Re: [Phys-L] Private schools

[brian whatcott <betwys1@sbcglobal.net>]

On 7/10/2012 6:26 PM, Marty Weiss wrote:
> 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?

Asked about the US, one says the US has more Nobel laureates per capita 
than anywhere else - another says we like to buy Nobel level (and many 
other levels of ) talent - impoverishing the donor states; a third says 
we  make the country attractive  for undergraduate students, yet another 
says, but they just go home in a few years seeding their own country 
with the fruits of our education system. Most of all, we discount innate 
ability for  academic progress among the home bred population, but we 
sure know what we want from other countries....


Brian W