Johnny Can't Add

www.fredoneverything.net ^ | June 28th, 2003 | Fred Reed

[Iris7]

Yeah, "proletcult," as Orwell put it in 1948.

[JoeSchem]

I think we need to have a little perspective here.

First, America is only 4% of the planetary population. That means that 96% of the world's geniuses are born outside our borders. Our universities are the best in the world, so why is it so surprising that intelligent foreigners are crowding out Americans?

Second, American laws price American workers out of the global market. If a business offers an American call-center specialist $13/hr, it really must pay something like $20 an hour in taxes and bureaucratically-mandated overhead. Whereas, $13/hr is $13/hr for a call-center specialist in India.

I would advise parents not to train your children to become engineers, because they'll be competing with a world full of engineers. The same with computer programmers (maybe more so). What should your children go into? Well, they can become lawyers. The Bar Associations of the US will never allow remote-TV connections with outsourced legal teams in New Dehli.

I'm being cynical, but I suspect I'm also being dead-on accurate about the future.

[4mycountry]

My wife and I are planning to homeschool are children (currently toddlers).

Good for you! I am homeschooled, and in advanced math. I'm actually in summer school because of my math skills: I was on an advanced math curriculum that unfortunately didn't have any books above the 6th grade level. We switched to another curriculum, but that put me behind (in other words, in tune with public school kids), and now I'm doing summer school to put me back in the advanced math catagory.

You're doing a great thing, homeschooling. It may be tough at first, but it's totally worth it. I'm in grades 8-10 because of it. Homeschooling is the best!

[boothead]

Gisli Hjalmstysson, Nikos Anerousis, Pawan Goyal, K. K. Ramakrishnan, Jennifer Rexford, Kobus Van der Merwe, and Sneha Kumar Kasera

Never seen an Irishman yet who could add. These are Irish aren't they???????????

[Jim Noble]

Our whole system is geared towards the vision educationists had 100 years ago -- provide just enough literacy so that children will grow up to be able to follow simple directions and do repetitive tasks at some factory

And they've succeeded.

Just one problem-they moved the factories.

[Bullish]

We had to dumb everybody down because certain groups just couldn't keep up.

Liberalism at work destroying our society.

[neutrino]

Virtually none of my students (high school graduates all) have any competency in even simple grade-school mathematics.

You wrote the perfect response, txzman - But they sure know how to write mis-spelled paragraphs telling you how hard it was to try.

They cannot do math. They cannot write. They refuse to think.

It's rather fortunate that they can't think. Otherwise, the likely future would frighten them as badly as it does me.

[AdamSelene235]

You're doing a great thing, homeschooling. It may be tough at first, but it's totally worth it. I'm in grades 8-10 because of it. Homeschooling is the best!

Do you have any opinion on Art Robinson's homeschooling techniques?

http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/

If you haven't heard of Dr. Robinson there's a good article on him in my profile entitled "A Scientist Finds Independence".

[arete]

As long as schools have diversity, what need is there for learning? /sarcasm

I am not exactly sure what it is that our secondary schools and universities are preparing students to do. Daughter of some friends has chosen a university based on the strength of their "cheerleading" program. Times have changed and maybe some of our old ideas regarding what education is need to be revised in a society where celebrity and entertainment are more prized and valued than traditional eductional and intellectual skills and professions. You don't need calculus to play on the pro women's beach volleyball tour.

Richard W.

[4mycountry]

Robinson's, huh? No, I don't have any real opinion on his techniques. I've never tried any of his books.

I use Abeka for history, science, and spelling, and used to use Horizon for math. You may want to check out other Alpha-Omega stuff. It's good, Christian curriculum, as is Abeka, though I wouldn't recommend Abeka's math.

Here's a really helpful hint: in big cities, there are actual homeschooling conventions where you can get curriculum and supplies.

One last tip: If you don't want a to spend hundreds on curriculum, go to Ebay and search for the type of curriculum you want. You can get the same stuff for much less.

I hope that helps. Good luck!

[Graybeard58]

"Virtually none of my students (high school graduates all) have any competency in even simple grade-school mathematics".

"None has" professor not "none have" Perhaps a little remedial English?

The word "none" is a contraction of the words "no one". Read it that way and it makes sense.

[Paul Atreides]

I was taking some literature courses about at year ago and some of the students in the class, English majors mind you, could not believe it when the instructor counted off points on the test for incorrect spelling. I have borrowed notes of days that I have missed and was shocked at how many simple words are misspelled over and over again.

[AdamSelene235]

Art puts out the Access to Energy newsletter and is one of the ringleaders of the annual Doctor for Disaster Preparedness Conference; I just returned from the latter and my head is still spinning.

I don't have any immediate homeschooling needs but if I ever do, I thought I'd give Art's system a go.

A Scientist Finds Independence

[headsonpikes]

"Well, they can become lawyers."

There's more $300/hr lawyers than $300/hr mathematicians.

The legal profession provides the fast track to the front ranks of the looting brigades of American socialism.

Who needs science and math when you can master legal boilerplate, file a writ or two, and become obscenely wealthy the old-fashioned way, by simply taking it from those who presently possess it?

The smart kids are becoming lawyers...they'll all get rich running the legislatures and courts, and suing the rest of us into the ground.

[ladylib]

Some parents and educators want something better for their children and are willing to do something about it. Unfortunately, many public school educrats consider a classical education too elitist.

http://www.novaclassical.org/curriculum.htm

[grania]

American schools, and Americans in general, do not value theoretical science

You know what part of the problem is? All of the "reforms" to get students ready for technology, and the push to test certain skills so young create a situation where context is not developed. Lists of formulas are given to students; they don't actually memorize or develop much.

The good students today are fabulous technicians. They don't, however recognize things in different contexts or know how things connect.

My favorite is traditional Trigonometry...just develop all of those wonderful concepts by starting with the right triangle. My experience is most teachers out there today don't know the subject. They just hand students lists of formulas, many very complex, and have them plug in values and get results. It leaves them really deficient in recognizing and developing things.

[MARTIAL MONK]

"None has" professor not "none have" Perhaps a little remedial English?

Do you want to rethink that?

[RipSawyer]

"My wife and I are planning to homeschool( are) children (currently toddlers)."
My wife and I are planning to homeschool are children (currently toddlers).




Better have some coffee before you approach a keyboard next time.

[RipSawyer]

"I was taking some literature courses about at year ago and some of the students in the class, English majors mind you, could not believe it when the instructor counted off points on the test for incorrect spelling."

These days it would not be unusual for the instructor's "correct" spelling to be incorrect.

[RipSawyer]

The smart kids are becoming lawyers...they'll all get rich running the legislatures and courts, and suing the rest of us into the ground.

But after they succeed in suing the rest of us into the ground they will all be as vultures starving by a pile of bleached bones.