The age of educational romanticism (On requiring every child to be above average)

The New Criterion ^ | May 2008 | Charles Murray

[LearsFool]

Facts on a bookshelf (or in a friend’s head, on the internet, etc.) is not knowledge.

If facts are not assimilated into knowledge, and knowledge is not constantly being distilled into wisdom (which doesn’t take place on library shelves), we’re no better off than those who lived in pre-Gutenberg days.

[Appleby]

Amen! Although I am a Mensa quality genius (169 IQ from the average of 3 separate tests) I cannot do any form of mental arithmetic, including multiplication tables, and never have been able to. I also cannot balance my chequebook because I cannot subtract. Calculators helped me somewhat; nevertheless I managed to give myself a near-heart-attack yesterday when I tried to balance my chequebook and “discovered” that I was $250.00 overdrawn. (That proved, thank God, to be wrong. Garbage in, garbage out.) I heard for many years at school that because I was “so smart” my difficulties with arithmetic must be caused by being “lazy and careless.” At the age of 35 I had a series of tests that showed I had a disability.

“Question:I can never remember numbers in order. Someone tells me 25.34 and I’ll remember 32.54. I was absolutely horrible in math growing up. I cannot do math in my head to save my life. In school I greatly excelled at english, creative writing, music (learning by ear), and won an achievement award for my hands on technology class (making mock radio programs, computer animation, etc) as a very young teen. Even at 6 years old I was carrying around a notebook writing poetry all the time, but I can’t do math without a calculator. It once took me a month to learn my own cell phone number. I also did a payroll assistant job, and I got fired for making a 100,000 payment error. I seriously DID not see that extra number in there.

My husband and I always joke that I’m dyslexic with numbers. Does number dyslexia actually exist?? I have ADD and I tested as right-brained... could that be a part of it?

Answers:
Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought I was the only one who had to write my home phone number on the edge of my checkbook...and the only one in our entire county who believes the main highway is 214 [it’s 412]. Had the same school experience you have had...tested in the 2nd percentile in math/logic on my grad school exam [GRE] and was invited into the dean’s office because she couldn’t believe I existed...that percentile means 98% of the entire country taking the exam did better than I did. Is there numerical dyslexia? Let’s hope so...it may become the Disease of the Week someday and get its own telethon. Yo, Jerry Lewis, we neeeeeeeeed money [as long as we don’t have to count it ourselves, right?].

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yes you can be dislexic with numbers my bff have a cousin and he is six and he can read but the numbers are backwards to him like he i wouldask him what is this number 9601 and he would say 0196 so yuo are not the only one

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The inability to deal with numbers is called dyscalcula. It is a rarely diagnosed learning disability. There may be Special Ed specialists in your area who work with adults. Maybe the local school district has info.”

[redpoll]

Bad news about the 1895 final exam from Salinas, Kansas. It’s an urban myth. You can read about its origins here:

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

Your point about the lack of quality in the American public school system is right on target, though.

[avacado]

Thanks for the link! Damn urban myths!

[wintertime]

If our educational system were completely private, schools would emerge that would **realistically** and rationally meet the needs of individual children, their unique talents, as well as their disabilities.

[SoftballMominVA]

Although that test is an urban myth, it would be a useless one if it were real. Take a good hard look at what it DOESN'T ask.

No algebra, geometry, trig beyond the most basic level. For the most part, it's 4 function math

World History - Nothing

Science - no bio, chem, or physics. A little earth science, but even there very basic

English - no request to create a paragraph, simply rote memory type questions

Geography - centered on the US, with a brief mention of Europe. I guess the rest of the world doesn't exist

Other areas missing - philosophy, classic American and British literary works, any evidence of reading comprehension, music, ancient history, major documents and their importance (Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, etc), European history, US Government, Comparing governmental systems --- and those are just scratching the surface.

It looks hard to us because of unfamiliar terms, but it is hardly comprehensive of what even a 5th grader can do now

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

My ‘baby’ brother tested out with an IQ in the 180’s. He’s a self-published, communal house managing semi-liberal, sorta conservative property owner with a gun who hates groundhogs with a passion and never has touched drugs or alcohol in his life. Oh, and he’s as self-sufficient as any human I know....right down to the solar panels on his house.

Did he go to college? No, tried it, bored him.

Do you know what he does for money? He’s a handiman. And he makes a fortune doing it...the man can plumb, wire, tile, build...etc, you name it. Can work circles around most folks (as long as he has a nap in the middle of the day).

The interesting "educational" experience I had recently was the 50^th anniversary of the graduation of my high school class.

I was in about the top 2% of my HS class, and went on to get an engineering degree - back when not everyone went to college. Was I the most successful in my class, or anything close to it? Nope.

And we were all adults, treating each other as the equals we were - only with the distinction that we used to know each other. If only vaguely, in many cases. An interesting experience, pointing out the extreme exposure of the typical child to being rated publicly on his/her performance at endeavors at which he/she is merely average. And revealing how artificial the school environment really is.

[Jim Noble]

Education is not something which is done to children.

An education is what some children get, by effort, under the right circumstances.

All of the premises of the modern US educational system are false, every single one.

What NCLB will do, unless it is suspended, is collapse the system of systematic deception which has built what we have now.

I therefore expect NCLB to be repealed in the near future.

[Jim Noble]

The senior with terrific SAT scores gets away with turning in rubbish on his term papers because to make special demands on the gifted would be elitist.

How true THAT is.

Scamming the system got me all the way to medical school, where, at least back in 1972, the buck stops.

[MARTIAL MONK]

I is not bery smart like you is but that aren’t what them werds say. Snopes does not challenge the authenticity of the exam but challenges the idea that it proves the superiority of a ninteenth century education. But what do I know? I only have an IQ of 335, just like everyone else on the internet.

[SoftballMominVA]

ONLY 335??? Wow you poor thing

Should we use smaller words?

:)

[MARTIAL MONK]

I think that’s average for the internet. Did you ever see anyone say that that they had an IQ of 100?

[MARTIAL MONK]

I’m also rich and handsome!

[Clintonfatigued]

Good point. That can be done, but it won’t happen by itself. There need to be more private educational academies set up, all starting up small.

But even that won’t work if they use the same teaching methods used by the public schools. They need to find newer, more interest-inspiring ways to present the cirriculum.

[cyberstoic]

The reversals and difficulty in dealing with numbers is called “Dyscalculia”. Like dyslexia, people often have static and kinetic reversals, difficulty tracking, writing and organizing numbers. It is somewhat more rare than dyslexia.

I think there is a website about it at Dyscalculia.org

[Daffy]

(I’m not sure the origin of this; it gave a grin.)

School — 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: A foreign student fails high school English.
1957 - He goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 – His cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and his English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. He is given a diploma anyway.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

[neverdem]

Who says college isn't for everyone?

another symptom of the disease