Melinda Gates, like her husband Bill, believes that the Gates Foundation has the answers for the problems of American education.
She has never taught. She never attended a public school. Neither did Bill. Their children do not attend public schools.
What is the source of their certainty? They are very rich, probably the richest people in the world (Carlos Slim of Mexico might be richer). They are so rich that they think they know what is best for everyone’s children.
Here are some questions that the Gates Foundation should answer:
Does the Lakeside Academy in Seattle use the Gates-funded Common Core standards?
Does it test all students every year with standardized tests?
Does it use either PARCC or SBAC?
Does it evaluate its teachers by the test scores of their students?
Just wondering.
Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé 
Jon Awbrey
August 12, 2016 at 11:50
I am thinking there’s a subcategory of the Dunning–Kruger Syndrome that should be dubbed the Bill & Melinda Effect.
Lloyd Lofthouse
August 12, 2016 at 11:59
Now I’m going to have to find out what the Dunning-Kruger Syndrome means.
stiegem
August 12, 2016 at 16:25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Just to assist a little. But there are many more (including a Huffington Post article) that explain the “effect”.
It’s basically about incompetent people assessing.
Gates likes to “assess” everything. I think he thinks he’s the most brilliant human being who has ever lived. Kind of like “God’s gift to the world” (unless you’re an atheist).
Hey, look at Joel Herman’s comment on Diane’s blog.
Those are the questions to ask Bill!
Lloyd Lofthouse
August 12, 2016 at 17:10
Sounds like these billionaires are more alike then they are different. I’m thinking of Donald Trump, but we don’t know if he is really a billionaire. He might only be worth a few hundred million give or take. The Donald’s mouth can’t stop and he reveals what the other billionaires think like. The Donald is a wide open window into an opaque world of psychopaths, manipulates and liars. It must be shocking to Bill that he is on display through Donald.
stiegem
August 12, 2016 at 21:14
http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Did-We-Invent-the-Trum-by-Robert-De-Filippis-Complic
The Power of Language – written or spoken.
Jon Awbrey
August 13, 2016 at 08:20
The BAME strain of the DK syndrome is characterized by “Too Rich To Know How Little You Know” (about a specific subject area). Excess wealth acts as a kind of information insulator for Some People.
Lloyd Lofthouse
August 13, 2016 at 09:01
I think Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara Tuchman wrote about how power corrupts in “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam”
https://www.amazon.com/March-Folly-Troy-Vietnam/dp/0345308239
A perfect example supporting what Lord Acton said in the 18th century: “Power Corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, and the more money one has, the more power they have and that causes them to become more corrupt in their twisted thinking and actions.
Bill Gates is worth more than the GDP of many nations and that by feat makes him a leader and when a leader allows his thinking to become corrupt due to the power he holds, that creates an open door to folly. Money Nation reports that Bill Gates is worth more money than 38 countries. To my thinking that means Gates is the leader of a country and his country is called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and he is waging his wars around the world with money and not bullets, yet.
I don’t think there is much difference between Donald Trump and the other oligarchs who stay out of the spotlight and manage to keep their mouths shut. In fact, I think Trump is doing the rest of us a service by showing us what his class really thinks.
Jon Awbrey
August 13, 2016 at 09:08
Any corporation beyond a certain size, certainly any transnational corporation, acts as a nation unto itself, a foreign interest that serves itself before it even thinks of how its agenda will impact real people.
Lloyd Lofthouse
August 13, 2016 at 09:18
The difference between legitimate democracies/republics is that corporations are all dictatorships ruled ruthlessly by an oligarch and/or CEO, who is paid to produce one thing, profits at any cost even if it means killing your customers like big tobacco, big oil and Ford motor corporation with its car, the Pinto and/or driving your employees into poverty like the Walton family does with its Walmart stores. Corporation are not guided by a Constitution designed to protect the people from tyranny like the U.S. govenrment is. For instance, the 1st Amendment does not protect a corporate employee from getting fired because they criticized their boss.
Jon Awbrey
August 13, 2016 at 09:38
Yes, corporate rule is fundamentally opposed to democratic rule. Funny how so few grasp that basic fact. Certainly our Founders learned it the hard way.
Lloyd Lofthouse
August 13, 2016 at 09:52
It takes a lot of suffering and loss for enough people to wake up, get angry enough and then act. I don’t think we are there yet, and that point might not be reached during our lifetimes.