re: #119 Hecuba’s daughter

I am not in education but my impression is that Common Core has not been well implemented and that there are objections from people who are not RW. My impression is that it might be as flawed an endeavor as the “new math” in the 1960’s. It’s not that changes are not needed — but we seem to have problems in designing a program that achieves the objectives.

I think in education — just like guns, transportation, emissions limits, etc — the best and most sensible and most cost-effective policies are highly dependent on the population density at your location.

NYC’s school district has about 900,000 kids. If your kid has special talents or special challenges that only 1/10 of 1% has… that’s enough to justify a whole school with curriculum and facility and staff specifically designed just for him. So there’s a special school for musical prodigies, one for math geniuses, one for kids who are quick to learn multiple languages, and one for kids with cystic fibrosis or the severely autistic or pregnant girls or trans kids. In Oklahoma, if your kid is one in a thousand, he’s the only one for 100 miles and it’s absurd to expect the school to make special arrangements. Do it yourself. The Oklahoma school has to be geared to the average and typical.

re: #120 The Ghost of a Flea

In effect, all knowledge emanates from authority, and authority is determined by affiliation rather than any kind of testing/probing of quality. Shakespeare is good because he is part of the Western classical canon, not part of the Western classical canon because he had distinct features that made him stand out and thus be “good.”

Shakespeare is good because his collected works cover every trope, every template, every plot line that’s the basis of every novel or play or movie since.