Schools starting to get it right!

Forget the test scores. Educators need to teach kids how to think. One math and science course is fine, but what about the creative arts? Some kids love poetry, are they supposed to plug through trig and calculus day in and day out, without any let up?

Dizzy's right. Of what use is trig or calculus to someone who has no intention of going into a line of work where such knowledge will be required? Reading and writing is a different matter. A semi-literate person is bound to be a social misfit no matter what sort of vocation she/he adopts. Mathematicians need to know how to write well because they may well be called on to explain a mathematical concept to people who can't follow their formulas.

I think that in our technologically-oriented society far too much emphasis is being placed on maths and science, far too little on such "liberal" arts as reading, writing and thinking. As for electives, I'd rather see an artistically gifted kid have the choice of taking a course in, say, oil painting or musical composition rather than another course in solid geometry.

If the student goes to college and has a low understanding of math then how well do you think they are going to fair? If the basics are not mastered then how well are we educating out children. I would rather have a child be able to do decent math then be able to paint a picture. At least with a better understanding of math they will do better in life then if they can paint a picture.

My own knowledge of formal math is dismal, Baldimo. I admit it cheerfully. I also have three university degrees. My poor math never had the slightest effect on my performance in college, as I didn't major in any field that required good math. It would have been a different story had I gone into, say, engineering or business administration.

A college or university is not a vocational training school.

All I am saying is that a specific currriculum should be adjustable to a student's specific needs and interests. We are raising a generation which can reprogram a computer's hard drive in a heartbeat but don't know whether Mexico is north or south of the U.S., why Brazilians speak Portuguese, or who has the power to declare war in this country; a generation which sends messages that read "R U kmng to the game?" but couldn't tell you who wrote "Troilus and Cressyda" or why Vincent vanGogh is considered a great painter. These are people to whom a reference to Tom Sawyer's whitewashing the fence would be totally meaningless, who have never heard of Marcel Proust and who think that Sigmund Freud was some dirty old man back in the 1800s. But they can do calculus. It's pitiful.

bm

(interesting thread!)