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Education

In reply to the discussion: Why For-Profit Education Fails [View all]

QED

(3,115 posts)
1. Hank Green had an interesting take on this article on his facebook page
Sat Oct 15, 2016, 03:10 PM
Oct 2016

"Whenever I talk to rich people about the success of Crash Course get really excited really fast. They often see it as a path into something they want very badly, which is to address the extraordinarily broken system of education in America. This system that hasn't had significant innovation in a hundred and fifty years. A system that is leaving students behind because of nothing more than bureaucracy and stagnation. A system that they, if only they had the power, could fix with their brilliant vision and ambition.

The problem is, education in America is sub-optimal because it is an impossible thing to optimize. It necessarily has to be local because different schools face different problems. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions. You can't innovate your way into the kind of traditional cost-savings the internet brings because, ultimately, you need TONS of high skilled employees...teachers. And teachers are expensive despite actually being cheaper than they should be.

I once asked a teacher of mine why trees never evolved the ability to walk. Now, her reply was maybe not the most scientifically accurate one...but it is a very good one: "Why would a tree need to walk?" she asked in return.

Education in America has innovated over the last 150 years. Yes, teachers are doing really interesting stuff right now. But there's a reason why it hasn't changed a lot, and that's because classrooms don't need to grow legs and start jogging around and doing tricks."

Link to his post.

https://www.facebook.com/hankgreen/posts/10157523155380487

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