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Comment by joelberman | Hacker News Reader

I think public education is completely broken and has gotten worse over the years. Other countries seem to achieve better outcomes for a lot less money. Perhaps they do not have such poor parenting that allows their children to hit others or to sob all day.

The reason for amateur pedagogy is that the professionals have completely screwed it up. Look at the controversy over "no child left behind" or "common core" or "STEM." The experts do not agree on anything, which means the body of knowledge is very weak. I think it is time for amateurs to step in.

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>Look at the controversy over "no child left behind" or "common core" or "STEM." The experts do not agree on anything, which means the body of knowledge is very weak. I think it is time for amateurs to step in.<

In the case of Common Core, the amateurs have stepped in, in the form of politicians, parents and media who fail to realize that the standards were developed and agreed upon by a team of professional educators representing nearly every state in the country. Those same amateurs are stoking fear and paranoia with baseless claims about "the federal government deciding what my kid should learn". They even fail to recognize that the CC is not a curriculum.

To be fair, every example of Common Core I've ever seen only succeeded in confusing the hell out of me. I understand that everyone should have the same foundation, but not everyone learns the same way and Common Core seems to gloss that over.

Basically, I think it's gone a little to far by saying "how" something should be taught.

Common Core does not prescribe "how" to teach anything. It only describes "what" should be taught.

I didn't understand common core. But I have observed it working well for my child. I had the same experience of questioning the content until I saw the results when my child was at a Montessori preschool years earlier. That's how I know I'm an amateur.

That's interesting. Which countries? What outcomes? What costs?

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