[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Education in the U.S.

[Lee Storm(God Is The Healing Force)]

[Miles]:
| There is much more knowledge than only decades before, and 
| much more skills 
| to learn for the students.
| 
| When my parents attended school, nobody learnt anything about 
| genetics. DNA 
| was not yet known. I remember three different atom models I 
| learnt about in 
| chemistry - my parents maybe learnt that atoms exist, but not more.

[Lee]:
And maybe that was a good thing.  Perhaps things like genetics and advanced
chemistry should remain in the college / university levels and out of the
high schools.  Students need to learn the basics like reading, writing and
'rithmetic which can be taught using computers, but really need to be taught
well.  It's very scary to me when I see some of the grammar and spelling
that comes out of young people today!

[Miles]:
| When I attended school (I'm 39), using a computer was 
| something for the 
| freaks, a very small minority. Today, all students must learn 
| to use a 
| computer. We all would think any school who wouldn't teach 
| its students to 
| use a computer would be a desaster.

[Lee]:
Well, it's sort of replacing what used to be penmanship classes, I guess.

[Miles]:
| What we call "general knowlege" is more or less a result of 
| what "we all" 
| know - what we learnt at school and later in life. It would 
| not even be fair 
| to ask that from students who haven't had any "later in life" 
| yet. And it's 
| totally unfair to ask that from students who have to learn 
| things at school 
| that we never heard of when we were students - and maybe 
| still never learnt 
| in our "later life".

[Lee]:
And, again, maybe some of those things should remain out of the lower school
system and be required in the college setting, or as extra-curricular
classes.

[Miles]:
| I do not want to excuse the examples I read upthread. Well, I 
| do not know 
| the 50 states or the lakes, but I'm not a US citizen ;), but 
| to know about 
| the days of a year, of basic geographics (not only in one's 
| own country) 
| and, last but not least, knowledge of at least the own 
| language is necessary 
| for everyone and will be in future. But every time we wonder 
| what a young 
| boy or girl does not know, we should think about what s/he 
| knows we never 
| heard of at their age.

[Lee]:
Maybe, but I guess I'm an old-fashioned gal who believes that in the
elementary grades the education of basic geography, knowledge about one's
country (like the fact that there are five finger-lakes and seven great
lakes and fifty states, as well as knowlege of how to write a complete and
coherent sentence is essential to everyday life.  These are very important
basics!  Knowing (as far as the US is concerned) how many presidents have
come and gone, the structure of our government, and the names of the
government officials for their state (at least) are, what I call, essential
educational *Musts*.  Basic knowledge of the sciences is also important, and
knowing how to add, subtract, multiply and divide and how to make change of
a dollar is a definite essential.  Now, I'm no math wiz, not by a long shot.
But when I hand a clerk a $20.00 bill and my purchase is for $9.95, I don't
want to see that clerk struggling to figure out how much change to give
back.

As the student progresses into High School, the information then can and
should be more detailed and specialized.  And then, come college time,
things can get really specialized and detailed bringing in more about
genetics if that's what the student wants to study, etc.

Unfortunately, with all the tests kids have to take now, I have to wonder if
they're really learning or learning to test well.  Perhaps that sounds
cynical, but a test can't always tell where a kid is at.  And,
unfortunately, another trend I sometimes see is how dependent young people
are becoming on computers for some of the basics like adding and
subtracting, etc.  The trend is to hand it over to the computer and not rely
on that wonderful grey-matter computer God gave us as much as some of us
older folks and our parents used to do.

Anyway, not being a teacher or having kids of my own, I probably should keep
my face shut, but it's just that I never cease to be amazed at the lack of
basic grammar, spelling, etc., which I observe around me on a daily basis.
When a co-worker of mine leaves a note saying "I pick up my chek," (instead
of "I picked up my check,") and a technician writes on my invoice, "Costimer
say she got dead betrie," and another co-worker writes, "How should I imput
the leter," I want to scream and have to wonder how these persons could have
possibly graduated from high school!

Well, time to crawl back under my rock. :-)

Peace,

Lee :-)