tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2363566791696022607.post8416669621552629864..comments2023-03-25T03:33:02.288-07:00Comments on Musings-from-Claremont: An "Education" DilemmaRonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06893205050152322198noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2363566791696022607.post-51292362764030375882009-05-25T09:43:46.195-07:002009-05-25T09:43:46.195-07:00I agree with George Carlin: kids should have an op...I agree with George Carlin: kids should have an opportunity to drag a stick through the dirt... i.e.., do NOTHING occasionally. One of our mutual friends, whose son did not learn to read until he was eight years old because, "that's when he developed an interest in the Internet," recently attended Summerhill, the child-directed school in England. Aside from climbing trees, I'm not sure what he did there. But when he returned to the U.S., he decided he wanted to attend an advanced-studies school, which he still attends and where he happily studies like a maniac.<br /><br />The point is, he is doing what HE wants to do.<br /><br />We don't need an either-or approach to education. When children can study what they like, some of them will choose advanced studies that lead to excellence in science, mathematics and engineering. Others will choose music, poetry and art.<br /><br />As for those who don't know what to choose... that's the REAL challenge of education... to make it interesting, motivating, and more fun than robbing 7-Elevens or banging.YakPatehttp://www.yakpate.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2363566791696022607.post-64544359669594302352009-05-25T07:29:16.550-07:002009-05-25T07:29:16.550-07:00I have to disagree with all three of your reasons....I have to disagree with all three of your reasons. In response to your first point, although we do have strong age connotations for academic grades, they should reflect levels of academic understanding, with each higher grade requiring more advanced concepts. And 8th grade is an appropriate time to expect a student to start thinking of numbers in abstract terms. Doing so is an important intellectual step, within math and the hard sciences, as well as for handling the way we treat statistics and quantitative reasoning in the social sciences and humanities.<br /><br />In response to your second point, I think algebra and calculus are some of the least prone areas of academic knowledge to the mere recitation of facts problem. Even if students memorize sheafs of algorithms for dealing with various problems, applying the algorithms requires understanding the concepts behind the question, which is after all what we should want from education, understanding of more complex concepts.<br /><br />On your third point, you're conflating teaching hard things with teaching things badly. We should teach students hard things, for through the process of doing that is precisely how we become better at learning. Piles of homework at young ages don't teach hard things, or anything besides tedium.<br /><br />Lastly, although emotional and social development is important, I don't think the ways we have of making institutions respond to goals work well with it. The reason we are stuck with standardized testing is the strong institutional reflex of ass-covering which means we often need to come in with a rigid outside standard to prevent self-serving teachers and administrators from passing along students who have not been educated from year to year to a meaningless diploma, or to dropping out.<br /><br />Schools are massive and often recalcitrant institutions. Much as we might like them to dote on each student and foster individual growth, the prospects for doing so are rather bleak.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2363566791696022607.post-82700714305060560142009-05-24T22:42:34.472-07:002009-05-24T22:42:34.472-07:00Ron, congratulations on a good article in a great ...Ron, congratulations on a good article in a great blog. I agree with every one of your points about this country's education situation, and would like to add yet another. One more fallacy of dictating what every child should learn at any certain grade level has to do with INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES. Even by the early elementary grades, there is a wide disparity within most classrooms in what various children are developmentally prepared to learn. And yes, in our rat race approach to education, we actually forget that our pace is stressing a GREAT NUMBER of children beyond their natural developmental levels. MartyMartynoreply@blogger.com