Posts by Stephen Judd
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Includes enjoyable homebrew analogue computing.
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People don't automatically do illegal drugs because they're attracted by the frisson of illegality
Have you ever been a teenager?
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Was that the Sterling talk which comprised stream of consciousness waffle mixed with errors so fundamental as to completely discredit it in the minds of people who were familiar with the subject matter?
Ah yes, it was.
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/me bangs nail with shiny new hammer
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But if they're not depressed and anxious and focussed on material goods and money, how will they become good consumers and workers?
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Thank you for fleshing that out, Craig. Do you think you could continue to do that in future? Because I'm afraid I really couldn't have inferred all that from your previous comment.
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Craig, are you arguing that because Labour did a bad thing, I can't criticise National for making it worse? Because that would be stupid, yet I can't find any other way to understand what you wrote.
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it has a market running underneath it
Bearing in mind Russell's observation, there is another important problem with this way of thinking about the education system.
To the extent that such a market might exist, it would not be anything like an idealised free market. This is because there is far more to changing school than merely withdrawing from one and enrolling in another.
Apart from the obvious problem of the most popular schools being unable to scale to meet demand, there are huge costs in transportation, time, and strained relationships if a family doesn't move, or in relocation, perhaps to a much more expensive neigbourhood, if it does. Only the most well-off families will have the resources to take advantage of such a market. With or without a zoning system, the poor will effectively be priced out of the acknowledged best schools, except for the most talented students who might be given some scholarship equivalent...
... oh wait, that's what already happens. Well, it'll get worse.
People who want to advocate a market model for school ranking and enrolment choice need to show how such a market will operate, or be laughed off with the mocking they richly deserve.
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