Re: Morality Question

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 20:24:55 +0100, Eric Jarvis <web@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
seems to have said:

>Brian M. Scott b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote in
><t4r1s9ekya3s.14b7kesk2qi5l.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>:
>> On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:20:29 -0500, David Friedman
>> <ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>> <news:ddfr-026F48.08202927082005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
>> rec.arts.sf.composition:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> > In my case, as it happens, the short list of things every
>> > person should know at the end of schooling is very
>> > short--I'm not sure I can think of anything that
>> > qualifies other than how to read, although one can make a
>> > case for simple arithmetic. Holmes, after all, managed
>> > quite well without worrying about whether the earth went
>> > round the sun or vice versa. As did Leonardo.
>>
>> You may wish to live your life surrounded and governed by
>> ignoramuses; I don't care for the idea. (Of course, the
>> idea that schooling should -- or even does now -- involve
>> only things that everyone should know at the end of it is
>> absurd to begin with.)
>>
>
>I think you may be missing the point. The problem David is addressing is
>the standardisation of education. He is suggesting that the only thing
>that needs to be a standardised requirement is literacy and possibly basic
>numeracy. The rest should be as much as possible but not standardised,
>instead it should be a matter of teachers and pupils making the most of
>their talents and interests in order to learn as effectively as they can
>in the time available.
>
>It isn't that it is all that anyone really needs to learn, it is all that
>everyone should be required to learn, all the rest should be optional.


THe nice fellow is a cook for the University. The University is its
own unemployment insurer, and for some reason they think it is in
their best interest to minimize the amount of unemployment they pay.
So when the kitchen shuts down for two-three weeks at the end of the
summer conference period they have classes for the kitchen help.
Apparently yesterday they were teaching ratios and a bit of basic
basic algebra. Many of the workers -- most of whom come from one of
two nearby countries where the standards for education are about as
David describes -- had a very hard time with simple, practical
applications. This could easily have repercussions for the quality
and safety of food and for the economics of the operation.

Everybody needs algebra, and they need it in seventh grade, while they
are developmentally ready for it.

Crap. Sucked in again. GUess I have to killfile the thread.

Lucy Kemnitzer, still
chapter five is up:
http://www.baymoon.com/~ritaxis/donor/donorweb/donorindex
.