![]() Schools can't turn dull people into bright ones, or ensure every child ends up knowing exactly the same amount. But at least here and now, most outcomes depend more on genes than on educational quality. This requires an asterisk - we can only say for sure that the contribution of environment is less than that of genes in our current society some other society with more (or less, or different) environmental variation might be a different story. All show that differences in intelligence and many other traits are more due to genes than specific environment. DeBoer reviews the literature from behavioral genetics, including twin studies, adoption studies, and genome-wide association studies. bad students remains unchanged, and is mostly caused by natural talent some kids are just smarter than others. Most of this has been a colossal fraud, and the losers have been regular public school teachers, who get accused of laziness and inadequacy for failing to match the impressive-but-fake improvements of charter schools or "reformed" districts.Īll these reform efforts have "succeeded" through Potemkin-style schemes where they parade their good students in front of journalists and researchers, and hide the bad students somewhere far from the public eye where they can't bring scores down. When charter schools have excelled, it's usually been by only accepting the easiest students (they’re not allowed to do this openly, but have ways to do it covertly), then attributing their great test scores to novel teaching methods. But DeBoer shows they cook the books: most graduation rates have been improved by lowering standards for graduation most test score improvements have come from warehousing bad students somewhere they don't take the tests. ![]() Programs like Common Core and No Child Left Behind take credit for radically improving American education. American education is doing much as it's always done - about as well as possible, given the crushing poverty, single parent-families, violence, and racism holding back the kids it's charged with shepherding to adulthood.īut then how do education reform efforts and charters produce such dramatic improvements? DeBoer's answer: by lying. Race and gender gaps are stable or decreasing. It's not getting worse by international standards: America's PISA rankings are mediocre, but the country has always scored near the bottom of international rankings, even back in the 50s and 60s when we were kicking Soviet ass and landing men on the moon. American education isn't getting worse by absolute standards: students match or outperform their peers from 20 or 50 years ago. He argues that every word of it is a lie. Only tough no-excuses policies, standardization, and innovative reforms like charter schools can save it, as shown by their stellar performance improving test scores and graduation rates. ĭeBoer starts with the standard narrative of The Failing State Of American Education. I disagree with him about everything, so naturally I am a big fan of his work - which meant I was happy to read his latest book, The Cult Of Smart. Socialist blogger Freddie DeBoer is the opposite: few allies, but deeply respected by his enemies. Apparently 1259 is also the year when Japan's Shōka era ended, which is a right shocker.Oscar Wilde supposedly said George Bernard Shaw "has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends". 1259 is, I'm told, a highly cototient number - which sounds pretty spooky to me. People in the USA get to rock out with a pure kvlt price for Halloween, see. Night In The Woods is very slightly on sale on Steam, down to £12.59/€16.79/$16.66. But I guess they'll be bundled together tidily. Those two are currently pay-what-you-want from Itch, with no minimum price, so you can play them right now anyway. The Weird Autumn Edition will also give folks the two little side games Longest Night and Lost Constellation. New and improved things? A good game getting better? Okay! What exactly the update will bring is something of a mystery for now. ![]() Promising "new weird", "new crimes", and "old tales", they say to "think of it as the Night In The Woods director's cut." I've just about come to terms with the initial coming-of-age crisis so sure, I should be up for more when the free update hits on December 13th. The wonderful Night In The Woods will receive "a whole bunch of new content" later this year with its 'Weird Autumn Edition' update, developers Infinite Fall have announced. ![]()
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