Skeeter, I agree that this problem seems too advanced for the average 6th grader to really understand. if it has to be literally drilled into a kid's head, is s/he really understanding the concepts? My other point is simply what else is expected to be taught in middle school or high school? I've never heard of a public school that offered a math class beyond first level calculus. None of the schools in my area even offer that - no money to put on a class that only a tiny handful of kids would take. Very few career paths require the kind of math you took in college - I started out as a physics major and decided that wasn't the lifestyle I was looking for. I ended up with a degree in accounting, which is a pretty good fit. But the only math I need is basic arithmetic and a little basic algebra once in a while.
No Child Left Behind Testing
by skeeter1 36 Replies latest social family
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skeeter1
Where will they go beyond? Good question for the select few that make it to this level. If they are engineers, we will have space flight and trips to Jupiter.
But for the most part, classical math education needs to be rethought. Most people don't need this higher level of math. I've forgotten almost everything I learned because I don't use it. I remember the basics behind all the calculus and beyond, but ask me to explain something (like Fisher's theorem) and I couldn't do it on the fly.
What people need is to know financial/budgeting/management & report analysis type math. Congressmen need to learn that Revenues less Expenditures should be a positive, surplus number or zero, rarely a negative. Perhaps the standardized tests should start with Congress. They obviously don't know basic math.
I, too, have an accounting degree. I didn't want to calculate people's death rates, be limited in my employment, and liked the mixture of law with math. But, I should have went into computer programming. I could kick myself.
Skeeter
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finally awake
Now there's a concept - teach kids things they actually need to know! I think I got one semester of "consumer education" in high school, and 2 years of home economics in middle school. I learned the basics of cooking, sewing clothing, embroidery, and how to balance a checkbook. Not really enough time to cover everything a person needs to know to handle their finances, run a home, and make smart financial decisions. I might have been better off taking a class in retirement planning than learning how to install a zipper in a dress.
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skeeter1
What EVERY kid needs to know as their standardized test before leaving school:
1) Employment skills. How to find a job, write a resume, fill out a job application, job interview skills, Myers-Briggs career/personality match, etc.
One dude I know needs a job. He's 21. He wrote that he had no transportation on his job application because he didn't have a car. He forgot that his mom would drive him to work until he could buy a car. Obviously, all that rogue memorization of overly complicated math skills hindered his ability to think.
2) Financal skills. How to write a check, balance a checkbook, log ATMs, Uniform Commercial Code law (checks/banking laws), loans, interest rates, amortization schedules, missed payments, bankruptcy basics, investing, retirement planning, read the stock page, buy/sell stocks, bond markets, global markets, commodities (buy lithium, by the way).
3) Family skills. Requirements of marraige licenses, care of children (including child support), divorce, alimony (did you know that Florida is going to put a bill in Tallahassee banning lifetime alimony....that's going to have some social changes),
4) Court/legal areas. DUIs, contracts, Bill of Rights, torts, etc.
5) Medical skills. First aid, CPR, healthy living, exercise, STDs, social issues of teen pregnancy, etc.
.....
Reminds me of a song, "When I think back to all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all."
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kurtbethel
I remember looking over my son's math homework over 10 years ago. This is in California. They had what I called "feelgood" math. I typical question would be something like this:
Henry had 7 chickens and 3 of them escaped the pen. How do you feel about that?
I am not kidding. California had this goofy CLAS test that was the rage back in the day. It was a fad that did nothing to improve anything. It came and went, but not after being a massive rathole for money to drain into.
If you want to understand why American education is such a bust, then I suggest you read this free ebook.
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jamiebowers
Skeeter, I was in the gifted class, and geometry wasn't taught until the 10th grade. I am 48 years old and attended a public school in rural western PA.
I assisted with proficiency testing in a first grade class in an Ohio school during the 1997-1998 school year. There were two questions on the test that none of the teachers could answer. I don't remember what the first one was, but the second one was as follows:
When portraying the colors of the leaves during autumn, what art supplies would be the best to use?
- crayons
- markers
- colored pencils
- paints
I still haven't figured that one out. Another question on the test for first graders was to label Ohio and all of its border states on a blank US map. And you're correct; teachers now teach in preparation for the proficiency tests, because their jobs are at stake. It's a shame.
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zeb
and about as relevant to life as half the crap we were hammered with.
A bench 32" x 40" that is not a bench it is a strange shaped small table top.
We had to do '3rd angle projection' in Technical drawing at high school. I spent a life time in the welding fabrication trade and never once saw any construction drawing in'3rd angle projection'.