Re: Morality Question

Lucy Kemnitzer ritaxis@xxxxxxxxxx wrote in
<3pj1h1pb1a71emb0l8jesuu5kgdif9t6ai@xxxxxxx>:
> 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.
>

I'd count algebra as part of basic numeracy. Arithmetic isn't much use if
you don't know how to make it do something useful. Basic functional
literacy and numeracy require quite a lot of knowledge.

I'd actually require a somewhat larger essential curriculum than David's
initial suggestion. However the main point is something I agree
wholeheartedly with. That education should not be primarily a case of
ticking off items on somebody else's shopping list but instead should be a
set of core skills with the freedom for the teachers and students to
otherwise go where their interests and talents take them.

At some point after all the core skills are solidly learned then I think
at least one or two subjects should be studied in detail so that everyone
learns how to deal with that sort of learning and has some sort of
specialised knowledge that can be tested to see how their aptitude for
learning works at the high end. What I worry about in the UK is that none
of this is happening. There is so much pressure to run through the precise
requirements of the national curriculum, and to test against it, that the
core skills are skipped through, the rest is learned largely by rote, and
most leave school knowing very little other than how to pass a test and
that education is not much fun. The only way that can be dealt with is by
stripping the base requirements down to an absolute bare minimum and
working from there.

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

I hope not.

--
eric
www.ericjarvis.co.uk
"live fast, die only if strictly necessary"
.

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