----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Herman Rubin) Date: Saturday, April 24, 2004 4:20 pm Subject: Re: [edstat] Why do we transform data????
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >Herman said: > >> Frankly, the public school system does not believe in > >> giving anyone of an IQ above 80 an education appropriate > >> to that. > > >While this is sadly true in too many cases it is not universally > >true. There are many in public education who would welcome the > >opportunity to offer exceptional children a more appropriate > >education. Nor is the problem limited to educationists. Virtually > >all legislation is aimed not at helping all children, but at ensuring > >certain (very) minimum levels of achievment. No Child Left > Behind is > >very clearly designed to force schools to ignore the needs of the > >gifted and very bright in favor of children who are struggling. All > >resources must be targeted to achieving minimum achivement for all > >children. Those children who score well on the required tests are > >mandated to be ignored unless/until the low end are all minimally > >proficient. > > Most in public education would be unable to raise the > level anyhow; their own education and indoctrination > prevents that. Starting a little more than 45 years > ago, there was a major attempt to teach the teachers > of high school mathematics good mathematics. The > results were poor. There was also the attempt to > provide the elementary teachers with the understanding > of the "new math" which had been well tested on children; > again, the results were poor. We don't need most to participate...we have art teachers who teach elementry art, why not elementry math teachers to teach math? Sure it would require a pardigm shift, but it is not unthinkable. > > ................... > > >> Anyone who > >> thinks that children should be educated at the same rate > >> and in the same manner regardless of ability should be > >> considered as an enemy of decent education. > > >Agreed. Unfortunately this makes most of congress and most > serving in > >state legislatures the enemy of decent education. I wish I knew > how to > >change this. > > I can only think of one way. That is to establish a > voluntary voucher program, open to all, funded at a > proportion of the support for the public schools. > Let the marketplace take over, and abolish the idea > that the amount of time spent in school achieving > "credits" is a measure of knowledge. I tend to agree, but the vouchers must be funded at a fraction greater than 1.0. Private schools may charge tuition that is below the per pupil cost of public education, but that tuition does not represent the full cost of those schools. After fundraising and indirect funding from public schools private schools cost more to operate than public schools. (Most folks do not realize that textbooks and other costs of private schools are in fact paid by the public schools. Ironically these costs are used to inflate the apparent cost of running the public schools.) > > >> Why do you > >> think that the present "honors" or "AP" courses are below > >> the level of the old college preparatory program? > > >Ummm, because parents and many others in society have forced the > dumbing>down of eduction. For at least a generation we have had > parents, in > >increasing numbers each year, more concerned with grades than > with education. > >The public schools have just been serving this market. > > The educationists destroyed the more academic schools > starting about 70 years with the claim that all would > learn more if children were with their age group. There > was some opposition at that time to the educationists, > but they managed to get it through as "the only experts", > and brainwash the public in the process. I wonder if this wasn't all facilitated by the age of assembly lines. There is no denying that grouping children by age makes education financially more efficient. However children are cleary not widgets and so financial efficiency is the wrong criteria for determining educational appropriateness. Unfortunately in the age of tax resistance cost efficiency is the only story legislators and the public seem to care about. Michael > > If parents would demand that schools crack down it would happen. > Instead they complain that Jimmy or Jane has too much homework and > that the homework is interfering with the kid's extra curricular > activities!? Watch the news, the "t > >oo much homework story" is running at least once/year. > > >Until parental attitudes change the schools are powerless. > > >Michael > > > > -- > This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views > are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. > Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: > (765)494-0558 > . > . **************************************************** Michael Granaas [EMAIL PROTECTED] Assoc. Prof. Phone: 605 677 5295 Dept. of Psychology FAX: 605 677 3195 University of South Dakota 414 E. Clark St. Vermillion, SD 57069 ***************************************************** > ================================================================= > Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the > problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: > . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . > ================================================================= > . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
