[TriLUG] OT: Education

Sat Sep 24 16:40:01 EDT 2005

I think we need to note that there's a clear difference between what
we should advocate in the main (what is best for society) and what
we're willing to shoulder for ourselves. We've got two arguments going
and the "answer" to one may not work for the other.

I'll agree strongly with Jon if we're talking about what he or I or
other LUG members should do with our time, but (for example) k-12
school performance (I mean the likelihood of the school meeting NCLB
standards) correlates most strongly with:

(1) avg. education level of parents
(2) avg. num. of students on free or reduced lunch (num. of students
living in poverty)

So if we want our kids to be successful at the k-12 level, we'll stick
them in schools in rich neighborhoods, at which point the rich parents
will pull out and found a charter school and... we all know that
correlation does not imply causation...

I (cue Cajun Chef voice) gay-rohn-TEEE Bill Gates had a quality k-12 education.

My underlying point is that I think this argument could bounce around
all over the place without really adding anything meaningful to
answering the question, "Should I get a RHCE (or other) cert?"

(Added desirability Cert gives job candidates)
  - (Cost of Cert in dollars)
  - (Cost of Cert in time)
  - (Current job satisfaction)
 = X

If (X > 0)
 get Cert

Unless I missed a variable, which is likely. If I'm right, then there
is really only one point worth arguing about, and that is, "Do
employers look for the RHCE when hiring?" because the rest depends on
the individual.

Or we could just look at studies ([1]Lever et al. Social Indicators
Research. Sep2005, Vol. 73 Issue 3, p375, 34p; [2] "The pursuit of
happiness" Economist. 12/18/2004, Vol. 373 Issue 8406, p55, 3p, 1 map,
4c; [3] Bookwalter & Dalenberg. Social Indicators Research. Feb2004,
Vol. 65 Issue 3, p333, 21p) correlating subjective well-being and
income. Apparently once you're above the poverty threshold, subjective
well-being doesn't correlate very well with income (ie. more money !=
happier). That would mean we need to look at "(Current job
satisfaction)" more closely and argue about what affects it.

</book>

-CMP

On 9/23/05, Marc M <linuxr at gmail.com> wrote:
> I agree with Jon. It seems that there is too much of a focus on 'doing the
> right thing' to make money, such as getting an MBA degree or something like
> that, rather than innovation. The old 'I got mine therefore I am entitled to
> (fill in the blank)' mentality.
>
> But no one can really teach innovation can they? Also entrepreneurship takes
> courage - something rarely talked about and even rarely mentioned in
> government schools at any level.
>
> Furthermore since classes of politicians have careers based upon class
> warfare -- distinctions of what wealth is, versus what income is, are
> generally lost on many people. Many of us truly believe that we are
> dependent upon someone else to 'give' us a job and therefore our quality of
> life, and there are no other options other than that. Many people hate 'the
> rich' not realizing what those people provide everyone economically in one
> way or another.
>
> I saw a jeep with a Who is John Galt? bumper sticker last week and the
> Canadian license plate read 'ACQUIRED'. It spoke volumes to me.
>
> Cheers,
> Marc
>
>
>
>
>
> On 23 Sep 2005 20:56:17 -0400, Jon Carnes <jonc at nc.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> > I think it clearly shows that those folks who most willing and anxious
> > to work hard don't have time to spend learning "old ideas" in school.
> > They are too busy inventing their own light bulbs.
> >
> > ... And they have learned the secret that success is built on the
> > shoulders of thousands of attempts (not thousands of books read).
> >
> > School is a very traditional way of learning, but the entrepreneur
> > doesn't have the patience for that pace, and the knowledge they want to
> > learn is more rapidly gained by doing.
> >
> > Yoda was wrong. There is only doing.
> >
> > Jon
> >
> > On Fri, 2005-09-23 at 16:01, Wing D Lizard wrote:
> > > echo
> > >
> > > >I guess this means dropping out is an extremely high risk activity,
> > with the potential ..
> > > >
> > > | sed -e s/"dropping out"/"playing the lottery"/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
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> > > Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.5/110 - Release Date:
> > 9/22/2005
> >
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--

Cristobal M. Palmer
UNC-CH SILS Student
cristobalpalmer at gmail.com
cmpalmer at ils.unc.edu
ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
"Television-free since 2003"