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Comment Re:Old news, Same response (Score 1) 1070

by knotprawn (#36381312) Attached to: Have We Reached Maximum Sustainable Population Size?
Granted. What I should have said was, perhaps we'll become extinct in as short a timespan as the doomsayers predict. Perhaps it'll take a while longer. Either of those two events would bear little significance in light of the Earth's long history. The not becoming extinct option, as you've pointed out, is clearly significant.
Education

Submission + - India's Schooling Experiment Tests Rich and Poor

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Passed in 2009, India's Right to Education Act mandates that private schools set aside 25% of admissions for low-income, underprivileged and disabled students. Many of the world's top private schools offer scholarships to smart poor kids, but India's plan is more sweeping in that the rules prohibit admission-testing of students. 'Over the years schooling offered by these two systems [public and private] has become increasingly disparate and unequal,' explained Anshu Vaish of the Dept. of Human Resource Development. But the most notable results of the experiment thus far, reports the WSJ, are frustration and disappointment as separations that define Indian society are upended, leading even some supporters to conclude that the chasm between the top and bottom of Indian society is too great to overcome. Hey, at least we don't have these kinds of problems in the US, right? BTW, about 30% of this year's Intel Science Talent Search 2011 Finalists hailed from private schools, where annual tuition ranges from $15,750 at Ursuline Academy (the alma mater of Melinda Gates) to $37,020 at Groton School (the alma mater of FDR). Some 10% of all elementary and secondary school students were in private schools in 2009-2010, according to the US Dept. of Education.
Idle

Submission + - Dr. J.T. Kirk. Shatner Accepts D.Litt Degree (google.com)

Submitted by theshowmecanuck
theshowmecanuck writes: William Shatner was granted a Doctor of Letters Degree at his alma mater, McGill University in Montreal. One of the more interesting parts of his speech involved his high school principal's car which was set on fire. An other interesting tidbit is that he doesn't really like the idea of going into space himself. An interesting short read on what made and continues to make one of our favourite former 'star ship captains' tick.
Education

Submission + - Prof Questions Sink-or-Swim Intro to CS Courses 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: 'After having taught introductory programming (CS 1) for the past six years,' writes GVSU's Zack Kurmas, 'and having watched many students struggle through this course and the subsequent course (CS 2), I have come to the conclusion that it is absurd to expect students who don't have any prior programming experience to be well prepared to study Computer Science after a single 15-week course (i.e., CS 1). I believe that expecting a student to learn to program well enough to study Computer Science in a single 15-week course is almost as absurd as expecting a student with no instrumental musical experience to be ready to join the university orchestra after 15 weeks.' Kurmas' frustrations are not unlike those voiced by Physics prof Dr. Yung Tae Kim, who argues the up-or-out, one-size-fits-all rigid pace approach to learning set by teachers and administrators is as absurd as telling a toddler, 'You have ten weeks to walk, and if you can't, you get an F and you're not allowed to try to walk anymore.'

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