From Yahoo/LA Times:
High Schools Are 1.0 in a 5.0 World, Gates Says
Addressing the nation's governors, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates delivered a scathing critique of U.S. high schools Saturday, calling them obsolete and saying that elected officials should be ashamed of a system that leaves millions of students unprepared for college and for technical jobs.
Gates was speaking as the invited guest of some of the nation's most powerful elected officials, at a National Governors Assn. meeting devoted to improving high school education across the country.
"Training the workforce of tomorrow with today's high schools is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe," said Gates, whose $27-billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made education one of its priorities.
"Everyone who understands the importance of education, everyone who believes in equal opportunity, everyone who has been elected to uphold the obligations of public office should be ashamed that we are breaking our promises of a free education for millions of students," added Gates, to strong applause.
Telling it like it is... I am 54 years old -- when I went to high-school, we studied a lot of stuff. Chemistry, Math, Music, and I mean Organic and Inorganic Chemistry actually running reactions and syntheses, Calculus and Trigonometry, picking up an instrument and learning how to play it. Actually doing this stuff. We also took wood, metal and electric shop -- learned how to operate wood and metal working machinery, repair house wiring, solder a connection.
I run into people these days who are amazed that someone can do one of these things. High School has gotten very very soft in the last twenty years. My first wife is a substitute teacher in the Seattle (liberal city) system and most of her work is acting as security guard.
Students going on to college often have to take remedial English and Math. WTF???
Bill should know these things, he has over 50,000 employees and knows full well what people applying for work with a high-school education know -- Microsoft does not hire uneducated people...
