OK, let's bring it back full circle: The context was maths education - not "Should the US teach math?" (to which every layperson can have an opinion), but "How should the US (California) teach math to high schoolers?"
That's as complex of a question as "How should the US regulate Bitcoin (if it were to)". And while it's true that laypeople do have lots and lots of opinions on financial regulations, if there's one thing that HackerNews can agree on is that most lay opinions on financial regulations are not rigorous or serious, and come with unexpected side effects and consequences. (Whether it's taxing billionaires on stock grants or restricting crypto).
So in that sense I do still this requires people with expertise. And gifted math nerds (which I were) that benefited from a dramatically accellerated program have as much knowledge about the subject as a stereotypical redneck saying "We don't need math out on the tobacco farm".
Yes, many policies have unexpected consequences. The question is whether the experts are doing better at predicting them. The most sweeping educational policy in my lifetime, No Child Left Behind, passed with large bipartisan support, only to be abandoned 15 years later for failing to achieve its goals. I cannot find any expert opinion from the time that accurately anticipated these unintended consequences. If experts are much better than the general public at predicting the effects of policy, I would expect to see education experts on the record predicting the ultimate effects of the policy.
> And gifted math nerds (which I were) that benefited from a dramatically accellerated program have as much knowledge about the subject as a stereotypical redneck saying "We don't need math out on the tobacco farm".
I think the "nerds" would know enough to understand that they benefitted from the accelerated program and would have not achieved as much if it were taken away.
That's as complex of a question as "How should the US regulate Bitcoin (if it were to)". And while it's true that laypeople do have lots and lots of opinions on financial regulations, if there's one thing that HackerNews can agree on is that most lay opinions on financial regulations are not rigorous or serious, and come with unexpected side effects and consequences. (Whether it's taxing billionaires on stock grants or restricting crypto).
So in that sense I do still this requires people with expertise. And gifted math nerds (which I were) that benefited from a dramatically accellerated program have as much knowledge about the subject as a stereotypical redneck saying "We don't need math out on the tobacco farm".