Jay Warner wrote: > > I'm sorry, I can't help adding $0.02 to the discussion of what is > clearly a hot button for this group. > > 1) if (primary & secondary) schools provide what the more vocal parents > claim they want, is this not what they are supposed to do?
The squeaky wheel gets the grease theory? > > 2) If the professional educators who design, select & deliver > curriculum do not/cannot explain to said parents the implications of > what the parents claim to want, where should we look for improvement in > the 'product'? > > 3) The No Child Left Behind thing is definitely misguided or worse. I agree. > The frustration from which it was born remains real, however poorly > expressed and misdirected. The racism and elitism inherant in its > execution may be structurally embedded. > > 4) I fully agree, & can add my own horror stories, of the sorry state > of education in math. My own opinion, IMHO, is that neither the > curriculum developers and/or those delivering said curriculum seriously > understand what 'math' constitutes. If not this broad generalization, > then I submit these good folks don't understand how to communicate > 'math.' As a non-math major & professional, I have to rely upon > Devlin's description (The Math Gene), which is consistent with my > observations of weak students in a local Child Care center & my business > stats students. I'm not terribly impressed with curriculum developers in general. But this raises the question, is math the least well taught of subjects? Or is it harder to teach? > > 5) I _think_ that what we call 'gifted' students include those who > manage to understand 'math' because/in spite of their early education. > If we were to teach math differently, many more students would get it, > and much of the hair-pulling experiences college instructors have would > go away. > > Enough soap box for today. > Jay > Cheers, Russell . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
