Bill Gates at AFT Convention

[NJmaverick]

Run time: 10:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vUKXw5X_1Q   Posted on YouTube: July 14, 2010 By YouTube Member: AFTHQ Views on YouTube: 24   Posted on DU: July 18, 2010 By DU Member: NJmaverick Views on DU: 855

 
Bill Gates speaks about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's initiatives to improve teacher training and evaluation at the 2010 AFT convention on July 10.

[puzzlingpond]

1. Bill Gates heckled at AFT convention....youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6Ezri0pVOg

BILL GATES: A TROJAN HORSE IN THE AFT HOUSE

[NJmaverick]

2. I didn't hear a single thing he said that I would disagree with

I am not sure where all the hostility toward the man is coming from

[AdHocSolver]

5. A wise computer expert once wrote about Microsoft and Bill Gates...

...Don't pay attention to what they say. Just look at what they DO.

There is no significant correlation between the two.

[NJmaverick]

9. Spending his own money and volunteering his time to improve our nation's education system

would be the things I see

[puzzlingpond]

11. read Madfloridian's journal and learn the real deal.

[NJmaverick]

12. I prefer my information unfiltered

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NJmaverick]

15. The video is a first hand source, not filtered

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NJmaverick]

18. I wanted to hear first hand what Gates had to say

since clips of his comments have been used to vilify him

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Interesting presentation. A question: no mention of publlc school background...

in Bill's wiki bio. ( Although he did attend an exclusive private prep school for seventh grade... and presumably thereafter.) Did he attend ps at all?


Also....Wiki mentions three daughters. No mention of where/how they were/are schooled. Can anyone speak to this? It does matter. Experience as either a provider or consumer would add credibility. A complete void in that respect would also be significant.


This is a disturbingly common biographical feature of prominent school "reformers". ( i.e. little or no *experiential* connection to ...well... to what they are talking about.) Obama, Duncan, Jonathan Alter... I could go on but I don't think it's necessary.

All of which doesn't necessarily mean their analysis is automatically void but it IS grounds for extreme skepticism... since this 'reform' movement is essentially imposing its will thru sheer force of economic and political might.


Re. the convention: The reception was tepid but polite.

The whole thing reminds me a little of the brouhaha Dr. Laura stirred up a few years ago when, addressing the Hadassah convention...... shortly after she converted from lifelong Atheism to Orthodox Judaism more or less overnight... she implied that those assembled were not sufficiently Jewish.

I'd say Mr. Gates is lucky to have come out of that convention hall unscathed. Which brings up another question: was there a Q and A period?

[NJmaverick]

4. Sorry but having looked at Arne Duncan's very impressive credentials

I can't agree with your assertions or comparisons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Duncan

I will also add that having a man like Gates, who scored a 1590 on his SATs, is a good thing rather than a bad thing

I will also have having a former college professor helping to guide our education reforms is simple a huge plus

[MichiganVote]

6. Then give him a classroom of kids and let's test drive the assertions that he makes.

Just because the guy has a big wallet doesn't mean he knows diddly about a school, education or teachers. He has made some erroneous claims about teachers in the past but as usual, our media does nothing.

Maybe its his income and his SAT scores that intimidate rather than instruct people.

[NJmaverick]

8. You know Bill Gates never ran a company (nor was he trained to run one) before Microsoft

but he did pretty well at that.

[AdHocSolver]

14. Willy Sutton never had any formal training in robbing banks.

Yet he was very successful at it.

Microsoft was successful because of arrogant and stupid IBM management. Microsoft also used its monopoly of the IBM PC operating system to sabotage other vendors' programs designed to run on the IBM PC. Microsoft used its deep pockets courtesy of IBM stupidity to run its competitors into the ground with lawsuits.

Microsoft never pioneered anything. They bought PC-DOS 1.0, a really poor excuse for an operating system written by another company, for peanuts, and made a fortune on it as it was bundled with the IBM-PC. Then Microsoft watched while others pioneered software such as, editors, spreadsheets, compilers, databases, web browsers, and bought second rate copycat software to sell under their brand.

I programmed IBM PC's from early 1983 and Microsoft software was of such poor quality, it was evident that the company would have failed on its own merits if it hadn't been supported by IBM. To this day, the tens of thousands of viruses, worms, and trojans exist because of security holes in Microsoft software.

Microsoft is successful, not because of a superior product, but because IBM gave them a near monopoly on the microcomputer market, and because of the technical ignorance of the PC user market.

[NJmaverick]

16. So you are saying Bill Gates was smarter and better at running a company

than the experienced and highly educated team at IBM. That sure sounds like the type of man we want on our education problem.

[AdHocSolver]

21. I deduce from your reply that you have a serious problem with logic.

I never said that IBM management was competent. In fact, their incompetence in dealing with Microsoft cost IBM billions of dollars in profits.

Being a tiny bit cleverer than a bunch of idiots does not make one a genius.

You imply an opinion that has no basis in fact.

[MichiganVote]

20. Then he should stick with that. Public education is not a corporation.

[AdHocSolver]

7. Funny thing is that I am not impressed with Arne Duncan's credentials.

It is too bad that Bill Gates SAT scores didn't translate into some competent software products from Microsoft. Then we could have some expectation of some useful outcomes from Gates' meddling in education.

Having earned a teaching certificate from a college of education, I can tell you that having a former college professor guiding education reform means education reform is doomed.

[NJmaverick]

10. We will have to disagree on this one. I see three people with very impressive backgrounds