Montessori School?
I'm all for it. It's often said that the best way to learn something is to teach someone else, and it's a good idea - I think - to let older kids teach younger ones, which is a Montessori principle. That said, I don't think my son will be going to one. The nearest one is a good 20 minutes further away than the public school, and of course there is the expense. The final, most interesting point, is this: when a boy goes to any kind of a school where lots of attention is paid to each kid, he may well do poorly when moving to a public school and has to deal with becoming a cog in the machine rather than an individual. This is from personal experience, as I went to a Montessori-like school up until 4th grade, hated public school ever afterwards, and dropped out in the tenth grade :) (Now I have a couple of college degrees, though!)
Are pedophiles treated unfairly?
First off, no, I'm not comparing pedophilia to homosexuality. This isn't any attempt to gay-bash. Now, let me define pedophile for this question: a pedophile being someone who is innately attracted to children. Always felt that way their whole lives, never had a choice. I'm talking about the feelings alone, NOT someone who has or actively seeks to abuse children; someone who understands that it's wrong to pursue sexual contact with children under the age of consent. Are they ridiculed unfairly by society? Would you feel sympathetic for such a person? It seems that in today's society if a pedophile like this were to come out and seek help for his feelings, he would still face a great deal of ridicule. You can be sure if it was made public every parent in the neighborhood would be telling their children to avoid this person. They too, would probably eliminate or minimize their own contact with this person. If this person did decide to seek help, treatments are limited and generally ineffective. This could partly be due to the fact that society is quick to criminalize the orientation and sees it as something that needs to be "contained" and not "treated." Is it fair that his person will never be able to experience a sexual relationship because of how they were born? Should we as a society do more to treat pedophiles instead of contain them? Bit of a taboo question I'm sure, but let me hear your thoughts.
Why are conservatives so fact averse?
I agree with you. There are many good articles, but I'll link to one I read recently on Wikipedia. RWA, a psychological defect or weakness?
Are IIT students smarter than MIT students?
This question is poorly worded (smartness as measured by what? High performance as employee? financial success? achievements that push the envelope of research?) but I'll take a shot at answering it. As others above have mentioned, I have seen no meaningful difference in IQ between MIT and IIT-calibre students. However, the two institutions provide completely different experiences, resulting in markedly different career paths. Here are some ways in which the two differ:Recruitment. MIT recruits academically strong people with a passion for science/engineering. It particularly values teamwork skills, passion for learning and aptitude for research. IIT on the other hand has a much more objective admissions system based on on a nationwide Joint Entrance Examination. Candidate choices of majors are heavily circumscribed by how they perform in this exam.Post-graduation goals. Although just over half of MIT students get jobs in industry, a significant number continue in academia (about 40%). The curriculum is structured to prepare you for fundamental research and deep thinking in a field. Undergraduate research opportunities abound, and give you a ton of practical skills. Like most of my peers, I took a job after graduation, but there was a subtle stigma of 'selling out' associated with it - continuing in research certainly was seen as more prestigious. Contrast this to IIT, where all but the most academically motivated take up jobs or do an MBA at elite management institutes in India.Well-roundedness of experience. MIT leaves you plenty of room to explore different academic fields of interest to you. For reasons mentioned above, the IIT experience and curriculum often leads you to concentrate on a major that may not even be your top choice. MIT has genuinely talented faculty even in fields seen as 'far out' for an engineering school, like music/theater arts or literature. IIT is much more strongly engineering-oriented. On-campus clubs and sports at MIT also give students a chance to develop their leadership skills. IIT also has its counterparts but student involvement averaged across the student body tends to be a bit lower due to academic pressure. Finally, MIT's student body is highly diverse (45-50% women, 8-10% international students etc); the student body at a typical IIT is heavily male-oriented. Interacting with such a diverse student body taught me a lot of valuable soft skills.