Re: [Phys-L] Private schools

[Ze'ev Wurman <zeev@ieee.org>]

On 7/10/2012 4:26 PM, Marty Weiss wrote:
> > Education as a welfare for the society *at large* is mostly a 20th century construct in this country. America was established without one, and fought a civil war without one. Before last century education in this country was for the welfare of the citizens first and the local community second, paid by its users and supported by the local community for those who could not afford it. So history clearly shows one doesn't need state monopoly on education to create a country with a cohesive philosophy.
> But this is the 21st century when we need educated people.. otherwise why do we discuss all the physics issues and minutiae on this list... 19th century is long gone as we try to convince some people, even here.

Straw argument. We needed educated people in the 18th century. And in 
19th. And in 20th. And we produced them. Possibly more educated and more 
independent than today.

> So, asked about Finland one person says they have the "best" testers. 
> Ask another person and they say the Finns are a more or less tiny 
> homogeneous population. Ask one and they say Europe is a socialist 
> experiment that failed. Ask someone else and they say look at Europe 
> for successful education. So, why do we keep bringing up the European 
> model when that in itself becomes a straw argument?

There is no such thing as "European" except in the generic sense. In 
education the "European" generic model refers typically to the 19th 
century German. What's your point? Is there a point?