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But I bet our teens are first in Call of Duty: Black Ops

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by poindexter, Dec 7, 2010.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    That's still not good enough.

    If we want to compete with other nations in engineering and hard sciences, we need teachers that are capable of teaching high-level math and science. Those people are teaching at the college level now. Because it pays better.

    The brightest people gravitate toward the highest paying professions. In fact, the president of Harvard has lamented the fact that so many graduates go into finance now, a profession that largely adds nothing to the economy and contributes little of social value, but merely lines the pockets of the people who work in the field. In other words, what national brain power we do have is going to waste, because our most important jobs don't have enough incentives for our top students and thinkers to enter.
     
  2. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    If the entry bar was high enough, they should make six figures. Without blinking.

    A recent study by a prominent economist found that a good kindergarten teacher is worth $350,000 a year to the economy.
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Is that the same economist who says every Mother's Day that moms should make $200,000 a year? He never quite figures ou whee the hell that money is going to come from.
     
  4. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Not all kids can go to college, but every kid should learn a skill. College mostly teaches you book skills, but trade schools teach you skills with your hands which are just as important.

    If a person can train you for your job in one day, it is not a good job.
     
  5. MightyMouse

    MightyMouse Member

    Unfortunately, the teachers are held accountable for the parents' failures. My mother teaches high school kids with 4th-grade reading levels. So how does a kid with a 4th-grade reading level make it to high school?

    There are more and more uninterested and uninvolved parents, which has created a mass of indifferent, unmotivated kids. But the teachers can't afford for their pass-fail numbers to accurately reflect how many kids should actually pass and fail. So they dumb down the tests and fudge the numbers to push the kids through the system until you end up with a 14-year-old who can't put two coherent sentences together.
     
  6. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    No. I believe it's the same guy who wrote the paper that showed that the highest percentage of jobs found is in the week before unemployment benefits run out.

    I understand that we can't just start paying $350K to kindergarten teachers. But the point is that early childhood education is so important, that a good kindergarten teacher will add value to the economy down the road because his/her students will become productive members of society.
     
  7. JC

    JC Well-Known Member

    I agree with you a 100% but some of those not so good jobs pay very, very well. I sure as hell wouldn't want to do them.
     
  8. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Teachers where I live start at about $37,000.

    I know each area is different, but I pay about $.91 for every $100 of assessed value on my house in taxes. This goes to police, fire, teachers and the rest. To jump the pay scale for teachers to $60,000 my taxes would jump from $.91 to about $1.25, or about a 30% leap.

    Would the teachers be 30% better? I don't think so.
     
  9. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    Would it be true irony if poin had to start a thread on his wife
     
  10. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Um, there is proof either way. The studies are the proof. They list their results and their methodology. You don't get to decide your own facts just by dismissing anything and everything that doesn't align with your personal biases.

    Also, I already answered your question. Our university system is still the world's best.

    I am not the only one who thinks this is a concern. In the immigration reform bill that's been hanging around the House for a few years, a lot of the provisions are about attracting more science and math and engineering graduate students come come here and become citizens. Because we need them.
     
  11. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    I see where you are coming from, but the guy pouring concrete or laying asphalt really is more skilled and trained than you think. Well, the lead guy on the crew is more trained. There will always be grunts on the crew.

    Everyone on Dirty Jobs has a skill. It's dirty, but it's what they know how to do and they get paid to do it.
     
  12. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Duly noted and agreed. However, as many others have posted, the biggest problem here is parents who don't care about their kids' education. That is an impossible obstacle to overcome in an environment where teachers cycle through kids a year at a time. It's particularly acute in minority communities where kids can be ostracized for "acting white" if they want to get an education.

    Funding isn't the answer. Knocking some sense into those parents is.
     
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