- 21,132
- 80,762
College is worthless. The entirety of mankind's knowledge is available in the palm of your hand or at your library.
Bootstraps.
My dad taught himself circuitboard design at 50 with some books and google.
I do not believe in equality
- Thread starter Titan_Atlas
- Start date
Bootstraps.
My dad taught himself circuitboard design at 50 with some books and google.
Mist
Eeyore Enthusiast
- 30,500
- 22,414
In my experience, it's been the opposite. It'salwaysbeen the ones born into wealth or other societal advantages, making it trivial for them to not only maintain basic living standards but also make more money going forward, who complain the hardest about making things fair enough that other people not born with those advantages can attain even the most basic of living standards.
This is how far the argument has shifted in the US. It used to be that conservatives argued for a system closer to a true meritocracy, while liberals argued for more equal distribution regardless of merit.
Now it's conservatives arguing for pretending structural advantages don't exist (or don't make it significantly easier to make more money), while liberals are just trying to argue for some baseline meritocracy.
This country has been dragged so far to the right in the past 30 years it's unreal once you think about it.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
- 17,324
- 4,839
Yeah, it is true, because I said I don't know any of these people that you're claiming wantactualequality between people. And that was the statement I made. I don't know who this "they" is that you are talking about.
- 25,440
- 37,573
Education has always been getting out of it how much you put in. Yeah the inner cities have shittier schools, no doubt about it. But there is just as much opportunity to graduate, get loans, scholarships, etc. In fact some of those kids have more opportunities to go to college. The problems go deep though, not with the schools but the communities, shitty parents, one parent families, glorified thug life, gangs etc... Its not realy the schools, I mean they are still there, teachers still teach, kids still graduate, right?
Khane
Got something right about marriage
- 19,931
- 13,472
So when you hear a parent talking about moving to a better school district, or using that as part of their next home purchase plan, you tell them they're just wasting time and money?
You'd send your kids to a school in an inner city because there's just as much opportunity and the education and facilities will all be the same regardless?
You'd send your kids to a school in an inner city because there's just as much opportunity and the education and facilities will all be the same regardless?
Titan_Atlas
Deus Vult
- 7,883
- 19,909
You want the honest answer? You're not gonna like it. The good schools districts are the ones with White, Asian, and smart immigrant kids. Which mostly have mommies and daddies who are intelligent and work long and hard to give their children a better life. They value education and are willing to spend for their children to improve in any single small way they can. They create their reality and as wise and ambitious humans they hand those traits down to their children. Grow up, if you have not achieved what you thought then maybe you think too highly of yourself. America provides the meNs but not the motivation. Stop apologizing for people.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
- 17,324
- 4,839
Do you think you could take the average graduate from Ferguson High and put them in a room with a graduate from some wealthy public school and that they could compete in academics? Or even have a conversation?
Khane
Got something right about marriage
- 19,931
- 13,472
So you agree the education and opportunities for those children are unequal?
Mist
Eeyore Enthusiast
- 30,500
- 22,414
Those shitty schools do not prepare even the best among those kids for college. Sure, you graduate, but that piece of paper has no value. Even lots of public white high schools are not preparing kids for college these days.
Luckily the colleges have responded by dumbing down the curriculum for their customers. And then they graduate (with a small mortgage worth of debt) with no useful skills and can't get a decent job. And then more and more decent jobs go to people with H1B visas.
The whole system is fucked top to bottom.
fanaskin
Well known agitator
- 55,855
- 137,954
It's a miracle how humans survived for hundreds of thousands of years before government then.
fanaskin
Well known agitator
- 55,855
- 137,954
People advocating for government intervention, which is a hell of a lot of people.
- 21,132
- 80,762
Maybe those schools were made shitty because of the loser single-parent households (generally female) raising loser children?
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
- 17,324
- 4,839
What specific intervention are you talking about? Sometimes intervention is warranted. Sometimes the mechanisms that protect people aren't working, for whatever reason.
khalid
Unelected Mod
- 14,071
- 6,775
High schools definitely aren't equal and the students that "graduate" from the bad ones and go on to college don't suddenly do better or learn study habits along the way. In fact, they tend to have severe problems.
There is so little we can do about it, it really leads me to despair. Affirmative action into college tends to result in those students doing worse than their peers (unless you are only taking the top 1% or something like MIT can). Dumping money into those schools doesn't work. In fact, very often those schools are bad because of the environment and issues at home in those neighborhoods. No one that has another option wants to teach at those schools either, almost regardless of pay. So what do you do?
There is so little we can do about it, it really leads me to despair. Affirmative action into college tends to result in those students doing worse than their peers (unless you are only taking the top 1% or something like MIT can). Dumping money into those schools doesn't work. In fact, very often those schools are bad because of the environment and issues at home in those neighborhoods. No one that has another option wants to teach at those schools either, almost regardless of pay. So what do you do?
- 21,132
- 80,762
Mist
Eeyore Enthusiast
- 30,500
- 22,414
Uh, are you a moron?
Humanssubsistedfor hundreds of thouands of years before government. Only once societies and governments began to appear did human civilization actually develop at any significant pace.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
- 17,324
- 4,839
Personally I think there is a lot we can do about it, so much in fact that it kind of leads to paralysis. Ask every amateur expert here on these boards and they'll tell you: the problem isn't the schools, it's the culture! How do you change the culture to value education, hold schools accountable for more than just ensuring their kids didn't die that day? How do you change families in these areas to value education and work? How do you make the work available in these areas attractive enough that the families will value it? The options are endless. And nobody fucking knows.