Thomas Sowell - problems with EDUCATION in USA

[adubashi]

Shout out to Palo Alto high school, my hometown

[ctb3386]

brilliant man 

[comptonproduction]

UNCLE TOM SOWELL WOULDN'T KNOW EDUCATION IF IT SLAPPED HIM IN THE FACE.UNCLE TOM SOWELL IS AN IDIOT. HE'S A DISGRACE TO THE GREAT STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. LONG LIVE THE TOBACCO STATE.

[itschip378]

@comptonproduction No, that ignorant comment about education and calling someone who speaks truth to union power "Uncle Tom" shows how dumb you are, which proves his point about our schools, sucka! You're fired now too for that!

[TWICEfan3125]

@comptonproduction Evidence?

[comptonproduction]

It's people like Uncle Tom Sowell that education is screwed up now. He spend a little time kissing whites folks ass and now he the know it all of the American society.Uncle Tom Sowell is just another dum niggar, the Wino's on the street corner know more that he do. no disrepect to the wino's.

[MrSerpentish]

@comptonproduction It's amazing how you used so many words and said so little.

[comptonproduction]

@MrSerpentish What, are you retarded. You don't speak english.

[MrSerpentish]

@comptonproduction Hablas español?

[comptonproduction]

@MrSerpentish You Spanish is not that great. stick to english. That's the familar, improper. Good try.

[HextimusDuex]

Economics is the only social science that uses quantifiable data. I would argue that its basically all ya need in that school. You can tell a lot about a person based on how they spend their money.

[lowfive1715]

What is so wrong with an individual who wants to pursue a PhD in Literature?

[itschip378]

@lowfive1715 Nothing, so long as he or she is not deluded. Most see themselves as teaching English at a college after. The last data I saw showed that only 8% of people with Ph.D's in English get those jobs. The person I saw profiled in the article, who had a Ph.D. in English, was driving a bus.

[bweazel]

@lowfive1715 It's wrong if the economy would not otherwise demand it, even as the government gives you money to do it anyways. It's a poor investment, and many who go down that path find out the hard way that it is just that. If you were dependent on the market for student loans, instead of the government, people might not give you money to get a doctorate in literature. Government intervention into any market sends false signals about what is demanded and what isn't.

[FARMERBRENT1]

uuummm, I have two degrees in economics--where am I on the spectrum between education (the soft sciences) and mathematics/engineering (the hard sciences)???

[Anestheticum]

"It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts...it is to teach them to think."

[jiujitsuhath]

Sowell pulls no punches. Very refreshing!

[dezzy0]

i think Segregation would do this country tons of good.. this would put an end to a great deal of the problems we face in public schools and also stop the billions of dollars spent every year on shoving diversity down our throats when we clearly dont want it. on top of that it has not proven to be profitable by even one cent.

[ecalebw]

@dezzy0 Segregation doesn't work and you my dear sir are light years behind the current times. The only reason why de facto segregation exists is because of white fears of minorities. Most of the time the competition and diversity benefits all children and test scores increase for all races. The entire idea of segregation breeds racial prejudice and bigotry because of lack of understanding of the reality of how other races live.

[dezzy0]

@ecalebw i see you are another knucklehead that only knows what the media tells you. you voted for obama didnt you? you poor idiot... it wont be too long before you liberal fools see the error of your ways.

[HybridD91]

@dezzy0 Segregated from people like Sowell too?

[DexterHaven49]

He should have been the first black president. Obama thinks the best thing about the USA is Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The three socialist programs that are full of fraud and make up half the budget and have unfunded liabilities that are slated to bankrupt us. How is that the best? How are they funded? By taking property, money, from people who earn it. The government confiscates it and spends it on bureaucrats and welfare cheats. They make taxpayers support fraud! Shameful!

[theyoungmrt]

@DexterHaven49 I don't look at Obama as the first black president. I look at him and just another bad president.

[TWICEfan3125]

I'm reading his book right now. He's saying the same things. Wow.

[jamo387]

Such a brilliant man. Shame more people have not heard of him.

[DaveElectric]

I kinda like this guy. He talks like me. 

[minervx]

If you want to talk about big problems, study humanities and social sciences. if you want to solve them, math and science.

[itschip378]

@minervx I wish it were that simple. Math and science can tell you how to make a gun, but not when to use it.

[AsymmetricalWarfare]

@itschip378 For that you need morality. If you concede that that is what the humanities "teach" you've admitted that the entire field of study is about indoctrination.

[itschip378]

@AsymmetricalWarfare Let's not be so facile and blinded by simple words. That's the mark of a petty scholar. To say that psychology, English literature, history, and philosophy simply "teach" morality and label the entire set of disciplines as about "indoctrination" is fatuous. "Indoctrination" is especially freighted with negative religious connotations too. A very poor job of fitting words to facts. Skepticism and originality are taught in the humanities as well.

[theyoungmrt]

@itschip378 How can you be "taught" originality? Let's be honest, if you can't develop the critical thinking faculties to be skeptical and original on your own, no class or professor can ever teach them to you. Most professors don't even have it themselves.

[snarfels]

@theyoungmrt

The point isn't that they should be teaching originality, obviously you can't teach originality. Teachers have to demand it instead.

[testmark1]

@itschip378 lol. Actually, it can.

[AntiMale]

@itschip378 Exactly. That is why the curriculum is created the way it is at most colleges. You need balance, a great student must understand both how to make the gun AND when to use it.

[CrimsonFlameRTR]

@minervx They used to call scientists natural philosophers. Studying social science is the only way to know what works and what doesn't. Math or Science doesn't show that Communism failed miserably.

[CrimsonFlameRTR]

@minervx And moreover, this great mind that Thomas Sowell has three degrees in.... you guessed it Economics, a social science.

[Cornampoo]

@minervx I'd make a case to study praxeology and/or austrian economics instead of pure (natural) sciences to solve problems.