Dear Bill, Have you seen the film, "Waiting for Superman". I haven't but I will definitely go if it comes to our part of Australia. Here are some references:
http://www.waitingforsuperman.com http://film.waitingforsuperman.com/videos http://film.waitingforsuperman.com/reviews Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia On 2011/03/23, at 11:45 , Bill Hooper wrote: > I recently participated in a survey on educational needs in the US. I stated > my opinion that teaching the SI metric system should be an important > educational goal. > > I received a reply following the survey and was not happy with the results > they reported. All the ideas that were "summarized" were generalities and > topics that were completely devoid of content. (The vagueness of the > generalities are also a failing of the report, but that is not my main > thought here.) Here is my reply. (The instructions at the end of the report > directed that I send my reply to the White House, which I did.) > > The excerpt below includes a brief quote from the report summarizing the > results and then my reply. > > > Melody Barnes, Director of the Domestic Policy Council wrote: >> >> "Recently, through the White House’s Advise the Advisor program, I asked for >> your ideas on how all Americans can help our students succeed in the 21st >> century. >> >> "Your response was tremendous! Thousands of you ... sent us ideas about our >> education system. ... We ... created a summary of what we learned. Take a >> look:" ETC. > > To which I replied: > > I took a look and I was dismayed to find a total absence of anything > regarding CONTENT. Yes, there are a lot of worthy general ideas, but they are > all too often such vague generalities that they can be interpreted to mean > almost anything (or nothing). > > There are elements of CONTENT in our educational system that MUST be > addressed if our educational system is truly to meet the needs of the 21st > century. > > One particular one (which I had offered to Ms. Barnes's survey) is the > teaching of the SI metric system, thoroughly, correctly and probably > exclusively. The rest of the world (96% by population) uses metric in > everything they do, in all trade, commerce, design and manufacturing, etc. > Our students are not prepared for the 21st century if they have not > thoroughly learned the SI metric system and how to use it (and, importantly, > NOT just busy-work converting metric values into Ye Olde English values and > the reverse). > > There are other matters of CONTENT that need to be addressed as well, but I > believe the metric system is one of the most important. > > Regards, > William Hooper > Pat Naughtin LCAMS Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
