1) if (primary & secondary) schools provide what the more vocal parents claim they want, is this not what they are supposed to do?
2) If the professional educators who design, select & deliver curriculum do not/cannot explain to said parents the implications of what the parents claim to want, where should we look for improvement in the 'product'?
3) The No Child Left Behind thing is definitely misguided or worse. The frustration from which it was born remains real, however poorly expressed and misdirected. The racism and elitism inherant in its execution may be structurally embedded.
4) I fully agree, & can add my own horror stories, of the sorry state of education in math. My own opinion, IMHO, is that neither the curriculum developers and/or those delivering said curriculum seriously understand what 'math' constitutes. If not this broad generalization, then I submit these good folks don't understand how to communicate 'math.' As a non-math major & professional, I have to rely upon Devlin's description (The Math Gene), which is consistent with my observations of weak students in a local Child Care center & my business stats students.
5) I _think_ that what we call 'gifted' students include those who manage to understand 'math' because/in spite of their early education. If we were to teach math differently, many more students would get it, and much of the hair-pulling experiences college instructors have would go away.
Enough soap box for today. Jay
[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.
Frankly, the public school system does not believe in giving anyone of an IQ above 80 an education appropriate
to that. One can get something done (sometimes) for highly gifted, but the educationists will not accept
anything under 130 as even being gifted.
There is no money in providing an education for anyone who is bright. Put some money into it and there will be plenty of school districts ready to provide education to high end kids. But like I said, all the money is for low end kids. All the laws provide for the education of low end kids. There is no money and there are no laws intended to serve the bright. Put some money into programs targeting the bright and gifted kids and programs will appear almost instantly.
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.
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. 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 "too much homework story" is running at least once/year.
Until parental attitudes change the schools are powerless.
Michael
**************************************************** 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/ . =================================================================
-- Jay Warner Principal Scientist Warner Consulting, Inc. 4444 North Green Bay Road Racine, WI 53404-1216 USA
Ph: (262) 634-9100 FAX: (262) 681-1133 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.a2q.com
The A2Q Method (tm) -- What do you want to improve today?
. . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
