I remember history as being about wars, Kings and Queens. Measures did not come in to it. I also remember getting 3/10 for homework all the time and having the dreaded 'see me' written at the bottom! I did not like History! I realise we would not agree on this one John, as we've spoken about it before - but I did imply it was my opinion. I understand what you say about US conversions creating the dislike - I've seen examples of usage in UK school material and it treats 'either side of the equation' equally - ie not the silly multiple scale of decimal pointage I think you're referring to!
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2009 10:55:41 -0700 From: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:45948] Re: teaching customary units To: [email protected] How about in English and/or history classes? Conversions are the work of the Devil, especially as they are taught here. The conversions between Customary and metric seem to be chosen to make students dislike the metric system. I would prefer math time to be spent teaching them to measure and use metric properly. History is the proper place for archaic units, and a lot of interconversion needn't be taught at all; the point is to get people to quit using them. --- On Tue, 10/6/09, Stephen Humphreys <[email protected]> wrote: From: Stephen Humphreys <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:45942] Re: teaching customary units To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 4:06 PM I would advocate making science classes metric only - however I would support having imperial in Maths and English. Don't forget that measures do make up part of the language and denying a new generation while the 'one above' converses freely using a mix of measures would leave kids confused. Nothing pro-imperial or anything - just common sense because kids would have many questions unanswered by school. I suspect that is the reason why imperial made a return to the curriculum in the UK from the 90's (when I was at school in the 80's I can't remember being taught any imperial, although I can imagine teachers 'spoke it' so to speak). From: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:45941] Re: teaching customary units Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 12:14:29 -0400 To: [email protected] On Oct 5 , at 1:20 PM, Robert H. Bushnell wrote: NCTM should set the following policy: .... Conversion from inch-pound units to metric units may be used as examples in algebra. Bob, I wouldn't even recommend it there. Regards, Bill Hooper Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA ========================== SImplification Begins With SI. ========================== Have more than one Hotmail account? Link them together to easily access both. _________________________________________________________________ View your other email accounts from your Hotmail inbox. Add them now. http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/167688463/direct/01/
