"Ed Huntress" wrote:

It wasn't easy, but it's interesting to me that posters to this NG scored so
high. Our average must be around 50 or so, which I consider pretty good for
someone who doesn't read history for fun or as part of his or her job. The
average age for this NG is probably pretty high, too, and you can forget a
lot of details if you don't keep up with the subject(s).


I think most of us are from when the educational system was in the business
of teaching rather than social engineering. The feds poking its nose into
this has not made things better. Let each state manage its affairs and the
other states look around to see if other states are doing it better and copy
it. The feds take the approach that since they are feds they know best.
Keep as much of education policy local with parent involvement.

I'm all for attaching funding to the student so options other than the
public system can be exercised by the parent. Education in this country,
for the most part, is a government monopoly. While I'm a back sliding
Baptist, I fully endorse the efforts of the Catholic parochial school
systems. The are many Protestant children in parochial schools on a space
available basis. That system expects the parents to be involved as in what
days will you be here to help.


I'm closing in on 50 in December.

I suspect we'd do well against elite college students in many areas,
including math and science. We have a lot of years of experience, and
there's some degree of advantage because many of us care about the content
of these subjects in one way or another--a fact that counterbalances the
tendency to forget over time. What's left for the students? I'd say English,
except that most posters here are quite articulate and write at a very high
level. I think we're well above the level of typical college students.

Most people on this list are just plain interested in how things work. Some
student with a head full of mush often doesn't even have a clue about what
he or she wants to do.

From some of the political posts on this group (yes, I'm one of them) there
must be quite a few people that are interested in the history of our country
and how our system was formed.

To some degree, elite is over rated, elite imho is often just keeping the
riffraff out. Ever wonder why the rich and famous eat at very expensive
places? Because you and I, the common people, won't be there. The same
thing follows in many cases for 'prestigious' schools.

I'm not saying schools such as Yale and Harvard do not offer quality
education but I am noting that alumni, expecially well heeled alumni can get
their kid in based on dad's wallet and not based on the kids merrits.

Maybe we should all apply for honorary PhDs...

I'd like to have a BS or BA. Wouldn't make me smarter but my salary range
would improve.


Wes