Bill Gates Goes to School
We know by now what works for at-risk kids. The challenge is trying to replicate it.
Newsweek Published Dec 6, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Dec 15, 2008
Buckle up! Bill Gates, wearing an expensive necktie and looking uncharacteristically formal, is now
bringing the same high-speed, high-beam focus to American education that he once brought to
computers and, more recently, to international aid. He called President-elect Obama last week and
reports back cheerily that Obama "said all the right things" about including big money for education in
the stimulus package and making fundamental school reform (not the fake kind pushed by teachers
unions) a priority. Word is, Obama may even ask Gates to serve on a new high-level
educational-advisory panel he's noodling, which would be quite a change for a guy who generally
doesn't do committees. When I lumped Gates in with the "bomb throwers" on education, he chuckled
and didn't disagree.
Before the school bell rings, a quick read on the economy from the man who, at last count, still had a
larger net worth than the GDP of 120 of the world's 180 countries. "We're going to have a heck of a
recession," he says, and he has no clue about its duration or depth. He's worried about a "negative
feedback cycle" with lower production and unemployment feeding off each other. He laments that
exports have fallen sharply over the last three months even though American goods are cheap. And he
sees the auto bailout as nothing less than a shakedown by Chicken Little executives, noting that the
British public wasted $16 billion bailing out Leyland before it died, anyway.
At the same time, Gates doesn't buy that the tech revolution is winding down. "Innovation and science
are going at as high a speed as ever," he says, referring to breakthroughs with voice recognition, super
Wi-Fi and pharmaceuticals. "Core research staff won't be cut, and that's why we'll come out the other
side."
Member Comments
Posted By: dpmartin @ 02/16/2009 9:04:35 AM Your article states <He's worried about a "negative
feedback cycle" with lower production and unemployment feeding off each other.> When things feed
off each other and continue to go in the same direction, it is called positive feedback. The term
'adverse feedback loop' is sometimes used to describe positive feedback when its outcome is adverse.
If you Google "define:positive feedback" and "define:negative feedback" you will confirm my
observations.
Please listen to the following 20 minute speech by Bill Gates and especially be attuned to the second
half where he talks about teaching in America.
http://www.thoughtware.tv/videos/watch/3529-Bill-Gates-How-I-m-Trying-To-Change-The-World-
Now
Next
We know by now what works for at-risk kids. The challenge is trying to replicate it.
Newsweek Published Dec 6, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Dec 15, 2008
Buckle up! Bill Gates, wearing an expensive necktie and looking uncharacteristically formal, is now
bringing the same high-speed, high-beam focus to American education that he once brought to
computers and, more recently, to international aid. He called President-elect Obama last week and
reports back cheerily that Obama "said all the right things" about including big money for education in
the stimulus package and making fundamental school reform (not the fake kind pushed by teachers
unions) a priority. Word is, Obama may even ask Gates to serve on a new high-level
educational-advisory panel he's noodling, which would be quite a change for a guy who generally
doesn't do committees. When I lumped Gates in with the "bomb throwers" on education, he chuckled
and didn't disagree.
Before the school bell rings, a quick read on the economy from the man who, at last count, still had a
larger net worth than the GDP of 120 of the world's 180 countries. "We're going to have a heck of a
recession," he says, and he has no clue about its duration or depth. He's worried about a "negative
feedback cycle" with lower production and unemployment feeding off each other. He laments that
exports have fallen sharply over the last three months even though American goods are cheap. And he
sees the auto bailout as nothing less than a shakedown by Chicken Little executives, noting that the
British public wasted $16 billion bailing out Leyland before it died, anyway.
At the same time, Gates doesn't buy that the tech revolution is winding down. "Innovation and science
are going at as high a speed as ever," he says, referring to breakthroughs with voice recognition, super
Wi-Fi and pharmaceuticals. "Core research staff won't be cut, and that's why we'll come out the other
side."
Member Comments
Posted By: dpmartin @ 02/16/2009 9:04:35 AM Your article states <He's worried about a "negative
feedback cycle" with lower production and unemployment feeding off each other.> When things feed
off each other and continue to go in the same direction, it is called positive feedback. The term
'adverse feedback loop' is sometimes used to describe positive feedback when its outcome is adverse.
If you Google "define:positive feedback" and "define:negative feedback" you will confirm my
observations.
Please listen to the following 20 minute speech by Bill Gates and especially be attuned to the second
half where he talks about teaching in America.
http://www.thoughtware.tv/videos/watch/3529-Bill-Gates-How-I-m-Trying-To-Change-The-World-
Now
Next
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Human Education
Teaching Robots How to Act Like a Human