Van, I don’t purport to know all of the ramifications regarding Tech and H-1B Visas, but what irritated me about Ramaswamy’s comments was his tenacity for belonging and media attention; to attack and belittle. He, who declared Climate Change a HOAX, that Big Tech stole the 2020 Elections, and promoted “The Great Replacement Theory,” that was spunned by Republicans, and caused angst and anger to MAGA males. Now, that’s exactly what HE is seeking to achieve. Further, he supported getting rid of Affirmative Action and the Department of Education—both beneficial in propelling youths towards those scientific and technological roles. Lastly, Van, just how disingenuous are we, as a country, to speak of putting forth our best, while inaugurating Trump, of which Vivek is a pawn?
I think that Van's point is that we have to separate the ideas from the profile of the speaker. If an idea has merit it has merit, regardless of whether one has a distaste for the person putting it forth, or even wildly disagrees with most everything else he says. And it is even possible to distrust a person's motives for putting forth the idea while still seeing the merit in the idea itself. In this strange world that we live in, we will need to do a lot of this.
Those points were made clear in Van’s synopsis—to which I agree, and as you so well restated. My points were to share why I recoiled to Vivek, and how incongruous we are, in our words and deeds.
Thanks, Van. I can't stand Vivek (smug, election-denial, etc.) so I likely would not have heard or paid attention to this point. Thanks for the objectivity and the insight. Scary to think that the future of America's education establishment is in the hands of history-denying book banners.
I surely hope that true educators come to the fore and that American parents actually let them teach.
Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water! I do not like Vivek's or Elon's or Trump's smugness, how they speak, but you are right, Van: put away the foolishness, the materialism, and get down to WORK. Import who we need right now, but emphasize tech with the kids, so we can have enough homegrown tech-savvy kids in the future.
But there is one very important problem that is Not easy to solve. That is the quality of teachers in our public, and probably most charter, schools nationwide.
Being now firmly in my 9th decade I had the advantage to starting nursery/preschool during WWII. And then going to elementary & high school through the 1950's.
Back then one of the best, most interesting, and well paid jobs an intelligent woman could get and hold for years was as a teacher. If she didn't want to be a nurse, then teaching was usually a better option financially and socially than being a bookkeeper or secretary.
So we had a LOT of highly skilled, experienced teachers who knew how to teach, how to control a classroom so everyone had a chance to learn, and how to talk to our parents as equals. Even when our parents also had college degrees, and our dad's had STEM jobs, the teachers were our parents equals during parent-teacher conversations.
And at least one parent from almost every home showed up at the PTA meetings to make sure they were fully informed about overall school matters.
When I was taking night classes for my MBA in the very late 70's I was surrounded by young people taking business classes because they wanted to get out of teaching. Some of them told me parent interference/bullying was one reason they wanted to switch careers. Others needed to make more money than they could ever see in teaching.
Since then a really devoted & good teacher I know has retired because she was worn out from dealing with children with major behavior issues due to problems at home. In one case a boy she'd had to take to the Principal's office was suspended. His grandparents came to pick him up and then took him out for ice cream to make him feel better.
How can children get excited about learning is they don't have good teachers?
How can we raise the status of the profession so the pay is sufficient to make it an attractive job? And teachers are Respected Professionals once again?
How can we convince parents their little bundle of joy isn't smarter/better/fairer than the teacher who is trying to control a classroom of 25 to 30 other children, many of whose parents have similar attitudes?
Because until we realize as a nation that our future depends upon our local School Districts, more and more and more well educated parents will follow those sending their children to Private Schools.
And that hidden genius that might have had the new idea for a quantum computer will be stocking shelves in a supermarket.
Van, I don’t purport to know all of the ramifications regarding Tech and H-1B Visas, but what irritated me about Ramaswamy’s comments was his tenacity for belonging and media attention; to attack and belittle. He, who declared Climate Change a HOAX, that Big Tech stole the 2020 Elections, and promoted “The Great Replacement Theory,” that was spunned by Republicans, and caused angst and anger to MAGA males. Now, that’s exactly what HE is seeking to achieve. Further, he supported getting rid of Affirmative Action and the Department of Education—both beneficial in propelling youths towards those scientific and technological roles. Lastly, Van, just how disingenuous are we, as a country, to speak of putting forth our best, while inaugurating Trump, of which Vivek is a pawn?
I think that Van's point is that we have to separate the ideas from the profile of the speaker. If an idea has merit it has merit, regardless of whether one has a distaste for the person putting it forth, or even wildly disagrees with most everything else he says. And it is even possible to distrust a person's motives for putting forth the idea while still seeing the merit in the idea itself. In this strange world that we live in, we will need to do a lot of this.
Those points were made clear in Van’s synopsis—to which I agree, and as you so well restated. My points were to share why I recoiled to Vivek, and how incongruous we are, in our words and deeds.
Thanks, Van. I can't stand Vivek (smug, election-denial, etc.) so I likely would not have heard or paid attention to this point. Thanks for the objectivity and the insight. Scary to think that the future of America's education establishment is in the hands of history-denying book banners.
I surely hope that true educators come to the fore and that American parents actually let them teach.
Yes and we also need creative geniuses beyond creative techies
Right on Van. Thank you for articulating these issues so well.
Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water! I do not like Vivek's or Elon's or Trump's smugness, how they speak, but you are right, Van: put away the foolishness, the materialism, and get down to WORK. Import who we need right now, but emphasize tech with the kids, so we can have enough homegrown tech-savvy kids in the future.
My reaction, exactly. Thanks for shoring it up, Van.
Van, I agree with your main points.
But there is one very important problem that is Not easy to solve. That is the quality of teachers in our public, and probably most charter, schools nationwide.
Being now firmly in my 9th decade I had the advantage to starting nursery/preschool during WWII. And then going to elementary & high school through the 1950's.
Back then one of the best, most interesting, and well paid jobs an intelligent woman could get and hold for years was as a teacher. If she didn't want to be a nurse, then teaching was usually a better option financially and socially than being a bookkeeper or secretary.
So we had a LOT of highly skilled, experienced teachers who knew how to teach, how to control a classroom so everyone had a chance to learn, and how to talk to our parents as equals. Even when our parents also had college degrees, and our dad's had STEM jobs, the teachers were our parents equals during parent-teacher conversations.
And at least one parent from almost every home showed up at the PTA meetings to make sure they were fully informed about overall school matters.
When I was taking night classes for my MBA in the very late 70's I was surrounded by young people taking business classes because they wanted to get out of teaching. Some of them told me parent interference/bullying was one reason they wanted to switch careers. Others needed to make more money than they could ever see in teaching.
Since then a really devoted & good teacher I know has retired because she was worn out from dealing with children with major behavior issues due to problems at home. In one case a boy she'd had to take to the Principal's office was suspended. His grandparents came to pick him up and then took him out for ice cream to make him feel better.
How can children get excited about learning is they don't have good teachers?
How can we raise the status of the profession so the pay is sufficient to make it an attractive job? And teachers are Respected Professionals once again?
How can we convince parents their little bundle of joy isn't smarter/better/fairer than the teacher who is trying to control a classroom of 25 to 30 other children, many of whose parents have similar attitudes?
Because until we realize as a nation that our future depends upon our local School Districts, more and more and more well educated parents will follow those sending their children to Private Schools.
And that hidden genius that might have had the new idea for a quantum computer will be stocking shelves in a supermarket.
👎🏻