manage to climb up to a 6 figure income... So I gladly pay my 52% income tax, as long as it flows back to improving quality of public education.

@Nanos Regarding age and education... Should be mandatory till 16.

College should be non-mandatory, but cheap and accessible for all ages.

College should also be flexible, easy to combine with other activities.

In the Netherlands there are now plans to eliminate yearly tuition and split bachelors into smaller bits which would cost €40 each — allowing you to work as a freelance developer, using your income to pay for a part-time CS bachelor instead of building up debt for example.

@Nanos

Ideally most education content would be distributed digitally at variable speed, think: KhanAcademy, or Udemy (if it was curated for quality and purpose).

Rush through stuff you find easy, spend more time on what you find tough to grasp.

Schools would exist as coaching institutes. They hire didactic experts which sit down with students to plan & review progress, psychologists and career guides to motivate people and keep them on track, field specialists to assist when they're stuck.

I went to a Yenaplan school for a while, and one of my favorite parts was that you had to coach kids a few years younger than you, and were coached by students a few years older. That concept could be modernized, automated.

By paying less attention to the content and more to coaching towards autodidactism, I think the boundary between good and problematic students wouldn't be so harsh either: Fuckups would land in front of a shrink much faster to get them back on track again.

May i remind you about 🔫 being changed to prevent shootings?
That really did something, didn't it? 😐

Fuck.

Why not both?

@sudocode I lol’d hard to this.