On Bill Gates and Education

Just a response I posted over at Unsettling Economics, to 'Bill Gates: Teachers’ Pest'.

My response:

A couple of things.

1) Bill Gates doesn’t give a rat’s ass about having educated population. He wants a nation of bean counters who he can hire from. He certainly doesn’t want people who question political and economic authority. Annualized testing feeds into this well because it destroys the intrinsic joy of learning found in humans and replaces it with behaviorism.

2) This program is all nonsense anyway because there are still openings for teachers in every inner city district, especially in the core science/math subjects. Even if the economy recovers a bit, these openings will soar. The fact is, the job is to stifling , too controlled, and too poorly compensated to attract quality applicants. Having some Ivy-league educated Gatesian drone breathing down one’s neck, yeah that will encourage people to take the job. And having the political class attack public pensions will move people into the field, as well – yep.

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Continuing:

Critics of Gatesian educationomics are far too kind. The guy is basically clueless about educating a student, though quite skilled at achieving results for business. This is behind his push for education reform: a nation of robotic bean-counters that he and other wise-men of the U.S. aristocracy can select from to run their affairs. But never question or seek to undermine their power.

These are the same people who think we need music in the schools to raise test scores. Such is their enlightenment and focus on fabled 'life-long learning'. What they believe in is behaviorism: rewarding and controlling behavior through the modulation of rewards. The draining of inspiration and innate human curiosity from everyday life unless channeled through the confines of the profit motivation. Specifically, their profit motivation.