On Education

Pros: What the Faculty (as in "the body of teachers and administrators at a school") of any school should be and look like: open-minded, eager to communicate and interact with other like-minded and like-employed (if you may) people, in touch with the current situation of the world. True, worried about financing research, too fundamentally oriented sometimes, definitely too elitist at times: Crooked Timber

Cons: And I will not (following the personal rule of NO RANTINGS on the blog) comment on the fact that I could not find a similar blog from Romania, in order to post the "ray of hope".
Just a few things (personal observations on the education system):
- decrease in the quality of the studies, due to lack of interest, lack of money, flawed quantifiers
- lack of interest of both parties (teachers and students)
- teachers who live just out of a 300$ dollars wage are either protesting, or finding "alternative means of financing", but, in all cases, lacking interest, passion and drive for change
- students are more and more focused on finding a job in the first years of their formal education, therefore their lack of interest is more than obvious
- research is quantified in the number of papers one writes, not in the real impact of those papers, hence the whole industry of creating and promoting journals on applicative science that no business person reads or applies in "real life"
- the paradox of simultaneous lacking and having too much funds (budget versus European)
- the universities are financially autonomous, therefore, they should find more students in order to be able to finance their daily activities. Also note the fact that the "price of studies" is market-driven, the market is international, and the demand is elastic. At the same time, an increase in the number of students causes two things: 1. a decrease in the quality of the students and 2. an increase in the number of needed teachers. The latter causes a decrease in the quality of the studies.
- the huge difference in financing between all education under university level and the universities

In the end, is it just a question of money?
Update: Still on the Con side: At least here (in Ro) Einstein's adage "It is a miracle that imagination survives formal education.” is alive and kicking.