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I think we have a worrying tendency to worship mediocre results in Europe. Especially in Finland, it's a sad state how it has become a political question, a question of equality and all that stuff. I'd like to present the example of studies and academic challenge. The PISA studies has been pleasant for us in the past, we usually score very high, it's the study with people under 15 years old(?), math, writing/reading skills plus .. something. So we're usually #1 or at the very top in all categories. This is good news. But it doesn't mean we have the top percentage in the highly talented people. The 'lower bracket' is the one that lifts our results, as the ones who do poorly are not doing as poorly as their counterparts.
Well, this still is a good thing. However, we do not cater to our top talent really. Once you're out of HS and in the higher education world, the results aren't so good anymore. Why? The dropout percentage is HUGE, especially in science field. Why? People can't be bothered with difficult stuff like math etc. I know from our major less than half are on board today, and it is very common.
We like to educate people in totally made up subjects, because the degree has become a .. the value itself, and that everyone 'has the right to a degree' kind of mentality translates into a whole bunch of people with no skills but lots of degrees. This brings the actual value of degrees down, but it will also mean there is no strong army of skilled folks doing the top assignments.
OK so what can we do about it? People seem to do pretty well up until 15.. so it can't be such a big problem? Well, it is. We could even have more schools, more departments for highly talented young people, but it's always a political hot potato. It 'creates unequality'. But you see, it doesn't mean that the people with average or poor skills would have worse schools than they do now. It just means, that the ones with top talent aren't going to be challenged, aren't going to develop and we aren't goign to support that tip of the speer. So it's the dumbing down of the situation. It's not fair if someone is talented and gets to do something else people often think. And this is nothing but jealousy. It's not a question if equality. If we have bad schools and good schools and the ones with money go into good schools and the poor people go into bad schools, THAT is a question of equality. But giving highly talented few a chance to have their level of education, it's just got nothing to do with it.
So, while we are drooling over the fact that yeah, the average is pretty good, we aren't even worried, that the very top is not very good. That's like if we have few very intelligent and smart kids, we make them stupid so they are also average and the stupid kids won't feel bad. That is just ****ing stupid! People can't control their jealousy, and they'll take it on the smart ones. It's not fair my kid is stupid and yours isn't, blaablaablaablaablaa.
This also is getting back to us in the world of research, business etc. It's a question of economy as well, we like to dumb people down. Because we get jealous. But we just call it a matter of equality
Why don't we just call them racists? That would be more fun at least.
I see this tendency going on all over Europe as well. It's worrying, we will be losing our edge at some point. We should be taking care of the average and the peopel who do poorly, but we should also DEFINITELY cater to the top talent.
Well, this still is a good thing. However, we do not cater to our top talent really. Once you're out of HS and in the higher education world, the results aren't so good anymore. Why? The dropout percentage is HUGE, especially in science field. Why? People can't be bothered with difficult stuff like math etc. I know from our major less than half are on board today, and it is very common.
We like to educate people in totally made up subjects, because the degree has become a .. the value itself, and that everyone 'has the right to a degree' kind of mentality translates into a whole bunch of people with no skills but lots of degrees. This brings the actual value of degrees down, but it will also mean there is no strong army of skilled folks doing the top assignments.
OK so what can we do about it? People seem to do pretty well up until 15.. so it can't be such a big problem? Well, it is. We could even have more schools, more departments for highly talented young people, but it's always a political hot potato. It 'creates unequality'. But you see, it doesn't mean that the people with average or poor skills would have worse schools than they do now. It just means, that the ones with top talent aren't going to be challenged, aren't going to develop and we aren't goign to support that tip of the speer. So it's the dumbing down of the situation. It's not fair if someone is talented and gets to do something else people often think. And this is nothing but jealousy. It's not a question if equality. If we have bad schools and good schools and the ones with money go into good schools and the poor people go into bad schools, THAT is a question of equality. But giving highly talented few a chance to have their level of education, it's just got nothing to do with it.
So, while we are drooling over the fact that yeah, the average is pretty good, we aren't even worried, that the very top is not very good. That's like if we have few very intelligent and smart kids, we make them stupid so they are also average and the stupid kids won't feel bad. That is just ****ing stupid! People can't control their jealousy, and they'll take it on the smart ones. It's not fair my kid is stupid and yours isn't, blaablaablaablaablaa.
This also is getting back to us in the world of research, business etc. It's a question of economy as well, we like to dumb people down. Because we get jealous. But we just call it a matter of equality
Why don't we just call them racists? That would be more fun at least. I see this tendency going on all over Europe as well. It's worrying, we will be losing our edge at some point. We should be taking care of the average and the peopel who do poorly, but we should also DEFINITELY cater to the top talent.
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