3rd February 2006, 12:00 PM
lazy, most parents have a lack of common knowledge these days and are completely unable to even assist children in their assignments.
Perhaps you feel that what children are being assigned to learn isn't all that important. However, math IS important. High school isn't even teaching the math people need to get a job they might actually enjoy that might actually be of some real importance. Remember lazy, while a movie script writer may not need to understand much, the engineers setting up everything DO. You know how sometimes a director gets into fights with the set designers over what is actually possible to physically accomplish? Physics always wins. For example, in a certain James Bond movie a director simply wasn't about to believe a scientific advisor as to exactly how dangerous an undersea vessel they had rented out could be. He said "just have the thing ram the set as hard as possible", even though the scientist was fully aware that it would most likely collapse it and kill Bond. Fortunatly, the guy disobeyed the director and pulled back at the last moment, merely shattering the glass dome and falling short of skewering that poor actor. Reality has the last say, not "creative liscense".
And indeed, you are pretty much forcing parents to teach here. You are under the impression the ONLY proper teacher can ever be a parent. What makes you come to this conclusion? My teachers did in fact teach me much. I will not argue that the system is perfect, or even that there might not be some other alternative to the school system entirely. I will say that to label it a complete failure despite the success an education system has shown is faulty reasoning.
In the past, parents WERE the exclusive teachers of children. Children did not learn much of anything except what the parents knew. During that time, scientific progress was slow. Now, there are a large number of people across a multitude of disciplines. It is true that one must decide to learn, but I can attest from a few years when I was homeschooled that that is hardly the proper solution.
What is important in an education, most important, is to teach critical thinking. Everything else can follow from that. Basic 8th grade level math? Are you serious? People need beyond high school level math as it is taught now! Far too many people don't even understand the concept of different "base" sets in math!
Here's how the average person might address teaching, knowing nothing at all of anything:
100111001 If you didn't understand me, that's because I was speaking technology! Technology is anything that is really cool that you don't know how it works, and if it breaks, you have to buy a new one! It's basically magic! Robots are technology shaped like square people. They are used mainly for destroying Japan and serving drinks.
You mention this "emotional intelligence" again. What the heck is that and what does that have to do with a proper education? Is that basically being "in touch with your feelings" or something? I'd leave that to the individual. How would one even create a standardized test for that?
What do you feel about this?
A: I feel uncomfortable
B: I feel happy
C: all of the above
Child: Um, A?
Parent/Teacher (conference): WRONG!
lazy, there are things I think should be changed. Currently, science teachers get it all wrong. They just spout out information from a book without engaging the student. It's no wonder people think science provides absolute facts when that's how it is presented. Rather, the teacher, whoever it happens to be, needs to first provide a really deep understanding of scientific method. Once this is accomplished, where the kid actually goes about doing as such, then the teacher can go into details on why we know what we know. In science, one can't simply say "this is true", one must show why it is reasonable to consider it true.
Let me ask you this. List the exact method by which the parenteacher would teach them. Describe this method with precision and technical details.
Perhaps you feel that what children are being assigned to learn isn't all that important. However, math IS important. High school isn't even teaching the math people need to get a job they might actually enjoy that might actually be of some real importance. Remember lazy, while a movie script writer may not need to understand much, the engineers setting up everything DO. You know how sometimes a director gets into fights with the set designers over what is actually possible to physically accomplish? Physics always wins. For example, in a certain James Bond movie a director simply wasn't about to believe a scientific advisor as to exactly how dangerous an undersea vessel they had rented out could be. He said "just have the thing ram the set as hard as possible", even though the scientist was fully aware that it would most likely collapse it and kill Bond. Fortunatly, the guy disobeyed the director and pulled back at the last moment, merely shattering the glass dome and falling short of skewering that poor actor. Reality has the last say, not "creative liscense".
And indeed, you are pretty much forcing parents to teach here. You are under the impression the ONLY proper teacher can ever be a parent. What makes you come to this conclusion? My teachers did in fact teach me much. I will not argue that the system is perfect, or even that there might not be some other alternative to the school system entirely. I will say that to label it a complete failure despite the success an education system has shown is faulty reasoning.
In the past, parents WERE the exclusive teachers of children. Children did not learn much of anything except what the parents knew. During that time, scientific progress was slow. Now, there are a large number of people across a multitude of disciplines. It is true that one must decide to learn, but I can attest from a few years when I was homeschooled that that is hardly the proper solution.
What is important in an education, most important, is to teach critical thinking. Everything else can follow from that. Basic 8th grade level math? Are you serious? People need beyond high school level math as it is taught now! Far too many people don't even understand the concept of different "base" sets in math!
Here's how the average person might address teaching, knowing nothing at all of anything:
100111001 If you didn't understand me, that's because I was speaking technology! Technology is anything that is really cool that you don't know how it works, and if it breaks, you have to buy a new one! It's basically magic! Robots are technology shaped like square people. They are used mainly for destroying Japan and serving drinks.
You mention this "emotional intelligence" again. What the heck is that and what does that have to do with a proper education? Is that basically being "in touch with your feelings" or something? I'd leave that to the individual. How would one even create a standardized test for that?
What do you feel about this?
A: I feel uncomfortable
B: I feel happy
C: all of the above
Child: Um, A?
Parent/Teacher (conference): WRONG!
lazy, there are things I think should be changed. Currently, science teachers get it all wrong. They just spout out information from a book without engaging the student. It's no wonder people think science provides absolute facts when that's how it is presented. Rather, the teacher, whoever it happens to be, needs to first provide a really deep understanding of scientific method. Once this is accomplished, where the kid actually goes about doing as such, then the teacher can go into details on why we know what we know. In science, one can't simply say "this is true", one must show why it is reasonable to consider it true.
Let me ask you this. List the exact method by which the parenteacher would teach them. Describe this method with precision and technical details.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)