Posted on 01/05/2015 5:58:02 AM PST by C19fan
Instead - the teacher ought to encourage his students to find alternative opinions other than his own and discuss them robustly
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Arguing and “critical thinking” is useless without a base of information.
The local schools do most of their work on Ipads apparently
Which brings online courses into question. Does hearing a lecture in addition to taking notes also give a higher score in concepts than just reading a book or other students posts?
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Boy, I know in college and grad school taking notes and outlining my texts by synthesizing in my own words made my subject mine. From there I could critique and process well.
IF that is true, then it contradicts the headline and the exceprt.
Which still makes the teacher/author look like a bad and boring teacher making poor decisions
Absolutely! While there are some reasons to have some classroom meetings most of what is taught in college can be taught online at almost no cost and tested using privately administered certifying exams.
Plus, we simply cannot any longer afford the infrastructure of collective learning, government or otherwise - bricks, mortar, heating, cooling, teacher's salaries, teacher's retirements, overpaid "administrators" - the costs are pure waste.
huh?
When I need to learn a new graphics package for work, I play around with it as much as I can, and then look up how-to's on YouTube. Within 3 days of getting a new 3D package, I was able to do brief, usable animation. As time went on, I filled in knowledge gaps as necessary, project by project.
Sitting in a classroom for a semester and learning the software from top to bottom, and features that I may never use, is an enormous waste of time.
Semesters are not needed for basic software.
Commonly only 1week is even offered from pro software tutoring companies for such learning. I just took one 2months ago covering basic Solidworks in 4 days. Still nothing like being hands on guided, incidentally, even in that example. Rather than hunting and pecking. Just like typing. Much better taking the class than “I know where the letter keys are!” You are stil slow compared to me who learned seriously and can type fast.
That is my point. It does not take long to learn these mere tools. They are NOT the principles, which often take longer to go over. Different issue.
For the third time I’ll state the obvious. A general understanding is necessary. A deep operational understanding of every algorithm one uses is a pointless exercise in wasted effort. Repetitive,rote memorization is a waste of time for students and professionals in most fields. Teaching students to use primitive tools to solve complex problems when one could be using the time to teach how such problems are actually solved is criminal fraud masquerading as education.
COSTS of Education, 20grand per student in Public School (and some private schools)are off the scale, and the schools still fail.
Start with the standard 70 Million Dollar Campus for a 3000 kid High School. First of all 3000 kids is one place is a recipe for failure to start.
And the Teachers and the Administration, and the School Board, all this adds up.
Plus, there is no control in the school, the students run the place.
20 percent of the students (3000 kid High School) should be in Jail, not school.
Oh, and they cannot pass the tests. Reading Comprehension is zero among that same 20 percent of students.
Oh, but we are an "A" rated school, yeah, you sure are because you COOK THE BOOKS!
Then we (The School District) will approve more "Charter" Schools, ok, and the budget you give a Charter School is 4800 dollars per student. And the School Board keeps the $15000 per student surplus to build more Taj Mahal High Schools to warehouse 3000 kids!
Folks, we need to privatize all school funding. Let the public schools compete and submit their ideas for a good school to a NON UNION, independent group of parents, just like charter schools do.
Result:
All three finished Calculus III and all college general courses by the age of 15. Two went on to complete B.S. degrees in mathematics by the age of 18. One earned a masters in math by 20. The oldest finished a masters in accounting at a typical age but was also a nationally and internationally ranked athlete and traveled the world representing the U.S.
Conclusion: My children used their time wisely and efficiently. And...No, they are not smarter than the kids of any other poster to freerepublic. They were simply taught in a rational and systematic manner.
And mine learned to use 21st century tools because that’s where they plan on spending most of their time.
Answer: Not much.
If Thomas Jefferson were resurrected today, how long would it take for him to integrate into modern society with all of its “21st Century Tools”. Likely not long. Why? Because he wasn't a “tool”.
Apparently reading skills are what we should be working on. FOR THE FOURTH TIME, I agree a basic understanding of the process is necessary but spending time, resources and effort on honing computational skills with paper and pencil in a world where no one does that professionally and calling it meaningful education is fraud.
The problem with state owned and delivered schooling is that there are endless curriculum and policy wars as citizens fight for their worldview. It's a serious cold war, since it is impossible for education to be religiously, culturally, and politically neutral. The winners get to control school content and the consequences are not neutral either for the individual or the nation.
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