singularname
Ugh.
Simply re. the OP Q: I’d be a firm YES on this one. The 40+-page initiative is a difficult read and not as crisp as it could be, should be, but when I weigh that with the dozens upon dozens of poor to criminal SPS stunts that affected my kid negatively over a 12-year span (and continue to do so today), something’s, anything’s, gotta change. The system needs to be broken down to be rebuilt. Yes, I am an extremist in certain situations–this is one of them.
I made it through most of the thread here, and to a few items that caught my eye:
Gates is as qualified as any to have a significant opinion about our education system. MS employs more than 80K persons directly and paves the way for employment for who knows how many hundreds of thousands as a result. My own experience as a manager there? I’ve had five US-educated problem directs over the past three years whose core issues were poor-to-no work ethic, my-way-or-the-highway communications, organization “techniques” that have–literally–made my brain spin (but I place my hands on my brain and make it stop–just don’t expect me and 15 others to walk to your bulletin board every day and look at 2,000 Post-Its because “you don’t do Excel”), and maturity. When mentoring them through these issues, they are offended that I would have … the Nerve. But I refuse to just sit on my butt watching high-five- and low-six- figure salaries wallow around with these folks. Working with a hundred or so non-US MS employees and partners, I’ve never enountered *any* of these issues. A lot of thought here, and always get to a combination of cultural and educational differences, with some parental influence.
“Marine biologist”? I chuckled. No, no marine biologists, but … Would you settle for a former zoologist? Aviation historian? Former QFC clerk with a minor degree in anthropology? I’ve hired probably a couple dozen folks in my time there, and I don’t recall any who wasn’t from liberal arts or a very pin-pointed science degree. Two of these folks do indeed help me with reorging our group of 45 to 55. Me? I don’t have a degree.
Happy and conscientious voting to all! :->