@StephenVainker I think there’s a lot of global trends and institutions that shape things in real terms whose influence often gets lost in the fire and fury of national politics. It seems unlikely that a four year tenure over a decade ago in one part of Britain is the global ed establishment.
@StephenVainker It’s the use of establishment I query, Gove was in office in England for four years over a decade ago, his party aren’t even in power now. Let’s assume you’re right, how do you classify (brit/US/Oz) exam boards, university ed dept, journals etc if they’re not establishment?
"A.I. is built on our collective intelligence: our books, songs, artwork, journalism, computer code, scientific research, videos, conversations, images and ideas spanning generations. … tech oligarchs have fed this knowledge into their A.I. models without permission, without acknowledgment, without compensation. … creative work of millions … has essentially been stolen"
The whole idea of public education, libraries, & museums has long been to make all of that as widely & cheaply available as possible. So why suddenly complain when some folks actually find a use for it?
Health gurus will tell you alcohol is poison and you should never touch it. Meanwhile, there are old British guys having a couple pints every weekend with their lifelong friends, laughing for 4 hours straight, while outliving people who optimize every biomarker imaginable.
@helenrey@ajjuliani Definitely no clear understanding and not even within institutions. One specific contextual example is that middle school tend to interpret it as allowing students choice within same subject whereas high school see it as offering more choices between subjects
@SimBadd18@michael_merrick@BarryPCotter There is always a desire to control the choices of others, and controlling potential choices are even better as it’s control without feeling authoritarian guilt. The idea that people need a common education implies on some level that education is about control rather than freedom
@michael_merrick Yes but still works for both models as it’s targeting private capital, private sector, shareholders etc the very definition of have mores eg: see windfall taxes. Also growth of public sector, removal of hereditary peers etc clearly targets have mores as does inheritance taxes etc
@michael_merrick I was just trying to think of some policy issue that would disprove my view and support yours as a pressure test, I guess the lack of direct wealth taxes so far (there are indirect ones) would potentially work as an example where have mores haven’t always been the primary target
@michael_merrick I was thinking more specifically in terms of policies so increasing minimum wage (more wage compression) while removing VAT on private schools would be an example where the alternative “anti have more” model is supported.
@michael_merrick Sure but that also fits the alternative of collateral damage, eg: expand your own group to target the have mores more powerfully as well. For your model to be fully convincing it would have to have predictive power (in terms of policy adoption) over attacks on the have mores.
@michael_merrick We agree there but that’s collateral damage. Actual target is have mores. The fact that working class interests suffer eg: using degrees to gatekeep, professions doesn’t mean that thevprimary target of status conscious is those with higher status. Eg: removal of hereditary peers
From @WSJopinion: There’s a way to challenge the groupthink of scholarly journals. Peer review has become a closed system that protects shoddy and politically motivated research, write Kevin McCaffree and @SwipeWright.
https://t.co/NhIoGbe2Rt
"For just as the fashionable thinker is a prisoner of his fashion, the expert is a prisoner of his specialization. And it is the freedom from intellectual fashions and specializations that makes science and rationality possible."
––Karl Popper, The Myth of the Framework.
@michael_merrick That’s interesting as I also think we downplay the role of gaming for boys but by downplaying the positives. I do think downsides as well though.