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New House of Reps Site on Science, Math, & Tech Education
Michael Lach writes "The U. S. House of Representatives recently lauched a web site documenting recent hearings and noise about K12 science, math and tech education. Interesting comments from all sorts of big-wigs. There's a place for comments--it looks like they might actually do something on this issue at last. "
IMHO, education is going in entirely the wrong direction, in a lot of ways.
Firstly, people aren't tape recorders or parrots. So, any system which teaches that way of thinking is inherently flawed. How to test for this? Well, if a computer, using only a fixed database of facts, can score above average in an exam, there's a problem.
The human mind isn't built to store things "precicely", but it IS geared to process that data in creative ways, using lateral thinking. It's also very good at logical thinking, but that's not it's strong point.
When you teach people, and award marks, in a way that tries to make the brain do something it's not built for, you are BOUND to teach less than you could, and retention is BOUND to be poor.
Secondly, people who have exceptional ability in a given area are often neglected, giving rise to bored, aggitated kids, who will undoubtably be disciplined for responding to that neglect, which leads on to a whole cycle of abuse/neglect from teachers, and reactions from the kid. Often, such kids are the ones who do worst at school, and become effectively rejects in society. For the horrible crime of being smart.
Those exceptional kids who aren't neglected are often over-pressured into doing well. Such kids often burn out quickly, and make up a sizable fraction of university suicides.
Average kids are also pressured to "succeed", at any cost (including their own physical and mental health, their social development, their peace of mind, their own likes and dislikes, their friendships and virtually everything else that is important to a kid or for a kid.) Those who rebel will end up without the scraps of paper they need to get a job that pays well enough to cover the rent. Those who don't will probably end up in AA, a psychiatrist's couch. Or both.
It seems to me that an educational system that teaches fundamentally flawed materials and inherently damaging principals has got to need some serious revision.
I doubt either House will ever do anything, any more than the British have. (The best the British have managed, in the past few hundred years, are a few feeble, misguided gestures. GCSE's should be shot, for a start.)
Science needs to be taught in schools in a way that helps kids understand it, not turn half of them into axe-wielding luddite technophones and the other half's brains into blue/green jello. And for chrissakes, can SOMEBODY put a globe in the geograhy classes!! England is NOT off the coast of Florida!
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I read the web site and I saw written nowhere that creationists and other irrational people are a huge threat to education. I agree with them that science education in this country is a mess. The fact that most adults believe that the universe was created by a god is proof of that. One of the critical things that we must do is defend schools against such things as public prayer, religion, and especially creationism. When dogma is taught as science all truth is in jeopardy.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
I live in Dallas, Tx. Here, our school board meetings are often attended by political activists. These people are more concerned with getting their pictures in the news than with education. I believe that education is starting to become the practice field for aspiring politicians and activists.
These clowns will rant for hours about values, fairness, and budgeting. If you ask one of them how we should teach a child the formula for finding the area of a circle, you'll get a blank stare. That's the problem.
The first priority should be teaching core materials -- math, science, history, and language. If we're not doing that, we're not educating. We're simply creating an institution to hold kids until they're old enough to graduate. Maybe we'll accomplish some social indoctrination along the way. In Texas, that means you should know the score of last night's game even if you don't know the value of pi.
The politics of American schools are becoming truly disgusting. Everyone wants to get their pet "values" put into the curriculum. This way, they gain mindshare with impressionable future voters. Best of all, they can defend their efforts with, "it's for the children."
The best thing "for the children" now would be for schools to drop the fluff and get back to teaching. It should be so simple, but we make it so hard.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.