Education has changed enormously in my life time. You've noticed it, too. What's your opinion?
Sir Humphrey Appleby said, "Our teens are socially aware, personally well-adjusted, but they can't read, write or do sums." Was he right? Which changes have been for the better, and which have taken us backward?
Which teens? What neighborhood do they live in? What socioeconomic stratum do they come from?
Are they too busy preparing videos and Powerpoint presentations for their college-level classes in Macroeconomics and Chinese Language and Culture to bother with McGuffey Readers, 3-paragraph essays, and memorizing the times table up through 25 x 25?
Mr. Appleby left out, "Get off my lawn, whippersnapper" from his comment, but the sentiment was certainly implied.
Ingeresting link, Jewels, with some throught provoking quotes. I didn't read a lot of it: it's quite lengthy. But thanks for posting. Would you care to post a synopsis?)
Did you ever wonder why a teacher is called a pedagogue? Pedagogue means "foot leader". It's because in ancient Greece classes were conducted while walking. Only slaves went to school, to learn a trade, and the slave who taught them was called the pedagogue. The slave school system was used in Rome, then it was adopted India to educate lower classes, while the Brahmin kids were taught at home by tutors. From there it went to Prussia to train soldiers. That is where the only change to the system happened: students were taught while sitting inside instead of walking outside. Eventually the system was adopted for American public schools, and then for English schools. 2500 years with only that one change. Here is an essay explaining what a traditional education used to be like: "The Lost Tools of Learning" http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html
An amazing character from two extraordinary script writers. I can only imagine what they'd make of the current situation in the US. It's so bizarre I'm not sure it could be treated convincingly as fiction.
Well here they used to teach normal and straightforward mathematics. Now they teach this common core mathematics crap. I helped my little cousins with their multiplication once and it was wrong because it was done the right and efficient way. Apparently the children are taught this is the wrong way to do it: Oh yeah, I asked her to use her multiplication tables when trying to solve part the problems. She looked at me blank. So i started teaching them to her. Then her mother informed me the school asked her not to do that. Apparently knowing your multiplication tables is evil now and bad. Some BS because it's wrote learning. It's beyond retarded and needlessly complex for no reason.
Common Core is a set of standards (using that term very loosely), the material sounds like Everyday Math, which is probably the most commonly used today. I looked into this after running into the same problem trying to help my nephew.
This post was edited by Bozette at January 24, 2017 5:52 AM MST
Well the problem was she didn't know how to explain what she had to do. Turns out she isn't allowed long form math. They have to use box or lattice methods. But they don't teach the kids the names of the different ways, so when I helped them I never knew. Why they can't use the best and most efficient method is mind boggling none the less.
I thought the Pass/Fail system (as opposed to evaluating each student's actual progress in learning the subject material) was bad enough in grammar school. It now seems that it's spread all the way to the top of academia in the US. When the top medical schools like Harvard and Johns Hopkins go to that kind of system, for the sake attracting more students (who apparently don't want to be individually graded), it frightens me to think what one may face when needing medical services in another 10 to 15-years. So no, I don't much like what passes for education these days.
OldSchoolTheSKOSlives 