In theory, schooling is meant to benefit children in later life. In making sure that they understand and use the metric system, you need to be aware that there is considerable peer pressure to use customary units. You need to prepare your children for both.
You need first of all to consider what exams they are going to sit. Many school text books are tuned to specific exams - they cover what is in the syllabus and little else. If their exams have a large chunk of work on how to manipulate FFU, then you need to ensure that they can do it, otherwise they will not get the grades needed to go on to college. You will probably find that what is taught at school, and hence what appears in text books, is determined at State level, though, in many places, private exam boards are permitted. You could, if you can afford it, look at sending them to an International School where the syllabus is often oriented towards a European environment rather than a US environment. The qualification to look for a the "International Baccalaureate", a qualification that is accepted world-wide. As such, teaching them the metric system at home must be seen as being in addition to their formal school work, not instead of it. Approaches worth taking are to ensure that any rulers or tape measures that you have at home are metric-only. Likewise, if you have a scale-pan in the kitchen, then get one that has metric units only and teach them weighing on that. This might involve buying a beam-balance type scale-pan rather than a dial-type as dial-types often have dual units whereas with a beam balance, you can put the pounds and ounce weights in a drawer. Keep a chart of their height and weight which they can help update. This chart should only record metric units. However don't push things too hard otherwise they might reject everything - rather just let them see you using metric units and they will copy you. -----Original Message----- From: USMA <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Pierre Abbat Sent: 02 August 2021 10:52 To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA 1763] What can we do so that children will grow up thinking in metric? I'm thinking that the tests that schoolchildren take should be amended to not require knowledge of feet, pounds, and the like. Is there a nationwide standard that determines which measuring units are taught in public schools? In private schools? I know that homeschooling regulations differ from one state to another. In some states students are required to be tested; in others they aren't. Do the tests require knowledge of measuring units? Who decides what units are put in textbooks? Pierre -- Judaism uses a lunisolar calendar; Islam uses a solely lunar calendar. _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
