That Explains It

As reported in the New Yorker, an OECD study finds that Americans have some of the worst problem-solving skills in the developed world. For 16-65 year olds, only Spaniards are less numerate, The problem of ED was cialis cheapest https://regencygrandenursing.com/post-acute-sub-acute-care/orthopedic-rehab increasing among men and the treatments which he finds shy to discuss with others. The massage of Overnight oil will get for men a highest pleasure and enjoyment in lovemaking sessions. levitra prices You can gain online generic cialis rock hard erection during the lovemaking time. The discontinuation of the medication should also be done as right on time as cialis prices would be prudent. and only Spaniards and Italians are less literate (see pages 259 and 264).

No wonder so many voters support billion-dollar rail projects aimed at addressing problems that could be solved by million-dollar bus projects.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

10 Responses to That Explains It

  1. Frank says:

    Blame it on government schooling that favors compliance with and dependence on adults and “experts” instead of fostering genuine problem-solving skills.

    Is marching a child into a classroom and forcing them to pledge allegiance to the national government and then telling them to sit down, shut up, and do what they’re told for the rest of the day an enlightened form of daily instruction?

    As more and more flee government schools in favor of more effective and voluntary modes of education, the current epoch of forced state schooling will fade as a bad memory of a time when conformity and dependence were virtues and independent thought and creative free inquiry were normed out of a compliant populace.

  2. msetty says:

    Yeah, Frank’s thoughts explain why allegedly more socialist countries such as Germany, Sweden and Canada have government that functions better than here, and more of it such as national health insurance.

    As always with a reference provided by The Antiplanner, it always is worth taking a look before responding. If there is a correlation between problem solving skills and the sort of public transportation technologies utilized in a given coungtry, the evidence would indicate the exact opposite of what Randal is arguing, e.g., the smartest countries embrace MORE rail. For one thing, the Germans and Koreans take rail quite seriously and have lots of rail service. I suspect the Swiss also score very high on the problem-solving criteria, which is one explanation for their very high embrace of rail as the core of their public transportation.

  3. Sandy Teal says:

    What do you expect when American school kids are taught by people who think a drawing of a gun, or a stick, or even the thumb and index finger, require suspension because they are “dangerous”? If the teachers can’t tell the difference between literal and figurative, how do you expect the kids too?

  4. bennett says:

    Funny, I couldn’t agree more with both Frank and msetty even if they feel they’re offering up opposing views. Frank is correct in that the educational model fostered by our federal and local governments is horrible. My children are still very young, but past elementary school I can’t see myself allowing them to stay in the public school system, particularly in TX (where Thomas Jefferson has been removed from the history books because he was “too liberal”). But I don’t blame public education as a model, I blame our version of it.

    msetty hit the nail on the head with Mr. O’Toole’s obfuscation. Why is it that the nations with the best “problem solving” seem to make collective decisions that he has so much contempt for. Could it be that he is one of the Americans the study is talking about?

  5. Dan says:

    I’m with bennett.

    Our public schools (and charter schools, too, for that matter) need an overhaul. The old industrialized model doesn’t serve many of our students any more. But given that we hate teachers (unions) and schools and taxes, that’s a tall order.

    And I agree that if we actually look at the numbers, the more advanced countries by many standard measures have better outcomes: quality of life, schools, roads, transport, equality of opportunity…choose your metric.

    DS

  6. JOHN1000 says:

    One of the problems with our education system is they no longer teach geography.

    Different countries have different geography and what works in one may not work for another. So politicians, and bloggers, who say “if country X does it, we should too” or “why can’t the richest country in the world do something that X does?” are part of the problem.

    Apply transportation ideas to needs and use them in a way that works with the geography of the area in which it is needed. There is no “one size fits all” and the fact that something works in Japan or Korea or Switzerland does not mean we should spend billions of dollars merely to copy them.

  7. Frank says:

    “Our public schools (and charter schools, too, for that matter) need an overhaul.”

    Ain’t going to happen. First, the NEA simply won’t allow it. Take for instance a teacher who is not abusing students, but who is simply inept. After 18 years of teaching, he cannot manage his own email inbox. (He constantly asked me for help performing basic computer tasks even though the job requires those skills.) He spent two days last week having his students sing Puff the Magic Dragon and Blowin’ in the Wind, although the relevance to the American Revolution escaped me—and his students. Admin has spent the last year trying to evaluate him out, but the NEA is there at every turn. Meanwhile, according to teacher salaries published online by the News Tribune, he makes $86,000 in cash and another $32,000 in other benefits, for a total compensation of $118,000!

    This is only one example of many from my latest gulag; one teacher, defended by the NEA, created a seating chart by race and told students that just because Martin Luther King was successful, it didn’t mean all African-Americans would be successful. Others yell at their students and call them stupid. There are a few good teachers at the last gulag, but they’re true believers and ultra conformists who, like Star Trek’s Borg, demand complete assimilation. Groupthink is rampant and it, along with over standardization, requires critical thinkers to sit down and shut up—or leave the profession. I’ve chosen the latter.

    Nope. The entrenched school lobby and its true believers will defend the bureaucratic leviathan at every turn and continue to force parents to turn over their offspring to satiate the beast’s appetite.

    Even “crazy uncle” Ron Paul even knows that school reform is “simply utopian” because it requires “a reestablishment of local funding, local control, and foundational parental input into local” schools. The NEA, true believers, and the beast have their teeth in the children and won’t let the government monopoly go. “The tradition of public education, coupled with the centralization of funding by state governments and the federal government, seems to make any such proposed reform a political impossibility.”

    With the emergence of online schools, online curriculum, and online courses and materials, parents can and will withdraw their children and support. (See: Coursera, MIT, and HarvardX for higher education examples; there are equivalent courses available for younger learners.) It’s only a matter of time before the calcified Prussian system collapses under its own weight and lack of flexibility.

    As for me, I’ve retired early, effective Monday. Like John Taylor Gatto, I can no longer be a part of a system that hurts children. Like Gatto, “my life experience taught me that school isn’t a safe place to leave your children.”

  8. Dave Brough says:

    Antiplanner said “No wonder so many voters support billion-dollar rail projects aimed at addressing problems that could be solved by million-dollar bus projects”

    I say “No wonder people ignore technology that could eliminate multi million dollar bus projects. Starting with elevating vehicles onto guideway.” http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/third%20generation.htm

  9. prk166 says:

    The is not the schools, the problem that they are “our schools” instead of “my school” or “your school”. Until that change occurs, nothing will improve.

  10. Tombdragon says:

    Yep – few problem solving skills are on display here – at least in the above responses. To win, it all begins – and ends – with the individual. Those who responded with “solutions” seem to refer to others “failed” outcomes, rather than looking to successful ventures supported universally by the consumer willingly “voting” with their monetary support. “Solutions” need to be acceptable to consumers, with measurable goals, and objectives met to solve a problem. No “problems” are solved by the references illustrated by the responses, but the “outcomes” are controlled – which seems to be the new definition of problems being solved here.

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