Sir Tim Berners-Lee, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, spoke at the Intellectual Property Expo in London today. Among the controversial statements to the press made by Sir Tim in the hours leading up to the event, is his assertion that “computers are getting smarter and we are not.” What should we do? Paraphrases Matt Warman of The Telegraph, “The only solution, he argues, is for people to embrace new technology, and accept that some jobs will simply disappear.”
One sort of job that will not disappear, predicts Sir Tim, is that of software developers. In fact, the demand for software developers, he thinks, will be limited only by our imagination:
I think in a way with software if people are interested in writing it, it’s not that there’s a certain amount of software that needs to be written. What you do with it is limited only by your imagination. If your imagination limited, OK. But some of it can be very artistic some of it can be very practical.
Those of us who embrace new technology, and who realize that everything comes with a cost, accept the inevitable job displacement that often accompanies innovation. We realize that the way to thrive, now and in the future, is by ensuring that we and our children receive a quality education that will allow us to adapt to a changing job market.
But will our government permit us to do this?
Parents who choose to send their kids to government schools are finding they are able to exercise less and less control over their children’s education. Many states across the country are still in the process of implementing Common Core, in which the curriculum–which some have complained will indoctrinate and dumb-down our children to an even greater degree than before–is dictated by a federally-appointed body. Those states that are implementing Common Core are being bribed, with our tax dollars, to get as many children as possible to take and pass–whatever that means–a series of standardized tests based on the Common Core. Now, in Wyoming, the Attorney General has, according to the Daily Caller, “officially advised the Wyoming Department of Education that it is illegal for parents to opt their own children out of statewide standardized assessment tests given in taxpayer-funded public schools.” Illegal to keep your own children home on the day the tests are administered because you don’t want their brains–or egos–to be turned into mush.
Think you can escape the effects of the Common Core by choosing to homeschool your child? Think again.
On Sept. 18 The Examiner reported that a New Jersey family that was homeschooling their children “received a notice from the local Superintendent of Schools that they must adhere to Common Core standards.” The Home School Legal Defense Association is there to help the parents fight back, but given the increasing popularity of the homeschooling movement (see this story, for example, about the increase in the rate of homeschooling in NC), I doubt this will be the last we’ll see of this sort of power grab.
Thankfully the American sense of life seems to be alive and well in parents throughout the country: The Daily Caller reports today that a recently published study shows that the public–and, in particular, parents at the local level in school districts throughout the country–is increasingly turning against the Common Core. (You may rightfully experience satisfaction that the study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which supports Common Core.)
When surveyed, 34 percent of district leaders described resistance from outside the school system as a major challenge to implementing Common Core, and another 39 percent described it as a minor challenge (18 percent said it was not a challenge at all).
That is a dramatic shift from 2011, when only 5 percent of district leaders said outside resistance was a major problem, 35 percent said it was a minor one, and 60 percent said it wasn’t a problem.
And of course the report found that implementing Common Core, as with any other government program, will cost more than originally projected: “[A]ll is not well even for district heads, who are adamant that more time, effort, and money than initially expected will be necessary for Common Core to work.”
Read more of The Daily Caller’s summary here.
As Ayn Rand wrote in her essay, “Don’t Let It Go,” “An American is an independent entity….[and] has no concept of service (or of servitude) to anyone.” Let’s hope that parents will continue to embrace this attitude and resist Common Core—and that they are able to overcome the bureaucratic inertia that already exists in the curriculum’s favor. Eventually, of course, my hope is that a substantial minority of parents in our country will join the abolitionist movement, but for now it is the Common Core that must be defeated.
(Those who need extra concrete motivation to join the abolitionist movement: Check out this story, in which we learn that a chain of Ohio “charter schools,” which are government-funded, but privately run, and are supposed to provide a higher quality alternative to “traditional” government schools, are hiring a large number of Turkish teachers of dubious qualification.)
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