Yo! Bill Gates! If You're So Rich, How Come You Ain't Smart? (Again)

After Bill Gates spoke to the National Governors Association in February, 2005, I wrote "You Bill Gates! If You're So Rich How Come You Ain't Smart?" To me, Gates' speech was just another illustration that when experts in one field speak out in another, they can say some really stupid things. No one would publish my screed. Maybe it just wasn't well written.

But Gates is at it again. Saying really dumb things. This time in the September 23 edition of Parade. I don't generally read Parade because I think it is generally garbage and it has a long history of saying nasty and erroneous things about public schools. But my wife peruses it and I had to listen to her read out loud the very short piece that is not headed with a by-line. I suppose the author was embarrassed.

Gates is quotes as saying "Testing is the only objective measurement of our students. It's incredible that we have not national standard." Testing is not "objective" when different students have different opportunities to learn what's on the tests. Why is it incredible that we have no national standard? Remember "Only in America?" It used to be a statement of pride that we did things different from the rest of the world. National standards in and of themselves mean nothing. A study of the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study in 1995 found that in math, 8 of the 10 highest scoring nations had centralized curricula and national standards. But so did 8 of the 10 lowest scoring nations. In science 8 of the 10 highest scoring nations had national standards, but so did 9 of the 10 lowest scoring countries.

He says that the 20% of U. S. students who take honors classes and go to college get an education as good as any in the world. "It's the other 80% where the U. S. is weak." Where on earth does he get these figures? There are no data looking at college education across nations. And if only 20% of our kids were getting good college education, why would millions of students flock to American universities. Why would everyone consider them the best in the world? A ranking from Shanghai Jiao Tong University placed 19 U. S. colleges in the top 25 (along with only 3 from the U. K., 2 in Japan and one in Canada).

"When we gave up phonics, we destroyed the reading ability of kids." Not even the National Reading Panel, which went too far towards phonics, went that far. Those of us who learned to read before we started school...well, I guess we couldn't have done that, huh, Bill? (There are many documented cases of people learning to read without instruction).

He says we should end the disparities between urban and suburban high schools. Well I'm all for that and he's at least put his money where his mouth is there, but he doesn't really say what he means. Test scores, I guess.

But you have to wonder about Gates. He must giggle every time he enters his 11,500 square foot house. He's smart enough to know he's pulled off one of the great scams ever. If GM, Ford or Chrysler had marketed a product as lousy as Windows, they'd have long since been bankrupt. The "Bill Gates Wealth Clock" is no longer functioning because something is wrong with the real-time data suppliers, but when I wrote my last book in 2006, the clock registered $65 billion (the URL is here when it functions).

The Parade article observes that it's been two years since Gates made his grim predictions about the economic decline of the U. S. if our schools didn't shape up. And indeed, since then, we have fallen from first to 6th in the annual Global Competitiveness Ranking from the World Economic Forum. But it's a funny thing. If you read their explanation of why we've slumped you end up with only two words: Bush policies (new rankings will be out in a month or two).

Comments

[Elderbury]

In your essay, you dismiss Gates' call for national standards, stating that national standards in and of themselves mean nothing. Well, perhaps that's true. But it doesn't mean we don't need them. Oxygen, in and of itself, isn't sufficient for maintaining human life, but one could not reasonably conclude that it isn't necessary. Henry Braun's study earlier this summer (google NAEP Mapping) which attempted to map various state test standards onto a common scale (NAEP), while not perfect, showed us just how dramatically different are the expectations set by different states for what constitutes reasonable performance. Without a single set of standards, grounded in some real world benchmarks (readiness for work, or college preparedness), standardized testing, and indeed NCLB, can never be successful.

[andygaus]

Gates is NOT wrong to say that when we gave up phonics, we destroyed the reading ability of kids. That doesn't mean every single kid, and it is not refuted by pointing to kids or adults who succesfully taught themselves or learned at an early age: a poison doesn't have to kill all its victims to be lethal. The "whole-word" or "whole-language" method that never seems to die doesn't prevent the most able students from learning to read anyway, but by and large, it produces people whose vocabulary will never grow beyond the minimum because they cannot sound out new words when they meet them. If the National Reading Panel didn't go that far, then they didn't go far enough towards phonics. (By the way, when they "went too far towards phonics," what horrible thing did they say?) To be sure, some common words like "the" and "of" simply have to be recognized without asking why they're spelled like that. A phonics-based method can also go wrong if students are allowed to sound out words mindlessly without knowing what they're saying (that happens). But the fact remains for most readers of any age: if you can sound out words, your vocabulary grows naturally like a tree throughout your life. If not, you have a minimal vocabulary with a fence around it keeping new words out.

[dignityandhonor]

Gates is typical of other blowhards (lawmakers) when it comes to education. Their way of thinking is "I've been to school, therefore, I know how to fix it". Spend some actual time teaching and tell me we should measure progress by standardized tests.

[lilphucker]

Well, Gerald; it could help your argument if it were clear,here, whether you wrote "Yo! Bill Gates!"; or "You Bill Gates!...o­therwise, I appreciate your perspective here. Thanks.

[jolo]

It is hilarious for Gates to comment on the U.S. Education system, especially its Universities.

It is ESSENTIAL to remember to Bill Gates is a COLLEGE DROPOUT. He had AT MOST 1 year of college before he was bored and dropped out to make his billions.

Anything Gates says or does (even the alleged "charity work" that him and his wife do), is oriented to one and only one thing, to make more money for himself.

Jon T

[dadw5boys]

I agree Windows is like an upside down pyramid based on Windows 3.1. How much weight can any one stone or program take before it crumbes under it's own weight.
Heck that old Packard Bell came with so much software I seldom need a business form that was not included and if I do excel and word were there to create one on.
AHH the good old days.
Where is that Fiber Optic Speed we have been paying taxes to have connected to every home?

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

Once again a great point pulled from an otherwise obscure article discussing someone who we are supposed to consider one of the greatest Americans just because he is so wealthy and gives away gobs of money - ha.

Watch out for those spelling errors though.