A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: The self-anointed expertise of Mr. and Mrs. Gates.

[phantom power]

For most of us, when we're wrong, our radius of damage is pretty limited. But when you're a billionaire, you can turn your wrong-ness into national policy, ruin an entire education system, declare victory, and pat yourself on the back.

"You're welcome!"

Bill Gates is the leader of education philanthropy in the United States, pouring a few billion dollars over more than a decade to promote school reforms that he has championed. They include the Common Core State Standards, a small-schools initiative in New York City that he abandoned after deciding it wasn’t working, and controversial new teacher evaluation systems that use student standardized test scores to determine the “effectiveness” of educators. Such philanthropy has sparked a debate about whether American democracy is well-served by wealthy people who pour part of their fortunes into their pet projects — regardless of whether they are grounded in research — to such a degree that public policy and funding follow.

Bill and his wife Melinda Gates recently sat down with PBS journalist Gwen Ifill at the U.S. Education Learning Forum to discuss the reforms they support. This post, by Carol Burris, the executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education Fund, looks at what they said and explains what it actually means. Burris retired in June as an award-winning principal at a New York high school, and she is the author of numerous articles, books and blog posts (including on The Answer Sheet) about the botched school reform efforts in her state.

...

What was far more interesting than his speech, however, was the couple’s conversation with Ifill, which you can watch here or below.

From this interview, three things seem clear.

1) Bill and Melinda Gates do not understand teaching and learning, yet they comfortably assume an air of expertise.

2) They view victory as the implementation of their reforms and while they claim to be all about the metrics, they only select examples that suit their purpose.

3) The first couple of reform neither appreciate nor respect the role of democracy plays in the governance public schools.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/10/19/what-are-bill-and-melinda-gates-talking-about/

[Maedhros]

1. It's a result of Americans' worship of capitalist success.

If one can steal another's work on a disk operating system and parlay it into a multi-billion-dollar software company, then one must therefore have superior ideas in every arena.

It's our breathless search to find a John Galt to lavish with praise.

[MurrayDelph]

2. It's a fairly-common conceit

that many people have, believing that having been through school, it makes them an expert of teaching.

(Says the retired schoolteacher).

[Codeine]

5. See any meeting between parents and a teacher.

Teachers are amazing -- I'd go crazy trying to deal with parents second-guessing me all day.

[chervilant]

3. Bill and Melinda Gates

should NOT be allowed to propose, let alone implement, ANY education "reforms." These two have done more to destroy public education than anyone else--well, other than Michelle Rhee. Our children deserve better.

[Paula Sims]

4. I was at a lecture once and it was pointed out that Gates wants the Nobel

that's why he's involved with all this philanthropy.

The lecture I attended was very insightful. I can't remember who gave it (I WANT to say it was the author of a book similar to Pirates of Silicon Valley but I'm not sure) but the talk was very "balanced" to show the real Gates and the real Jobs.

The author said that when you worked for Apple, you were usually in one of two relationships with Jobs -- either being courted or being fired. However, about Gates, he asked the following question: What does the richest man in America, that can buy ANYTHING, want? Something he can't buy -- the Nobel prize.

THAT made sense. I always hated Gates for his non-innovation: he's a sales man and stole/bought into his position. He never created anything. This is his validation that yes, he is a good guy.

Never bought it.

[phantom power]

6. I've come to respect him as a kind of business genius.

From a technology perspective, he's the worst thing that ever happened to computing, having applied his formidable business talent to the project of dominating the computing world with the DOS/Windows techno-hellscape.

[milestogo]

10. Marketing Genius

[hunter]

7. Ask teachers what they need.

Don't tell them how to do their job.

Furthermore, the needs of every community will be different.

I don't think Bill Gates can ever buy his way out of the hell he's created. The more money he gives away with strings attached the deeper he digs himself in.

[kwassa]

8. The rich man's fallacy.

Because he is very successful at one thing, he has deep wisdom about an unrelated thing.

Not true, but many believe it.

Henry Ford believed he could charter a ship, sail to Europe, and stop the first World War. He was ignored.

Eli Broad is another billionaire who has been even more destructive to education than Gates. Similar false philosophy that believes education issues are primarily business management problems. Education is little like business.

[Logical]

9. The gates have done a lot of good, but not in this area. Nt