News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Interest surges in top colleges, while struggling ones scrape for applicants. Parent comment

Re:Interest surges in top colleges, while struggling ones sc... by yTh0 on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @02:52PM (#26242019)
I can’t tell if things like this are real issues or “but think of the horse and buggy driver!” problems.

We were teaching kids to read, ethics, morals, long before we had PhDs.

Obsession with normalizing agency to abide fiscal concerns is the real issue here.

Let wealth collapse by refusing to buy into the idea we owe deference to those that hold wealth.

Teach the classics. Write open source.

None of it has to be done for a dollar, or outsized prestige.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Interest surges in top colleges, while struggling ones sc... by mcguire on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @04:37PM (#26243215)
"We were teaching kids to read, ethics, morals, long before we had PhDs."

I think I'd like some evidence for that.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Interest surges in top colleges, while struggling ones sc... by read_if_gay_ on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @06:37PM (#26244557)
Is that not obvious? Via the ancient Greek schools of philosophy for example?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Interest surges in top colleges, while struggling ones sc... by mcguire on Wednesday February 24, 2021 @10:47AM (#26251132)
IIUC, the literacy rate was for most of the Mediterranean world was around 20%, specifically excluding slaves and women. Which is pretty high, actually.

The Greek schools of philosophy were taught by the equivalent of PhDs.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Interest surges in top colleges, while struggling ones sc... by yTh0 on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @06:04PM (#26244226)
The first PhD was awarded in France in 1150 CE.

Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and even Pre-Columbus America had complex cultural customs, art, math, engineering, medicine, language they handed down generationally.

University as we know it is a relic of Medieval European tradition.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Interest surges in top colleges, while struggling ones sc... by mcguire on Wednesday February 24, 2021 @10:51AM (#26251212)
I've seen the literacy rate of medieval Europe estimated at 10%. Ethics and morals were being taught roughly the same way they are now: you believe what your parents believed. Medieval medicine was being taught from translations of Arabic copies of Galen.
[ Parent | on HN ]