[GreenTiger]

This is bad news. Why does the NEA argure to keep the status quo. This is sickening and freightening news.

[herbie]

I'm sure = should be known by everyone long before school age. Try to give one of your kids a slice of cake that's one c***hair larger than the other kid's....
I also used to get incredibly mad how every kid seemed to stall on decimals. They already know decimals: they've been using MONEY since they were little. Then I run into ones like I did on Saturday, looked like they were about Grade 6:
How much to use the computer?
Three bucks for half an hour.
How much to use it for a whole hour?
(doh!) Six dollars.
How much if both of us use a computer for an hour?
(nnn-duh!) Twelve dollars.
Reached in his pocket... pulls out a freaking fifty.
I'm gonna ask Mom if we have enough. Bye

[Proculation]

It reminds me of the great educational reform we have in Quebec since about 10 years. Now, the kids are no longer tested for knowledge but for "transversal competences". So it's not a problem if you can't add 2 + 2. The goal is that you understand what adding two things mean. Something like that.. Nobody really understands what "transversal competence" mean. We just know that we are createing a generation of clueless youth who all fail when they begin college.

[Brenda]

Which means we have a good reason to change that system too, and in the long run, no business will be doing a good job anymore, because people are too freaking stupid...

Why would we be afraid of global warming, if we manage to fuck ourselves up WAY faster than Mother Nature will?

[QBall]

Proculation Proculation:

It reminds me of the great educational reform we have in Quebec since about 10 years. Now, the kids are no longer tested for knowledge but for "transversal competences". So it's not a problem if you can't add 2 + 2. The goal is that you understand what adding two things mean. Something like that.. Nobody really understands what "transversal competence" mean. We just know that we are createing a generation of clueless youth who all fail when they begin college.

I had transversal competence once. Ointment cleared that right up.

[andyt]

QBall QBall:

I had transversal competence once. Ointment cleared that right up.

So you're saying you're back to having longitudinal incompetence now? Or maybe longitudinal incontinence?

[bootlegga]

Lemmy Lemmy:

This is easily explained:

kids = lazy

[2Cdo]

We have the same problem in Canada. Take away a childs calculator and they can't do simple math.

[Thanos]

Really doesn't matter anyway. Everyone knows that the correct answer to any question is always 'Pepsi'. [/Simpsons]

[wildrosegirl]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

The article says the concept of '=' comes in middle school? (Junior High to us)

I'm pretty sure I was using the '=' in the second grade. And there was no confusion.

martin14 martin14:

The rush to the bottom continues....

+1. Sad, but true.

First in the classroom I volunteered in for several years. Interestingly, those 5 year olds had no problem grasping the concept of any of the basic math symbols (in Grade 1, it's +, -, and the ever confusing = )

[Zipperfish]

2Cdo 2Cdo:

We have the same problem in Canada. Take away a childs calculator and they can't do simple math.

French immersion doesn't help. My brother (in Montreal) pulled his kids out, becasue they sucked at everything except French. I said "Well, maybe that's because they got your genes and you're a fucking retard." And that's why we never talk.

No, seriously, math is near the bottom of the totem pole, near physical fitness. I think it's because boys like doing those things.

My seven-year old knows basic algebra already (I'm a scientist/engineer and his mother's a math grad). He got a "meeting expectations" in Grade 1 math, despite the fact that he would finish his exercises in a couple of minutes flat then go over and help the Grade 2's with their math. The teacher recognized this but said that she didn't like handing out "Exceeding expectations" because it made the other parents upset.

I'm not bitter. School is a social-conditioning exercise to turn you into a functioning, citizen. That's not necessarily a bad thing for overall social cohesion.

As far as actually learning things, I think the parent's have to take responsibility for that.

[2Cdo]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

2Cdo 2Cdo:

We have the same problem in Canada. Take away a childs calculator and they can't do simple math.

French immersion doesn't help. My brother (in Montreal) pulled his kids out, becasue they sucked at everything except French. I said "Well, maybe that's because they got your genes and you're a fucking retard." And that's why we never talk.

No, seriously, math is near the bottom of the totem pole, near physical fitness. I think it's because boys like doing those things.

My seven-year old knows basic algebra already (I'm a scientist/engineer and his mother's a math grad). He got a "meeting expectations" in Grade 1 math, despite the fact that he would finish his exercises in a couple of minutes flat then go over and help the Grade 2's with their math. The teacher recognized this but said that she didn't like handing out "Exceeding expectations" because it made the other parents upset.

I'm not bitter. School is a social-conditioning exercise to turn you into a functioning, citizen. That's not necessarily a bad thing for overall social cohesion.

As far as actually learning things, I think the parent's have to take responsibility for that.

And we know how great a job some parents are doing. These people shouldn't be allowed to care for goldfish let alone children.

[wildrosegirl]

2Cdo 2Cdo:

And we know how great a job some parents are doing. These people shouldn't be allowed to care for goldfish let alone children.

Unfortunately, that's getting to be the norm. Worse yet - just think what kind of parents those children are going to be.

[Dragom]

I think it would be so much easier to teach kids basic math if parents just sat down and played a game of D&D with their kids for a few hours every weekend.

I mean seriously.

[BartSimpson]

The issue with the public schools failing to teach the hard sciences, music, and mathematics is that these disciplines function in the realm of absolutes. You either can do these things or you cannot. There are no gray areas in the sciences, mathematics, or in musical ability.
And science, math, and music have plenty of right and wrong in them.

So teaching a kid about disciplines that feature absolutes makes it damned hard to come back later on and tell a kid that there are no absolutes when it suits a particular (*cough* *cough* left wing) agenda.

Therefore, the solution is to simply stop teaching these disciplines wither outright (in the case of science and music) or by artifice, in the case of mathematics.