What can we do to help improve science education in the US?

Also, theatre, sports, music and art are not redundant nor are they unnecessary. A truly educated person knows something beyond those 3Rs that all too many critics -- boorish and uneducated themselves -- demand a return to.

Exercise actually stimulates the brain and increases the ability to learn.

Art, music and theatre present different ways of thinking.

Older students, beginning at ages 12 or 13, have an urge to join. It is better for a school to have sports, even Frisbee; band, choir, theatre than for the kids to join street gangs or sit around someone's home smoking pot.

What you can learn from sports, bands, choirs and theatre might be a function of who is in charge of the lessons. You won't learn what Shakespeare had in mind off a feminist for example.

Most of the bands you are talking about are of the "won't you let me f**k you sweet darling babe" type.

Given the choice, I'd rather have schools that produce students that can read and comprehend, score well in algebra and know their history, rather than play ball and play the lead in Bye Bye Birdie.

If a school isn't producing the basics well, the fluff has to go. Let parents who see the value ( we paid for our kids music and sports out of our own pockets, and did it on our time not school time ) do it on their own dime.

Wow! You want to generate a negative impression of yourself!

You won't learn what Shakespeare had in mind off a feminist for example.

...and if playing ball help you to understand parabolic geometry, and a good performance of Bye Bye Birdie requires good comprehension skills...?

POM wrote-



Why is-

Quote:

You won't learn what Shakespeare had in mind off a feminist for example.

"beneath contempt"? It's been happening for years. Not just Shakespeare.

I'll say it again-

You won't learn what Shakespeare had in mind off a feminist. And you won't. To just casually state that such a comment is "beneath contempt" when you haven't even read Ted Hughes's Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being is objectively beneath contempt. Feminists now run the examination set books and you should see the differences. Rider Haggard is never set. Dylan's out for goodness sake. Kingsley Amis. Philip Larkin's meat.

It's great though. Everybody passes their exams. Effortlessly.

What remedial studies have you in mind for me to take up. You want to try avoiding having two assertions in one sentence. I'd remedy that mate before I started making suggestions for others.

The ball example could also be explained in the geometry class in a matter of minutes vs. hundreds of hours on a field to learn the same thing (when they could be learning something else!).

fishin wrote:

The ball example could also be explained in the geometry class in a matter of minutes vs. hundreds of hours on a field to learn the same thing (when they could be learning something else!).

Of course, the kids who played ball would return to the classroom with improved hand-eye co-ordination. There are lots of schools systems paying physical therapists to help kids with their co-ordination and large motor skills.

Rider Haggard is the standard by which you would judge literature? He has always been considered a junk writer!

real life wrote:

Given the choice, I'd rather have schools that produce students that can read and comprehend, score well in algebra and know their history, rather than play ball and play the lead in Bye Bye Birdie.

If a school isn't producing the basics well, the fluff has to go. Let parents who see the value ( we paid for our kids music and sports out of our own pockets, and did it on our time not school time ) do it on their own dime.

Whoppee! You paid for your kids to do music and sports. Well, have some empathy, sport, because there are kids who come to school insufficiently fed because their parents are doing all they can do to keep a roof over their heads and the money doesn't extend beyond a small bowl of cereal for breakfast.

Have some understanding, if you can, that one mode of learning compliments and strengthens another. Those same parents who scream fluff about gym class and/or recess are the people who spend every weekend glued to telecast sports. Where do baseball/football/basketball players come from without school sports and fitness programs? Furthermore, physical exercise actually improves academic performance. When I subbed at the elementary school level, I had a very bright fifth grade class whose day began with two consecutive periods (periods are 45 minutes long at that level in that school) of writing. It is difficult for adults to write for 90 minutes, let alone ten year olds! I could see how exhausted these kids were and declared recess. That teacher, like many in that school, had a laundry basket filled with soccer balls, whiffle bats and balls, and jump ropes. The kids went out for 20 minutes, ran, played and climbed. They came back to their work with renewed energy.

Frankly, many of the contributors to these threads exhibit no ability to ascertain whether a school is doing well in the basics. Far too many contributors are guilty of poor logic, word usage and sentence construction.

POM wrote-

Quote:

Rider Haggard is the standard by which you would judge literature? He has always been considered a junk writer!

Now there's a real silly for you. And you make my point. He has been taken out of the agenda precisely with statements like that which are intended for the simple minded which is what you must think we all are to take any notice of such real junk.