Re: Extropian Party Platform

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
15 Oct 1999 22:37:29 +0200

Replicant00@aol.com writes:

> In a message dated 10/15/1999 6:00:42 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> wingdahl@hotmail.com writes:
>
> << "neutral". That is why compulsory schooling is wrong and
> should be abolished. Parents should deceide what school their kids should
> attend to.
>
> People *can* decide what schools to attend, it's curriculum that is monitored.
> : )
> Standards are good. Eductational standards in public schools could be a lot
> higher, in fact. It's when they satrt outlawign Darwin and crap like that
> that things get scary.

I think knowledge validation is the important part, and this is where independent review boards can get relevant. OK, you are a genius and don't need school, just go to the review board and demonstrate to them that you have the necessary knowledge and skills to get their seal of approval (a bit like getting your driver's licence?). There is probably a need for some standard review boards that might be government run, but it also makes a lot of sense to have independent boards ("Ok, your grades from the government board are good, but they tend to be too lax on the critical thinking section. We would like you to have grades from one of these boards, which emphasizes more relevant abilities."). Of course, the Kansas Board of Creationist Science might exist, but that is no real problem since it will not be a very credible board - what really makes this system interesting is if the boards can be reviewed and rated well.

-- 
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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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