Reddit reviews The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom
We found 3 Reddit comments about The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Free Press
one of his theories is that asians do better in math because they had to plant rice paddies in the past. Yes, that is the actual argument. No, i'm not taking it out of context. Yes, he ignores advanced horticulture in all other regions of the world to make this argument. No, the authors of the study he used to make the claim that asians are better at math don't believe that rice paddies are the reason for the achievement gap between countries. In fact, the principle investigators of the TIMS study wrote a book on the results of their study and make the case that professional teacher development plays a pivotal role in the achievement gap.
And shit like that is rampant in gladwell's books. Established and renowned researchers and experts in the fields he mishandles are regularly at odds with what he writes.
> Income for the average American is not keeping up even remotely with education, health care, and real estate costs.
You should have a source for all of this. real estate is the only one for which I see costs ballooning and that's typically regional. For instance, most people in texas should still be able to afford a decent starter house. You have a point with highly populated parts of cali for instance, but there still exist many low housing price locations.
>the notion that a congressman thinks there is nothing for him to work on is straight nonsense.
This is why i'm unsure that you're interpreting him correctly. Because even to just keep us still, that takes work.
>Social security is insolvent.
Kind of. Choice quote: "under the worst-case scenario, meaning that a poor economy in coming years deprives the system of money and no changes to the program’s financing are made, then Social Security recipients will find themselves getting smaller checks than they ought to."
SS will still be able to dole out checks. Just not as big as they promised. it's not entirely insolvent. And the solution is rather simple. Increase revenue or decrease benefits. It's not as if we're doomed to just watch as the fund goes to mush. There's a reason even republicans are hesitant to cut benefits. because the old vote is so influential. So things will happen to address SS insolvency if not earlier, then at the 11th hour, like it always does.
>American public schools are continuing to fall behind the rest of the world.
depends on who you measure and how you measure. for instance, white affluent kids in the US do as well as the top kids from the top countries in the TIMS study. Also, most education researchers don't point to our relative ranking (which is actually rather mid to high tier) and fret. It definitely points out that there are things to improve, but it's not even close to being an apples to apples comparison. for instance, japan scores higher than us in math for 8th graders. Consider the stakes of their standardized tests and the age at which those types of tests are administered in japan versus the US. US students don't have an equivalent and equally life altering pressure to excel at the time that japanese students do due to differing social conventions and institutional policies. Japan has one of the higher suicide rates in the world. There's a lot about this discussion that should not be reduced to a bumper sticker of comparative rankings. In fact, the principle investigators of the TIMS study point to teacher professional development as one of the biggest reasons for the gap. they wrote a book on it.
>Money is poring into politics at an unprecedented rate.
honestly, that gets a pretty big shrug from me personally. trump has proven how ineffective money is in this race. sanders as well. Sanders ended up outspending clinton in the trail end of his days pretty substantially. also, it's fairly well documented that in higher level races (e.g. federal), money plays an extremely limited role. also, that there are diminishing returns and counteracting forces upon large scale donations. You're right that more transparency would be ideal, but money isn't quite as absolutely corrupting as people believe it is.
also, please don't link the princeton oligarchy study. it does not establish causality in any way and there are obvious alternative hypotheses that are just as convincing (e.g. smarter people are more likely to converge on certain issues and are more likely to earn more) based on the evidence.
>Even UN officials are calling the war on drugs a global disaster, but we continue to bury our heads in the sand and send people of color to jail for decades for mere possession but let white rapists get our after 6 months (Brock turner).
Point noted and agreed about drug policy. I think the comparison is kind of hamfisted, but it's a provocative point. i don't disagree.
>Since 2010, congress has produced far less legislation than normal. The last couple congresses have been the most unproductive in history. Government has grinded to a halt.
good governance isn't necessarily fast governance. i agree that partisanship, gridlock, and obstructionism aren't ideal. I'm sure we both feel the same way about the debt ceiling crises. And that's why i think it's crucial to move against behavior that resemble the M.O. of the tea party. moderate republicans like paul ryan, although incredibly stoogey right now in their support of trump, can actually be quite smart, sincere and passionate in their beliefs for reasons unrelated to personal gain. What i mean to say is that this stuff is complicated. The tea party rejects that and opts for simple, "truths." And that's why we should likewise reject tea-party reminiscent methodology on our side of the aisle.