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Comment by yabutlivnWoods | Hacker News Reader

Kristen DiCerbo quote from the article

> “Students aren’t great at asking questions well.”

In my interactions with my kids public school and their teachers, they're goal is ram content down their throat and test for retention, not foster an environment open to questions

Had a teacher claim straight up they don't believe the system works and are just in teaching for benefits and summer vacation

IMO Sal Khan's revolution hasn't happened because the adults in charge right now are ignorant and inept but incredibly vain nonetheless

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Humans have 3 inch chimp brains. The expectations on those poor brains are too high. Its like expecting dogs to one day figure out how to run a mcdonalds. We do what we can. Theory of Bounded Rationality applies. The vanity part has to do with Status Signaling. And status signaling is one of few know hacks that work at population scale in keeping all the different chimps together. Granted the status signalers some times get carried away and forget what its purpose is. See Theory of the Leisure Class.

>In my interactions with my kids public school and their teachers, they're goal is ram content down their throat and test for retention, not foster an environment open to questions

Is that actually true though? Average American students (especially those in the public school system) are not excellent test takers, and they're even worse at rote memorization. If this is actually the goal they're not achieving that either.

I didn't claim they were successful just paraphrased what a teacher explained as their mandate

"It's all focused on rote memorisation" is a really popular dismissal of the education system that betrays a lack of familiarity with it.

I think it’s not right to blame teachers, because you cannot control that right? Agree it’s far too hard to find aspirational teachers, but they are naturally in demand and will be snatched up by well paying positions, like private schools. The tool is supposed to help given the current suboptimal teaching practices.

Teachers claiming to be self aware such they don't care and are just there for the benefits can absolutely take some blame

They could quit and free up the slot for someone who does care

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