Regarding Education

The following is à propos of a discussion recently suggesting a watchdog committee for education.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/
SB121996426389881371.html

(all one line, this blogger chops off the last few characters... :-(

I think a watchdog is a good thing, primarily in that it may affect how the tax funds are spent. As I've said numerously publicly and privately, there is no excuse what so ever to increase taxes. Give me any budget and I will find zillions of dollars being misspent. It is the nature of the beast.

Having said that, we do not live in a perfect world so must do the best we can with what we have, which is the current system.

Primary and secondary schools are a long way in the past, but I have fairly sharp memories of undergraduate and graduate studies. (For better or worse...)

History 101, Economics 101, Physics 101 are all pretty much the same any where you go, and all taught by graduate students, although the name on the shingle is Professor XYZ. (I know. I taught Trigonometry 101 as a graduate student... :-(

So what are we to do?

We are to stop (if we ever started) thinking that someone owes us something, get up off our haunches and move out.

The education system provides resources and *some (perhaps not much or certainly not enough, but some) guidance to work through those resources.

But at the end of the day it is up to the individual to make the most of what they have. If they do not then they have no one to blame but themselves.

This article points that out.