Scientists. The new gods.

[Almighty Colin]

Originally posted by Vick@Feb 5 2004, 10:13 AM
Stated it many times but .......
Education begins and ends at home

I agree. What would be optimal though is for kids to receive a great education at home and at school.

What is an "education" though? What is currently taught in the schools can give one the most basic understanding of various area of human knowledge but leaves one well short in skills that are actually useful in the world. But of course,we also have to get enough kids interested in academics so that by the time all the weeding out is down we are left with enough kids interested in biology, physics, medicine, and mathematics to fill our grad schools.

I would like to see a much larger role for apprenticeship in the public school system. Kids learning trades. There is some of this scattered through the US (and the world). There is a program in New York called BOCES which teaches various vocations to students. Not sure how good it is but it's on the right path.

Funny enough though the system seems to work. We have plenty of researchers, academics, auto mechanics, chefs and any other vocation you can think of. When all is said and done, Adam Smith's marketplace mechanism is extremely powerful.

Not every kid can be above average.