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Timmy elsewhere

At the ASI.

Recording the distinctive success of the government run education system.

12 thoughts on “Timmy elsewhere”

  1. The state doesn’t provide all education, ever heard of Eton? And do you really think an anecdotal (though terribly good) story makes for evidence to abolish state education? Back to school with you I think.

  2. Surreptitious Evil

    Are all states the same? I appreciate that we tend to import tbe worst of American inventions but you can’t rationally make the direct transfer. Especially with an anecdote that you deliberately will not verify.

    None of the above pendantry should be considered to support any belief that I think the UK state education system isn’t mostly crap.

  3. SE,

    Are all states the same? I appreciate that we tend to import tbe worst of American inventions but you can’t rationally make the direct transfer. Especially with an anecdote that you deliberately will not verify.

    According to Mother Jones (http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/07/great-third-pound-burger-ripoff) her article references a book by the owner.

    It’s not just that states are similar, it’s that the incentives that the state has are not those of the people, and if you put something in the states hands, whether that’s the UK or the USA, you get similar results.

    One thing I love about the internet is how you can get news around the world without it being diluted by local media. You can read forum posts by people across the world telling others about things. And it’s what finally made me realise that government running things is a bad idea, because the waste is across all parties in all countries. That all you can really hope for in politicians is that they either drastically simplify how government executes things and that they privatise (with competition) as much as possible.

  4. There was an invariant that struck me before I retired. In the early seventies I was an academic; my classes included American visiting undergraduates from good “Colleges” who were a year behind the British students. In the early noughties I was again an academic; in the meantime the Forces of Progress had buggered up the British schools. But again American visiting undergraduates were a year behind the British students.

  5. dearieme

    The US public schools system seems to be an even bigger fuckup than ours. As is frequently pointed out, some of the highest paid employees are handegg coaches.

  6. I remember an anecdote back around the time when the volcano erupted on the island of Montserrat in 1995 and many of the inhabitants were evacuated to the UK. They found that the Montserratian schoolkids – who had been educated using the old British system which had not been captured by LEAs and teachers’ unions – were making the mainland British kids look like complete retards.

  7. Now, Tim, you don’t need to import your stories of public innumeracy from overseas: you can buy British! 😉 Admittedly, this one involves fewer people:

    Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6.

    Tina Farrell, from Levenshulme, called Camelot after failing to win with several cards.

    The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: “On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn’t.

    “I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher – not lower – than -8 but I’m not having it.

    “I think Camelot are giving people the wrong impression – the card doesn’t say to look for a colder or warmer temperature, it says to look for a higher or lower number. Six is a lower number than 8. Imagine how many people have been misled.” [src]

  8. “I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher – not lower – than -8 but I’m not having it.”

    This – brilliant

    Maths discriminates against the stupid

    Solution?

    Launch an Action Group to force Maths to change to reflect the needs of an inclusive society.

    If we could persuade Tim’s best mate R Murphy to take a (well paid, natch) position as CEO, we could call the resulting legislation ‘Murphy’s Law’

    What could go wrong?

  9. Launch an Action Group to force Maths to change to reflect the needs of an inclusive society.

    We could call the resulting legislation ‘Murphy’s Law’

    Ah, now on this one we do need to import some American stupidity: the notorious Indiana Pi Bill.

  10. What has happened/is happening to Bronx High School (State-run, selective New York school and still I believe the world’s leading secondary school producer of Nobel Prize winners – beat that, Eton) and other high level technical schools in New York is highly instructive.

    Racial quotas, dumbing down etc etc.

    The State can run good schools if it opens them up to intelligent kids and good teachers and leaves them to it; trouble is the sociologists, race obsessive and other assorted leftist cunts can’t help meddling, so various mouth breathers will be admitted and off will come the bails.

  11. Surreptitious Evil

    I believe the world’s leading secondary school producer of Nobel Prize winners – beat that, Eton

    I’m not sure Eton wants to – although I doubt it would turn it down if offered.

    I suspect Eton is happier turning out the sort of people who run the companies, governments and universities that employ mere trades persons. Of whatever dignity they have achieved in their field.

  12. I guarantee I know more OEs than you do, and I can tell you that if you think Eton wouldn’t want to have produced seven physics Nobels and one in chemistry you’re nuts.

    But irrespective of that, this is a post about state education, and whether it can be any good, so in that context Bronx High is relevant and Eton ain’t, old son.

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