Education in the United States
We have a thread devoted to academic freedom at universities, and we have a thread devoted to whether higher education should be subsidized. This thread is a landing spot for discussion of other issues related to education -- issues like school integration, pedagogy, the influence of politics on education (and vice versa), charter schools, public v. private schools, achievement gaps, and gerrymandering of school districts.
I'll start the discussion with two articles. The first deals with a major changes in the public school system in NYC.
NYC's public schools are highly segregated for such a diverse city. Last Friday, Bill DeBlasio announced the following:
Middle schools will see the most significant policy revisions. The city will eliminate all admissions screening for the schools for at least one year, the mayor said. About 200 middle schools — 40 percent of the total — use metrics like grades, attendance and test scores to determine which students should be admitted. Now those schools will use a random lottery to admit students.
In doing this, Mr. de Blasio is essentially piloting an experiment that, if deemed successful, could permanently end the city’s academically selective middle schools, which tend to be much whiter than the district overall.
DeBlasio also announced that:
New York will also eliminate a policy that allowed some high schools to give students who live nearby first dibs at spots — even though all seats are supposed to be available to all students, regardless of where they reside.
The system of citywide choice was implemented by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2004 as part of an attempt to democratize high school admissions. But Mr. Bloomberg exempted some schools, and even entire districts, from the policy, and Mr. de Blasio did not end those carve outs.
The most conspicuous example is Manhattan’s District 2, one of the whitest and wealthiest of the city’s 32 local school districts. Students who live in that district, which includes the Upper East Side and the West Village, get priority for seats in some of the district’s high schools, which are among the highest-performing schools in the city.
No other district in the city has as many high schools — six — set aside for local, high-performing students.
Many of those high schools fill nearly all of their seats with students from District 2 neighborhoods before even considering qualified students from elsewhere. As a result, some schools, like Eleanor Roosevelt High School on the Upper East Side, are among the whitest high schools in all of New York City.
Here is the New York Times article that describes the changes:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/nyreg...
Obvious questions for discussion include:
- How large a priority should cities place on ensuring that city schools are representative of the city as a whole?
- Are measures like the ones that DeBlasio is implementing likely to be effective in making schools more representative?
- Will these measures have unintended (or intended) consequences that extend far beyond changing the representativeness of city schools?
Proximity to Canada, LDO.
(btw if you guys really think about it, it can actually be about latitudes, but not for the reasons you like)
I just looked back and it was Luckbox who posited that theory, not you, I thought it was you.
I just looked back and it was Luckbox who posited that theory, not you, I thought it was you.
the "colder weather -> smarter people theory" is discussed a lot in literature but here you have a different situation because almost everyone in the USA and canada isn't a native rather someone whose ancestors only came there at most a couple hundreds years ago (nothing in biological sense).
but latitude could still *attract* different people.
for example Minnesota attracted swedes more than any other state because the climate was similar so they could grow the same crop and animals doing the same they did at home, do you get that?
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitudes.
Let's come at this a different way, Luciom. There is something that you want to say that you believe is against forum rules. You don't want to get a ban. Fair enough. Why don't you start by telling us which forum rule you believe you would violate if you expressed your actual option in plain words.
You obviously will not be banned for explaining which rule you believe your prospective response would violate.
the "colder weather -> smarter people theory" is discussed a lot in literature but here you have a different situation because almost everyone in the USA and canada isn't a native rather someone whose ancestors only came there at most a couple hundreds years ago (nothing in biological sense).
but latitude could still *attract* different people.
for example Minnesota attracted swedes more than any other state because the climate was similar so they could grow the same crop and animals doing the sam
People in colder climates developed fermentation as a method of food preservation and accordingly developed a tolerance for alcohol. In the modern age when alcohol can be exported around the world, people whose ancestors are from colder climates have the advantage. Nothing to do with innate intelligence.
People in colder climates developed fermentation as a method of food preservation and accordingly developed a tolerance for alcohol. In the modern age when alcohol can be exported around the world, people whose ancestors are from colder climates have the advantage. Nothing to do with innate intelligence.
I'm not following; is the problem in Africa that they can't handle their booze?
Also, if we're measuring superiority by ability and proclivity to consume inordinate amounts of alcohol, please let me know where I can collect my gold medal.
I'm not following; is the problem in Africa that they can't handle their booze?
Also, if we're measuring superiority by ability and proclivity to consume inordinate amounts of alcohol, please let me know where I can collect my gold medal.
Maybe they're implying fermentation allowed safer consumables? It's theorized that fermentation has als...
Maybe they're implying fermentation allowed safer consumables? It's theorized that fermentation has als...
The poster specifically said that it had to do with tolerance and worldwide exports of alcohol, so I'm confused.
You forgot to address my point about how teachers currently have zero incentive to do a good job.
I didn’t forget.
What’s the use for someone believing all government workers do not merits their salaries and never work hard ?
That is why I believe you wouldn’t last a year doing it .
Ps: not an insult don’t worry, I wouldn’t either …
Like luciom said , in general if a job was very overpaid doing nothing or too easy , you wouldn’t have huge amount of opening job as a teacher .
Pay them half a million a year and I garantee you all jobs would be fill with huge numbers on waiting list …
You do realize that in many states it costs more per kid in a public school than a private school, right? So the exact opposite of what you think will happen is already happening and the vouchers would create a lot more incentive to compete.
So I may have jumped in without reading back far enough. Would you like to just expand the voucher system or abolish public schools altogether and outsource education to the private sector?
Nah man, SES diversity is just completely unsolvable. The poors are dumb, keep intermarrying, and so they need to be left behind. It's not the government's job to worry about that, so it's time to put it in the hands of free enterprise, and the strongest will thrive!
Isn’t that usually how revolution start tho ?
We see it with maga occurring live .
I'm not following; is the problem in Africa that they can't handle their booze?
Also, if we're measuring superiority by ability and proclivity to consume inordinate amounts of alcohol, please let me know where I can collect my gold medal.
FWIW East Asians as a group have some of the lowest alcohol tolerance. A significant proportion of the population has pretty much zero tolerance because they lack the enzyme to quickly metabolize alcohol. And this group also has the highest IQ (depending on whether you want to lump Ashkenazi Jews in with the "white" group or assign them their own identity).
So I think we can safely put that theory to bed. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Originally Posted by Luckbox Inc
No. There is probably something to be said for people who live in colder less forgiving environments being more ingenuitive-- that has nothing to do be genetics or "group qualities" and everything to do the exigencies of environmental conditions.
--But basic evolutionary theory would predict that such traits would be selected for over time, and would become genetic "group qualities." Also, FWIW I am not endorsing this theory, I am just pointing out the logical extension of it that would come to a different conclusion than you do.
Dude, you are critiquing to posts I've quoted by quoting me. I'm not the proponent of these ideas lol, the authors of the respective quotes are.
