Education in the U.S.

[zanooda2]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Mike" <mcrudele78 at ...> wrote:

> > [Lee]:

> > Unfortunately, with all the tests kids have to take now, I have to
> > wonder if they're really learning or learning to test well.  
 
> Mike:

> Just as unfortunately, we have no way of measuring knowledge 
> objectively besides testing. And you know, learning to test well 
> teaches one deductive reasoning, so that's not all bad either.
 

 
If you mean tests like SAT or ACT - these are really strange tests,
not based on knowledge at all, only on speed :-). Why they are
supposed to be showing a person's readiness for higher education is
beyond me. 

If someone can't solve a problem in less than a minute, it doesn't
mean that he doesn't know how to solve it, he just does things a bit
slower, that's all. How does it show if he is ready for college or
not? Knowledge is important, not speed.

To pass well the English part of such a test you must know how to
answer questions on a passage without actually reading this passage,
because just to read the said passage carefully takes more time than
you can afford.

I can't understand this obsession with speed. Actually, those
standardized tests are one of the very, very few things that I don't
like here in the US ;-(.


zanooda, who went through hell when her son was taking his SATs ...