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The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

What factors are associated with with states with lower gun violence? Gun control. States with higher gun violence? See below...

Gun%20ViolenceEDIT-thumb-600x600-40178.jpg


Interesting article from the Atlantic looks for correlations with gun violence:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/the-geography-of-gun-deaths/69354/
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

FreshFish said:
For problems # 3, 5, and 6, I become "provincial" in a sense and look at top US domestic problems.

# 3 on my "top ten" list is: the breakdown of the public education system and the disintegration of the nuclear family (without something else having yet developed in its place).

I list these two situations as one conjoined problem. I doubt I need to say much more about this one, I'm pretty sure we can all agree that there is a very serious and troubling long-term failure of public policy here! (though we can argue plenty about what might have caused it and how we might fix it).


An interesting solution would be to go [back] to year-round boarding schools for the underprivileged, instead of trying either to make foster care work or to try to get teenagers all on their own to raise their babies as single mothers. The teen mothers could have jobs at the boarding schools perhaps, changing linens, doing laundry, whatever, and regularly visit their children that way, so that they wouldn't be solely responsible and could be in an environment of pooled shared resources and scalable professional assistance.
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You forgot to mention the teacher's unions, probably the primary reason for the declining US education system.
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

5mn_Major said:
Got any evidence of this?
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So you don't think the education unions have played any role in the decline of the education system? They certainly don't deserve anywhere near all the blame, but they have contributed.
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

A problem. Easily. But I'd put the decline of family life, where kids spend 18 hours per week day+ 24 hours on weekends ahead of the 30 hours of school time per week. It seems like most of the studies showed that the biggest difference in test scores turned out to be if the parents by and large cared.

Good lord, I'm agreeing with FF.
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

bronconick said:
It seems like most of the studies showed that the biggest difference in test scores turned out to be if the parents by and large cared.
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Makes sense.

People have been complaining about the decline of public education since the 60's. The schools "declined" because we didn't use to have to account for the bottom tier. Kids who didn't care about school dropped out, got jobs, joined the circus, whatever. Now school is a warehouse where we keep everybody until they hit 17. A significant number of those kids have no business being there -- they don't care and their parents don't care. But they're there, they get counted in the numbers, and they distract resources from (if not literally imperiling) the kids who do care.

High_School_Graduation_Rates.jpg


Imagine how much "better" school performance would be if only the top 50% of the class was having their grades reported?

Now that we are trying to educate everybody (which is laudable), we are going to get very inefficient results. That's the choice we made as a society.
 
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Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

Bob Gray said:
So you don't think the education unions have played any role in the decline of the education system? They certainly don't deserve anywhere near all the blame, but they have contributed.
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Why should I? I have seen no evidence.

Do S Korea, Finland, Canada, etc, etc sound like they would have no unions? S Korea's TKU has 80k members.

PISA-rankings-within-OECD-001.jpg
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

Ah, South Korea has a union, so education unions in the U.S. aren't part of the problem. Interesting way to try to connect the dots.
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

Bob Gray said:
Ah, South Korea has a union, so education unions in the U.S. aren't part of the problem. Interesting way to try to connect the dots.
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I bet South Korea has students and parents too, so those can't be part of the problem either!
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

For myself, I've never once said that teachers' unions were the problem (nor any other public-sector union either for that matter), I've consistently maintained that it is the leadership of these unions that is the problem, because they advocate for positions that are not aligned with the best interests of the union members.

Many teachers I know are outraged at the way the NY teachers' unions protect sexual predators from being fired, for example (see series of articles in NYPost); quite a few teachers like the idea of merit pay (yet their leaders oppose this as well). Good teachers generally welcome evaluations; the leaders also oppose this sensible step.

In my "original" post (cited by Bill as problem # 3 several posts earlier) I didn't mention unions at all; it was the conjoined problems of failed parenting and the shift of schools' primary function from educators to providers of daycare.
 
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Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

All the top education countries have unions...you can decide what that means.

Bob Gray said:
Ah, South Korea has a union, so education unions in the U.S. aren't part of the problem. Interesting way to try to connect the dots.
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Again, I have said I have no strong opinion...but that I have seen no evidence that unions caused a decline in our education.

Why is it you never, ever have evidence to back up your opinon?
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

Bob Gray said:
Assaults on Freedom of Speech should find a place somewhere on the list of major problems
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Symptom of a deeper problem, I'd say...haven't quite figured out how to articulate it.



I was both saddened and gratified to see how many people agreed with my general list...recent Gallup poll (need to find link since I saw it TV news) had # 1 US problem being job creation, # 2 problem being corruption in government, # 3 problem being too much spending / too large a Federal deficit....and #12 on a list of 12 being the need to increase taxes on "the wealthiest Americans."
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

Bill said:
You forgot to mention the teacher's unions, probably the primary reason for the declining US education system.
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Shirtless Guy said:
I bet South Korea has students and parents too, so those can't be part of the problem either!
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Bob Gray said:
So you don't think the education unions have played any role in the decline of the education system? They certainly don't deserve anywhere near all the blame, but they have contributed.
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Any evidence unions have played a role in the decline of our education system? Of course not.

The right cannot defend itself.
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

5mn_Major said:
All the top education countries have unions...you can decide what that means.

Again, I have said I have no strong opinion...but that I have seen no evidence that unions caused a decline in our education.

Why is it you never, ever have evidence to back up your opinon?
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The fact that you don't like evidence doesn't mean I don't provide it many times. Putting on my Captain Obvious cape in this case, of course you can't find specific forensic evidence linking education unions with education problems in this nation. Just like you can't find forensic evidence to demonstrate many things that can be reasonably posited. In my case, my dad was a career teacher and union member, so his input counts to me and he has always believed that the teacher unions are of little use and mostly self-serving. Again, I'm not saying unions are the whole problem, just that they are part of the problem, along with disengaged parents, etc. If you argue against that proposition, you're arguing that unions are pristine and not in any way part of the problem.
 
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Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

5mn_Major said:
Any evidence unions have played a role in the decline of our education system? Of course not.

The right cannot defend itself.
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is every area of disagreement automatically a "right / left" divide?

Isn't that sort of like owning a car that only travels east or west? no one can go north or south any more? :confused:
 
Re: The Most Serious [x] Problem We Face Today

Bob Gray said:
Assaults on Freedom of Speech should find a place somewhere on the list of major problems:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-thomas-chick-fil-a-20120801,0,2029324.story
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Except for the comments by the mayors (which they won't follow through on because a first year law student could tell them any law would be struck down), most of that has been going on for eons. You say something controversial, and while the government ignores you thereby protecting your freedom of speech, the consequences from other actors is fair game. You could lose your job, ostracized by friends, or in this guys case, his business will be in a whirlwind of attackers and supporters for some time. None of that is an "assault on free speech" nor is any of it new. A whole generation is going through the process of learning the difference between free speech and stupidity with facebook and twitter.
 
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