Re: Why Schools Don't Educate

On Mon, 06 Mar 2006 23:57:56 +0000, Ian <ian@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Apart from more liberal realtions and lots of
computers I see a lot more in common than in difference compared with when
I went to school in the 60s and 70s.

I might agree on the whole, but subject matter [content] has changed,
and so has attitude. More miracles are expected. I don't mind the
change of content so long as it is in preparation for what is to come,
which itself may differ from past expectations. Not mighty changes,
but important none the less; probability is more stressed now [even in
very early years when they still don't know how to count without using
their fingers], calculus was for the "egg-heads", but it was then
studied at a university level, not just a pablum course, when it was
done as an "extra". There was a surge of "new math" until it was
discovered that didn't work either, and in fact made it far worse for
those students already having problems. A 5-year high school
curriculum became 4-years here by the simple method of crushing the
last two years into one [and reducing depth and content.] Courses
were streamed/destreamed [We take absolutely anyone with a pulse/ We
take only those who can handle it after all]... Yes, many changes
over the years. Math is still math, of course. But try to convince
them of that.

.

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