Re: the weight aginst evol

On 2006-05-14 20:19:08 +1000, "Robert J. Kolker" <nowhere@xxxxxxxxxxx> said:

Algis Kuliukas wrote:



Rather than citing jokes about sucking lemons, why not cite some
empiricle measure? I do not know how good the general education system
is in the US compared to the rest of the world, but I suspect it is
better than most.

In the international math olympiads, our students do not do that well. Our overall skill in math is third world.

When I was a kid, a long time ago, I had to teach myself calculus in the eighth grade. There was no provision made for the talented. There was a brief revival in math education in the U.S. after Sputnik. If you recall those Rooskie bulyocks beat us into orbit. Why? Because they taught mathematics and physics better in the Soviet Union than in the U.S.. There were a few years of breast beating but soon enough things went back to normal, which is to say mediocre.

You said you wanted to shut down public schools in the US. Yet in the example above, you refer to the education system of the Soviet Union, which could not have been much more publicly-owned or state-controlled. You also mention the German gymnasia and the Écoles Polytechniques, which are publicly owned.

I feel I'm missing something here. Is your argument that public *schools* should be shut down so that the whole public education system can be revamped, or that public *education* itself is undesirable?
--
Peter Barber

.

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