When you go back to the 1700s and 1800s and examine the ‘great minds’ of the era....you come to this odd group of items in the education process.
Most of these great minds...had private tutors for the ages of six to twelve, and were fully educated by today’s standards by age thirteen.
Greek philosophy and Roman history figures into their work demanded by the tutors.
Engineering skills were demanded in most all university programs of the 1700s and 1800s. Go look at degree requirements and class offerings. Most young men took a class related to engineering talents of the day.
Somewhere in the early 1900s....we set up Wal-mart-like schools and simply ran kids through some simplified process to say by age eighteen they were ‘certified’. A kid from 1876....probably was smarter, than kid today...which is sad to admit in public, if you take away all the IT-stuff.
But the best way to get it is not by division or multiplication - but by counting out on your fingers. It's a conceptual question not a math one.
But wholly inappropriate for fourth graders.
Bkmrk.
bfl
You know I used to scorn John Stossel w/out truly knowing what he stood for. Wrong on my part! I watched his show & I am hooked. He makes SO much sense & like how great he is w/ all of his guests. He is very respectful even w/ people he vehemently disagrees with.