In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, R. Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Richard Ulrich wrote:
>> On Sun, 16 May 2004 13:25:07 GMT, Art Kendall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> wrote:
..................
>> Further: I have to wonder, Are today's kids really smarter in ways
>> that matter? I suspect that they are. Now, how do you measure it?
>Anecdotal evidence, which may or may not be applicable to the
>question, and comes from a non-random sample and has other known
>uncontrolled variables: I know that some of my younger relatives
>know more about some academic subjects than I did at their ages.
>I had what I feel was a decent education for the time (1960s and
>1970s), and in certain subjects I'm sure I had an outstanding
>education.
The educational system has made SOME improvements since
Sputnik, but also some declines.
My younger relatives have been often two (sometimes
>more) years ahead of where I was at their ages. Different school
>systems, yes, different times, definitely, and my relatives probably
>don't represent anything like a cross section of the population.
>At young ages I attributed it to "Sesame Street", etc. When they're
>doing things like full blown calculus in high school, I'm not sure
>what the sources of the differences are.
Are you sure they are ahead? They may be in memorization
of facts and methods of computation, but understanding in
the schools has not improved much. As for "full blown
calculus", knowing all the methods of computing derivatives
and antiderivatives in closed form provides NO understanding
of what any of it means. I would not trust the high school
teachers on this point. The old "Euclid" course should be
a requirement, but many schools do not even offer it as an
option.
This continues at the college level. Those taking methods
courses in statistics may end up unable to understand the
concepts of probability and of decision making under
uncertainty which they might well have been able to master
in primary school. Knowing how to compute is the least
important thing; it is knowing how to speak and communicate
in the formal language which is most important.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
.
.
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