> You can't go back 10 or 20 or 30 years later and expect > to do well on any of these tests.
Indeed, and I think that was the point. Out of all his experience as an adult outside of school, he never had to use any of those skills so they got rusty or were lost to time. If he never had to use those skills, even with all of the responsibilities he has, what's the point of teaching them in the first place? As a "veteran" programmer, one of the things I tell newer developers is to review the tag/function/method reference from time to time. Not to memorize the whole thing, or to know every argument to every function, but just to be aware of what is available. If you have a specific problem to solve, you can go back to the reference for the details later, just be aware that it's there. One of the favorite questions in math classes (at least for me) was "what are we going to use this for later in life?" The teachers would see this as a smart-ass comment and give a smart-ass response like, "you need it to pass the test at the end of the semester." I don't think I ever once got an actual example of a practical application of much of what we were being taught. They focused so much on theory and specifics that they skipped over practical application entirely (more-so with math, but in other areas as well). My belief is that if schools toned down the theory and specifics and focused more on real life examples of problems and solutions then we'd be better off. Let the kids know what tools are available to them and show them how to apply those tools to real problems they will face in life. Rather than test on solving quadratic equations, test on which equations or problem-solving techniques should be used in which situations. If they ever have a need to use any of those tools later on, references are readily available. -Justin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:344284 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
