It's sad to watch a once smart and talented man go mad right before our eyes. There needs to be an intervention for Bill Gates. I fear that he has taken leave of his senses and finally jumped the shark.
I have written about Bill Gates and his interest in "school reform" for years, beginning with An Open Letter to Bill Gates, published in 2006 when I had little reason to question his motives or desire to improve public schools. Since then I wrote the School Wars: Who's Trying to Control Your Public Schools? (2008) cover story for Good Magazine in which I urged citizens to be weary of billionaire bullies trying to privatize public education. I mocked Gates' inept attempt to influence the 2008 presidential campaign with his ED in '08 organization in the article, Bill Gates and Eli Broad Go Gangsta.
I sat back stunned when Gates shared the remarkable ephipany that we should find out what effective teachers do and share those ideas with others as if such a patronizing revelation had never occurred to educators. In his incredibly condescending TED Talk, Gates went on to suggest that we film excellent teaching and share it with others; another long-established practice he thinks he invented to rescue children from all of the awful teachers consciously suppressing standardized test scores. Gates doesn't offer to film the classrooms his children attend, but rather the obedience schools like KIPP he prescribes for poor children. In the world of Bill Gates his children deserve one quality of educational experience and other people's children should receive a joyless diet of remediation, testing, deprivation, compliance and shame.
Since when do philanthropists call for the deprivation of children?
I didn't write an article when Gates complained that teachers should not be compensated for post-graduate education, not even when his puppet, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan amplified his ridiculous argument against educators being educated. I blogged that Bill Gates was investing in Khan Academy because it deskills teachers and reduces the cost of education when public schools can be replaced by a hobbyist's YouTube videos. I didn't gloat when the "School of the Future" Microsoft built in Philadelphia and based on absurd corporate fantasies proved to be a predictable failure
I remained quiet when Bill Gates, a monopolist whose company has a record of labor violations here and abroad, when he attacked teacher seniority and pensions. His affection for Teach for America and other gimmicks to recruit cheaper less qualified and more compliant teachers is predictable. Trickling down on the little guy is what American corporate bigwigs do.
I shrugged when the Obama Administration's Department of Education was flooded with former Gates Foundation employees. I was unamused when Microsoft's business partner, NBC News, had my FaceBook access blocked for criticizing their shameless publicity on behalf ot the Gates-financed propaganda film, Waiting for Superman. I tweeted in horror when I learned that the Gates Foundation was funding a scheme to put earpieces in teachers so they may be controlled while teaching.
You would think that nothing else could surprise me, but now, Bill Gates has descended into the delusional world of Charlie Sheen. Gates told the nation's governors (they seem to speak with Bill more than their caddies) that the critical cuts to public schools could actually improve education if class sizes were increased so that we can "get more students in front of the very best teachers." That's right, Bill Gates is now advocating for larger class size! Since when do philanthropists call for the deprivation of children?
Gates' crazy plan to raise class sizes FOR THE CHILDREN is one thing, but his desire to get more students "in front of the very best teachers" reveals his ignorance on how learning occurs. Learning is an active process constructed by each learner. It is not simply the immediate result of being taught.
Who elected Bill Gates and gave him control of a national treasure, our public schools? Would someone please suggest that he return to the corporate world and refocus his energies on the technological triumph that is the Zune?
Follow Gary Stager on Twitter: www.twitter.com/garystager
No one elected them!!!!!!!!
Bring back great public schools America or the rest of the world will leave us behind!
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1316287&cid=28837517
In defense of Khan Academy, consider my essay:
http://patapata.sourceforge.net/WhyEducationalTechnologyHasFailedSchools.html
"Ultimately, educational technology's greatest value is in supporting "learning on demand" based on interest or need which is at the opposite end of the spectrum compared to "learning just in case" based on someone else's demand. Compulsory schools don't usually traffic in "learning on demand", for the most part leaving that kind of activity to libraries or museums or the home or business or the "real world". In order for compulsory schools to make use of the best of educational technology and what is has to offer, schools themselves must change. ... Modern information and manufacturing technology itself is giving compulsory schools a failing grade. ... What remains is just to watch this all play out, and hopefully guide the collapse of compulsory schooling so that the fewest people get hurt in the process."
John Creighton on 21st century institutions:
http://johncr8on.com/projects/21st-century-institutions/
Or Ken Robinson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Or Matthew Taylor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo
In contrast to "Waiting for Superman", compulsory school is mainly a "War on Kids":
http://www.thewaronkids.com/
Compulsory school in practice promotes "State Controlled Consciousness" like John Taylor Gatto talks about:
http://www.the-open-boat.com/Gatto.html
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16a.htm
http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
School also engages in a "War on Communities" in a deep way; see my essay on why school funds should be given directly to familes with children to spend as they see fit:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/towards-a-post-scarcity-new-york-state-of-mind.html
"See, that is the false choice -- suggesting you either confine a child to prison [compulsory schools] or [allegedly] they will commit their first violent crime and have to be imprisoned. That is a very dim view of human nature, neighborhoods and families. Yet, it is a self justifying view, in part destroying the very neighborhood fabric it claims to be defending. So, we are left with streets that are safe because there are no people on them. We have successfully destroyed the village in order to save it, using compulsory schooling instead of napalm."
Other approaches to education can involve communities like John Holt's unschooling concept.
http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html
Or this idea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place-based_education
The educational system refuses to fix itself, so the cure must come from outside.
Is Bill the right guy? I don't know, but he's sure better than any alternative proposed by the NEA.
We don't need no stinkin' teachers. Next, why not have foreign teachers/educators (many could be found who speak flawless English) deliver lessons remotely on a projection screen and pay them a literal fraction of what American teachers make. Physical schools will become unnecessary. Just record the logged hours on the student's home computer.
This will happen in colleges and universities, too and is in progress as seen with the proliferation of college online courses.
Everybody wins!!
this is the rush to bring corp america tactics to education you know those same tactics used on wall street and in our banks to big to fail or those leadership ideas at the big three.
every business school in america teaches those tactics like pay for performance, wage reduction, oursourcing, CEO bonuses, stock options, etc.
you teachers with seniority you are on the firing line. and if you dont think pay for performance evaluations are subjective and cost reduction driven; wow what planet do you live on. they can hire two fresh outs to replace you for the same money.
capitalism must in time eliminate unions. they are a throne in their rush to privatize education. education and pension money are too big for banks and wall street to pass up. the scams they could do with that kind of money is beyond anyone's imagination.
Do I have any votes for this great idea? NO?? OK -- you ask for it -- I am going to forward this to FOX!!