The League had a symposium on education. I contribute two pieces. Since those racked up dozens of comments, feel free to comment on them here.

The first involved our misguided focus on sending everybody to college:

This country is run by people who have college degrees. It’s run by people where everyone they know has college degrees. It is, then, completely understandable that the solution for those who are not as economically well off as they and their friends are is “Go to college!” The economic melt-down of the latter part of last decade demonstrated that college isn’t even enough, ultimately. And it saddles you with debt. But people are looking at the debt end rather than the college end.

Now, defenders of the supremacy of college point to the fact that even when working in not-college-specific industries, college graduates tend to earn more than non-graduates. But of course they do. They have “Rush” stamped on their forehead. They get to go to the front of the line. That doesn’t mean the solution is to put the Rush stamp on everything. Not that anybody is advocating that, exactly. Not explicitly. Not overtly. And, in their mind, it’s not so much about the stamp on the forehead as it is about what you learn while in college.

I don’t mean to dismiss what we actually do get from college. It’s not insignificant. I learned a lot both from a vocational standpoint and from a personal standpoint. It was a great experience. Or, at least, it was for me. I have a certain temperament and a certain intellectual curiosity that made me suited for college in a way I was never suited for high school. A lot of people, though, don’t really have that. By placing so much emphasis on college, we’re often trying to shoehorn them into our own path. We’re pushing on them what worked for us and universalizing from our own preferences, talents, and experiences.

But college will get you ahead, and so it’s objectively good advice. That brings us back to the Rush stamp. The end result being that we (as students, parents, and taxpayers) are spending tens of thousands of dollars to save employer HR departments the time it takes to go through applications. Why not? Just weed out those without a degree. Too many with a degree? Weed out those with the wrong degree. Then complain about how employees aren’t lining up at your door-step, pre-trained precisely for the job you have an opening for. Or hire someone from India on a visa.

The second involves a potential solution, the implementation of the Federal School:

So what would federal universities provide and accomplish? As with state universities, it would be the federal government’s seal of approval. The government would have a reason to get it right as far as quality goes. Quality, in this case, is defined by graduating only students that are worthy of graduation and not becoming a diploma mill. At the same time, it would have a different mission than most universities. A primarily undergraduate, purely academic-and-teaching institution. The normal rules of prestige wouldn’t apply. Not in the same way. They could even work with other schools that offer their online courses publicly and arrange for “transfer credits” for taking those classes. Or they use the online class in substitute of lectures and Federal U.’s part would be collaboration and grading (or in some cases, just the latter). I mention the online component, but for larger cities it could be integrated with physical instruction the same way that Phoenix does. There are a number of ways to approach it. The key thing would be to make it trim, affordable, and only the frills people want to pay for.

Burt Likko wrote an extended series on law school. Since I got a number of my readers from Half Sigma, and he writes about it a lot, I thought I would pass along my coblogger’s essays flowing from the decision to go to law school to what you can expect when you get out:

1. Why are you even thinking about this?
2. Getting in
3. Getting out
4. The unimpressive pot of gold
5. There’s got to be a better way

I am going through some old flagged links. This one is from a couple years ago. The New York Times looks at what might be a better way to teach math:

In particular, math teachers often fail to make sufficient allowances for the limitations of working memory and the fact that we all need extensive practice to gain mastery in just about anything. Children who struggle in math usually have difficulty remembering math facts, handling word problems and doing multi-step arithmetic (pdf). Despite the widespread support for “problem-based” or “discovery-based” learning, studies indicate that current teaching approaches underestimate the amount of explicit guidance, “scaffolding” and practice children need to consolidate new concepts. Asking children to make their own discoveries before they solidify the basics is like asking them to compose songs on guitar before they can form a C chord.

Mighton, who is also an award-winning playwright and author of a fascinating book called “The Myth of Ability,” developed Jump over more than a decade while working as a math tutor in Toronto, where he gained a reputation as a kind of math miracle worker. Many students were sent to him because they had severe learning disabilities (a number have gone on to do university-level math). Mighton found that to be effective he often had to break things down into minute steps and assess each student’s understanding at each micro-level before moving on.

Before having read this, I actually started doing this when I was trying to teach math to sixth graders. I really think that there is something to it. The totality of the problem can be really daunting, especially for those who come into it believing that they are not equipped for it. This is one of the ways that I think computer programming is a helpful tool for life. Computer programming encourages people to break down large problems into much smaller ones and attacking them one at a time until you get there.

The premise of the book behind the article and the book – that anyone can do higher-level math – is likely to be met with some scoffing amongst y’all. And actually, I am inclined to agree. I am not nearly as optimistic as the author of the book. I do think, though, that even within someone’s range of ability, you can get better results or worse results. To some extent, it’s not going to be worth the time and effort to get above a certain level, but I think even those for unfavorable demographics or lineage can get further along than they do. You never know what might produce some pretty incredible results.

Music piracy is falling. I mention this because I have commented that the music industry has done everything asked of them (free streaming, paid streaming, DRM-free files, etc.) and the continuation of privacy undercuts arguments that the piracy is caused by intransigent content-owners. Another argument, that artists don’t make significant money off music sales, appears to be wrong. Meanwhile, cracking down on illegal movie downloads appears to boost legal movie downloads.

Funny letters to God.

Will we have a supercomputer in every living room? Absolutely not. It’s absurd. Super-computers go in the back somewhere.

America really is exceptional.

Nate Silver explains, statistically, why your relationship is failing. Remember, to doubt him is to hate science.

The best movie sets ever made.

Why was the government of the 50’s so eager to believe that comic books were being used to manipulate minds? Experience.

I happen to think that a la carte cable would be bad for the consumer. But I don’t think the current state of affairs is great, either.

Looking for alien life in unexpected places.

I’ve commented to my wife that she should never expect me to admit that I am wrong in the course of a debate or disagreement. But that, if I am clearly wrong, I will resign myself to it after mulling it over. Apparently, I’m not alone.

Hogwards, LEGO-style.

Keiran Healy and LA Paul explain that there really is no way to know if parenting is right for you until it’s too late.

In retrospect, Captain Power kind of sucked. I had one and remember the disappointment when the screen did not respond to what I was doing. Didn’t stop me from playing it, though. The cartoon was tons better than the actual show, though. Anyhow, it’s coming back!

The disturbing world of sleep-eating disorders.

Six military fakes that fooled everyone (for a time).

The formula I used is pretty simple: The 75th percentile income, plus the 25th percentile income, divided by two, times the employment rate (100% minus unemployment).

The Top Twenty Majors:
Petroleum Engineering ($124)
Mathematics & Computer Science ($99)
Nuclear Engineering ($97)
Pharmacutical Sciences & Administration ($96)
Military Technologies* ($92.2)
Mineral Engineering ($91.8)
Marine Engineering ($87)
Chemical Engineering ($85)
Actuarial Science ($84)
Aerospace Engineering ($82)
Materials Science ($73.4)
Electical Engineering ($72.7)
Mechanical Engineering ($73.5)
Astrophysics ($78.5)
Geological Engineering ($78.5)
Metallurgical Engineering ($70.6)
Materials Engineering Science ($62.3)
Pharmacology ($74.5)
Computer Engineering ($63.2)
Civil Engineering ($66.5)

The Bottom Twenty Majors:
School Student Counseling** ($30.0)
Library Science ($30.6)
Counseling Psychology ($30.8)
Miscellaneous Fine Arts ($31.4)
Visual & Performing Arts ($32.7)
Clinical Psychology ($34.6)
Early Childhood Education ($35.0)
Educational Psychology ($35.2)
Community Organization ($36.8)
Botany ($37.7)
Studio Arts ($37.7)
Social Work ($37.8)
Theology ($37.9)
Interdisciplinary Social Sciences ($37.9)
Teacher Education ($38.6)
Language/Drama Education ($39.0)
Elementary Education ($39.0)
Communication Disorders Sciences ($39.6)
Interdisciplinary Studies ($39.7)
Art & Music Education ($39.8)

* – Military Technologies has a notably high unemployment rate of above 10%. If I factored unemployment in more, it would fall down on the list considerably.

** – School Student Counseling has a listed uneployment rate of 0.0%. If I factored unemployment in more, it would fall down (or is that up?) on this list.

I ran three calculations, weighing employment/unemployment more in each one. I decided to go with the first listing because it was the most straightforward. The pattern holds regardless. You can access the spreadsheet here. It uses the ODS file format. OpenOffice and LibreOffice can read it. GoogleDocs inexplicably cannot. I am not sure where Microsoft Office stands on it at the moment.

There’s an interesting battle brewing in Britain over midwifery.

Is the future of smartphone screens sapphire? Vertu uses sapphire, but they charge thousands of dollars for their phones. The sapphire screens only cost $30 or so, which to me would absolutely be worth it.

Video games at ballpark urinals? Brilliant!

LibreOffice is making inroads, but OpenOffice is still winning. Still waiting to see what they do with the IBM/Symphony code before I make a decision.

Employers may finally be lowering their standards. This, however, may not be a good thing. I don’t think I buy the logic.

A thing in Japan.

This is why more Republicans who believe in gay marriage need to come out in favor of it. And why we should encourage those who do.

Is the housing bubble back? Here’s a look at the last housing bubble, wherein one of the problems was… the mortgage sellers believe in what they were selling.

Solar power in Germany may be taking over, in a way that’s not totally good.

Is the future of showroom exploitation prevention a cover charge?

In the same way that I don’t think having the government take care of my health care gives the government a right to make health choices for me, I am wary of police protection allowing a government to dictate how a burger joint is run.

Well, that’s one way to change the name of your company against your will.

Sometimes, just sometimes, the media doesn’t understand how the law (in this case, crime sentencing) works.

One of the ideas making its rounds around Washington (again) is a new stimulus package dedicated towards improving infrastructure. Taking this opportunity of high unemployment to rebuild and expand roads, public hospitals, schools, and so on. As is often the case, it seems to me that the devil is in the details with something like this, though it’s one of the less objectionable ideas I’ve heard. One of the things I’ve noticed in small-city and small-town America, though, is the building of grand new things without much regard for what happens to the old.

In Colosse, near the Capitol district, is an old football stadium that nobody has used for years. For various reasons, it has a real soft spot in the heart of Colosseans everywhere and so nobody will state the obvious, that it needs to be torn down. Instead, idea after idea comes up about how it can be converted into something, but idea after idea is shot down. If they wanted to create a new superstar convention center, they could simply build a new one for less money than converting a stadium into a convention center would cost. No conversion necessary.

In Beck County, Deseret, where I lived for a couple of years, they were working on building a new hospital. Or rather, combining the two existing hospitals into one huge one by expanding one of the two campuses. One of the big questions, though, was what happens to the old hospital? It was a question that few actually asked. There was the assumption, I think, that Beck State University would ultimately buy it because it was right across the street from the campus that had an expanding student body. But somewhere along the way the university determined that it didn’t have the money. I don’t know what ever happened with any of that as we left the state and I think the last time we went back the “old” hospital was still in use. I was always more impressed with it than I was the new (to-be-expanded) facility. The former was on a hill and had some great views out of the building. The latter was on the top of a hill, which was cool, but was laid out pretty flat like a giant high school. Obviously, these are not the things on which decisions should be made, but I thought it a real shame that such a nice looking building might be demolished to make room for… what, exactly?

There are a couple of cases going on in Callie, Arapaho, where I now live. First is another hospital that they’re building down the street from the old. I’ve been reading the Callie Register week in and week out and nothing has been mentioned about what’s going to happen with the old facilities. As far as buildings go, it’s not as impressive as the hospital in Deseret and I guess it wouldn’t be a big deal if it went down. Hard to imagine anything else happening to it given the excess real estate available other than it sitting dormant, as is the case with a couple of old grain factories (at least that’s what I think they are) in town. There’s an old warehouse that for a while was a night club of sorts that is being torn down.

And last on this list is the old elementary school, which was replaced when a new one was built a little while back. Right now it’s serving as a Head Start center, though that requires only a portion of the building and everyone seems to be scratching their heads about what to do with it. The local conservative letter-writer to the Register suggests that it needs to be sold cause the government doesn’t need it and the government should be cut… but sold to whom?

Meanwhile, new stuff is regularly being built. There seems to be something sad about the constant need to build new things. We have a real attraction to new. Back home, there was Phillippi High School, which was considered by most to be the dregs of a school compared to South Phillippi and East Phillippi, the district’s other two high schools. They tore down PHS and rebuilt everything on the same grounds, and despite having the same lackluster teachers, the same lower-class student body, and the same everything else… suddenly everyone in the Phillippi district was petitioning to transfer into the new (old) school. To some, I guess, it really is as if the date of construction is what really matters. It’s been a decade now since all of that happened and as I hear it nobody is anxious to have their kids go to that school anymore.

I guess there’s something a little sad to me about out with the old and in with the new. Is it really so impossible to retrofit older buildings with better amenities? (easier, one would imagine, than converting a football stadium into a convention center)? Out here in Arapaho the land is so cheap that I guess it always makes sense to just build something new rather than take advantage of real estate that has already been built. In Beck County there were always new hotels being build, meanwhile a really cool and historic hotel downtown, the Fritz was vacant. The people wringed their hands about this historic place just kind of going to pot, but when people would come to Fort Beck for this reason or that, they would always make reservations with the chains and the chains always had their own building models in mind and with real estate being so affordable they could just build a new one on the outskirts of town. Nobody who wasn’t already in town knew how cool The Fritz is in comparison. If they care, which they might not since most hotel rooms are about a place to land your head at night.

We are one of the wealthiest nations in the world, if not the outright wealthiest. I guess it’s a biproduct of this that we can always afford to build new rather than make do with the old. Of course, we’re also not as wealthy a country as we sometimes think (think our national debt and lack of personal savings and banking industry vulnerability). It’s not unlike with cars, which I will comment on soon. Of course, sometimes it just is the case that the latter is cheaper than the former. Made moreso the case by all of the building requirements that these old structures would need to be retrofitted with if they were to be reopened. I was thinking of this the other day in Redstone when I was admiring a duplex is pretty awful shape that obviously hadn’t been lived in for quite some time. I don’t even know if such a building could be moved into and the costs of renovation probably would exceed the costs of tearing it down and building something new.

Living in the world of technology, it’s something that I can appreciate to some degree. A laptop breaks down, if you add together the amount of money it would take to find replacement parts and the time it would take and how much my time is worth… I can get a new laptop for much cheaper. Of course, technology always gets cheaper and better. I don’t know how much Moore’s Law applies to construction.

The fact that we spend more on health care than anyone else for less remarkable results is the subject of much discussion and recrimination. There are some things where our health care really does excel or stand out. One thing that amazes foreign doctors that come here is how much nicer our facilities are. As much like a hotel as a hospital. Whether this is a great use of our health care dollars or not I cannot really say.

According to Daniel Fisher, the best thing about Shale gas is that we know where it is. Will the future of fracking skip the water? More on the American energy boom.

Are we making too big a deal out of fat? There are, without a doubt, reasons to be concerned about the health ramifications of the obesity epidemic. I don’t think that’s all that’s going on here.

I am definitely keeping an eye on Motorola’s xPhone. It could be the avenue through which niche features become available again.

Tim Worstall thinks that smartphones will go the way of PC’s and that Samsung and Apple may be in danger. He should be right, but I think he’s wrong. Anyone want to guess why? Hint.

Since I don’t expect government action to provide a solution, I am hoping that geoengineering might. There’s a lot of debate about geoengineering going on.

The same policies that would help women in the workplace might keep them from advancing.

I don’t have the problem with the minimum wage as a concept, but given the enormous differentials in cost of living, does it make sense to have a national minimum wage?

Sometimes rural subsidies help out the not so rural.

China is throwing its lot in with Ubuntu Linux. Or at least their own version of it.

The legal challenges of ridesharing. We need a word for shipmentsharing.

Nobody fears tax simplification like TurboTax fears tax simplication.

The anti-Google Glass people are real killjoys. I can sort of understand why we might not want people using them on the road, though.

Note to self (and any Neil Gaiman fans): Check this out.

The administration is pushing the FAA to either allow electronics during takeoff-landing or to justify the prohibition. Which is the way it should. This is really one of those quasi-populist, relatively small-time lifestyle issues that I don’t understand why it’s so hard for politicians to want to get out in front of. (Flex-time is another one.)