The authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. - Galileo Galilei
educationA real Education RevolutionPosted by Michael Conaghan on 9th September 2010 1:21amIn the video below, Indian scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems in education: the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. The reason this problem exists is because the state has a monopoly on schooling. It has marred incentives. Why would an individual go to a 'trouble zone', or into a rural area, for the exact same pay they would receive for teaching in a ‘trouble free' environment near a city? How much money should teachers be paid? What are the costs and benefits? One of the many problems of socialism is both the lack of incentives it produces and the inability for central planners to get the right information to make the correct decisions. They lack the pricing mechanism supplied by the market – that of profit and loss. What is amazing is that even in some of the poorest areas, parents are willing to spend $2 a day to educate their children, even when public schools are available. When James Tooley first discovered low-cost private schools for the poor in urban slums and rural areas in India, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and China, aid agency officials and local government administrators did not receive the news warmly. Most flat out denied that such schools existed. Even if they do exist, said the experts, they can’t possibly be any good. School owners that run for-profit schools in shantytowns and poor villages are just exploiting poor communities. Their teachers are untrained and poorly paid. Their buildings are cramped, dark and filthy. Worst of all, kids don’t learn anything there—they come out “half-baked,” one education official told him. But what Tooley found, in four years of site visits and a five-country study described in his book The Beautiful Tree, throws a wrench in this familiar-sounding reasoning. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of students in the impoverished areas he studied were in fact attending these allegedly nonexistent schools, even when public options were available. The initial problem outlined, has now essentially been solved.
How awful we were to substitute teachers when I was in grade school! These "substitutes" – the very term implied dread mixed with malicious opportunity – didn't know our names, our lesson plans, the class culture, and had no pre-existing expectations for our behavior. We took full advantage, switching seats, hurling paper wads, goofing off, or otherwise just having a grand and very cruel time of it, knowing that if we all behaved badly as a class, in the aggregate, the punishment would be minimal. It was never worse than the day in band when we all switched instruments, and generated an hour worth of cacophony. To what end? It was just something we did because we could. Justice dictates that everyone who participated in these evil acts should be a substitute teacher for day. And so I was, but not in the same setting I had growing up. Instead I enjoy what turned out to be a glorious morning for Dad and his well-trained and homeschooled children. There were no spitwads or wisecracks or seat switching (that I know of!); rather I was privileged to be of part of one of the most beautiful scenes I've witnessed in my adult life.
This article was first published in Vol. 29, Number 1 of The Free Market - January 2005. Think about the word "vocation" as a work or function to which a person is called that requires dedication to an idea. A vocation involves what Ludwig von Mises called "introversive" labor while a profession involves "extroversive" labor. The essence of introversive labor is work undertaken solely for its own sake and not as a means to a more remote end. Extroversive labor, in contrast, is performed because the individual "prefers the proceeds he can earn by working to the disutility of labor and the pleasure of leisure."
This interview was first published in the Austrian Economics Newsletter, Vol. 16, Number 3 - Fall 1996. An Interview with Joseph T. Salerno Joseph Salerno, professor of economics at Pace University, is a leading figure in today's growing Austrian School. He has been a pioneer in many fields, including monetary theory, comparative systems, the history of thought, and the economics of war. After the death of Murray N. Rothbard in 1995, Salerno assumed the editorship of the Review of Austrian Economics, together with Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Walter Block. He is now editor of its successor and current flagship scholarly journal, The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He was interviewed by the AEN staff at the 1996 Mises University, the Mises Institutes summer instructional conference at Auburn University. AEN: What's your take on the present state of Austrian economics? SALERNO: How could anyone be at the Mises University and not be elated? This is my eighth. The students are more passionate and well read than ever. We've got all levels, all fields, and many different countries represented. Many students have come on the recommendation of their professors, who had attended in the past. So we're now working with the second and sometimes third generation of alumni.
This is a lecture to a clas
Every civilization and every society within a particular civilization rests on a series of presupp
Other than "misunderstanding America’s divorce laws," I cannot think of any more expensive widely
One of my strongest recollections is my 25th birthday.
So much to read and learn, and so little time. Thanks in no small measure to the energy that Ron Paul's candidacy unleashed, more people than ever are eager to cut through the propaganda and uncover the truth. But where to start? And how can you get the most out of the time you have to devote to reading and study? I put together the resources that follow as my way of answering these questions. I've included books (many in free online versions) and articles, as well as audio and video files that are also free. For the current crisis, see especially The Bailout Reader. Take a look also at the reading list Dr. Paul includes in his book The Revolution: A Manifesto. Many of these titles also appear in the categories below: economics, sound money, foreign policy, the Constitution, and civil liberties. Can we read our way to freedom? No, but we cannot be effective activists in the Ron Paul tradition unless we know some economics and history, and the various depredations, foreign and domestic, of the regime. |
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