A letter to our daughter
It is a lot of promises that are hard to keep.<p>They think they can just throw money at a problem and it will eventually go away given enough time.<p>They think people in communities will give up their bigotry against certain groups without a fight. They think everyone in the future will adopt the same worldview that they have. They think that they can solve poverty by giving everyone an Internet connection on the planet and most people who are poor are illiterate and can&#x27;t read and write.<p>Like I said a lot of promises.<p>Some problems can&#x27;t be solved with money, it takes innovation, it takes a new way of thinking, it takes doing things in a way nobody thought of yet.<p>Students who are poor and have family problems have emotional and psychological problems that hinder their learning. No matter how much money you spend on their school, as Gates has learned, their test scores don&#x27;t go up.  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;answer-sheet&#x2F;wp&#x2F;2014&#x2F;06&#x2F;09&#x2F;how-much-bill-gatess-disappointing-small-schools-effort-really-cost&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;answer-sheet&#x2F;wp&#x2F;2014&#x2F;06&#x2F;...</a><p>This effort by the Gates Foundation proves that building better schools does not give the students a better education.<p>You see they made the mistake of throwing money at a problem in order to solve it. Five years later and a disappointment in what they had created.<p>Parents of the students get by with low paying jobs, because there is a wealth inequality in our nation. It leads to poverty, family issues, emotional and psychological problems none of which building new schools could address. All of which factor into having a hard time learning and getting better test scores.<p>Why is there a wealth inequality and people have to settle for low paying jobs?<p>Technology has automated most of the good paying jobs so they can be done with computers for free. Microsoft and Facebook for example earn money from technology that does work for others for free and earns money. Websites can operate 24&#x2F;7 and replace people who take phone calls or work at a desk to fill out forms.<p>Also we used to have factory jobs until we shipped those jobs to China because the labor cost less over there.<p>Getting a good education is only possible if you have a good enough credit rating to get a student loan, if your family is poor and struggles and misses paying bills, you will have a bad credit rating and not be able to get a student loan for college. Not getting good enough grades will lead to a lack of scholarships and other things.<p>People who can&#x27;t get a college education face a life of hardship working low paying jobs just to get by. Not everyone can become a computer programmer after being a dropout, and then join a startup. Some have to work retail jobs in the service industry and 2 or 3 of those jobs. Not having time to raise their children properly. Not able to help with homework because they work overtime to get enough money to pay the bills.<p>These factors have not been addressed in the future plans for fixing our education system.<p>Sure you can learn a lot on the Internet and even use it to earn money, but most people just use it for entertainment value and communication. So there are distractions to learning on the Internet. But what happens when the freelance market suddenly gets 3 billion more lower wage contractors in it all competing for the limited amount of contracts?<p>I wish I knew how to solve these problems, but I learned from experience that you can&#x27;t just throw money at them and solve them.<p>You need the government to help out with some sort of basic income program to lift people out of poverty as good paying jobs are scarce because of automation or AI advances. I expect that to get worse in the future.<p>You need better mental health clinics to address the emotional and psychological problems associated with poverty for the students to be able to learn better. You need to find money for tutors to help them with homework when their parents cannot. You need to teach poor students stress management and test anxiety management so that they can o better in tests and learn better study habits and score higher.<p>I&#x27;ve found at least with my son, that the Internet is a distraction for him. Time he could have spent studying for tests, he instead watches Youtube videos and plays video games. I&#x27;ve tried to help him as best as I can, but now he is failing chemistry as a junior in high school but passing his other classes because they are not as hard.<p>We are one of those poor families because I ended up on disability in 2003 and don&#x27;t earn as much as I used to as a programmer. There is only so much I can help my son, he makes decisions for himself, but I cannot force him to study more or do better on his tests. I feel as if I didn&#x27;t go on disability we&#x27;d be better off and I&#x27;d be able to hire a chemistry tutor for him to get his grades up. I forgot as I took chemistry in 1985, and it was so long ago. It is harder to raise a child than you think, esp if you are on a limited income. The school he goes to is a good one with good teachers and modern equipment and they use iPads for ebooks and learning, but it is not enough and still students struggle with their classes.<p>No matter what you do there will still be problems as no system is perfect, and students will still get low mtest grades no matter how good a personalized system you develop. The Dewey System was developed for personalized learning and it failed. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;John_Dewey" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;John_Dewey</a><p>Most of what they are trying to do has already been tried and failed. It is like trying to go against human nature and change the way human beings behave so they can learn better. But human beings cannot be reprogrammed like robots, and almost all of these theories go with the case that human beings can be reprogrammed like robots to create a better community for better learning.<p>It is like trying to solve a social problem using technology thinking, you need to think in terms of society and the way people work, which is not the same way technology works. You need to lead social reforms in communities in a way that makes sense to everybody and not just people on a certain political spectrum that leaves out all others. You will face a resistance to change, as many won&#x27;t want to change. People will come up with conspiracy theories over the changes, etc.<p>It is a good start to build a different system of education and try to make new communities for education for everyone, but money alone won&#x27;t solve it, you need the cooperation of everyone in the community to change the way their human nature works and give up on the old ways of doing things. Some won&#x27;t want to give up on the old ways.