With all due respect, I don't care what they do in South Whales.
With the track we are on my son will be doing calculus by the time he is nine or ten. Big deal. Literacy does not equal IQ ,or creative IQ. It is very important, but just because your area is #1 literacy does not mean you are creative thinkers or problem solvers, which BTW ,I think is more important to the individual and society as a whole.
Besides, just because you were forced to memorize a bunch of data and forced to spit it out on demand , does not mean you had a better education than anyone, now or then.
If the Aussies in South Wahles are so smart, why haven't they( you) created any of the major technological advances of our decade? What has been going on over there. The world is booming with potential right now, and the people in South Whales are leaders in what area? People from South Whales prduce what? People from South Whales are head and shoulders above other countries in what feild?
You may indeed have some fine people there and you may have limited cutting edge medial research in Australia, but if I were you I would not rush to judgement on what American children do or do not need ,based upon what you had in South Whales a number of years ago.
With all due respect, I don't care what they do in South Whales
The state is New South Wales.
If the Aussies in South Wahles are so smart, why haven't they( you) created any of the major technological advances of our decade?
Oh, but they have. You don't care about New South Wales, remember? Otherwise I'd list them for you.
I were you I would not rush to judgement on what American children do or do not need ,based upon what you had in South Whales a number of years ago.
Fox and Friends talked this morning about 41,000 12th grade students in Florida who couldn't even answer tests at 10th grade level. The reason is the extremely poor education system. Touchy-feely education doesn't teach anything.
Year after year is showing American kids are being left behind. Hi-Tech jobs are going to places like India- for many reasons - because its cheaper and also because the employer doesn't have to spend his $$ having his employees taught basic math.
Had an Hispanic girl work for me at NASA -- she was admitted to UCLA and got her degree as a EE (Electrical Engineering). She didn't even know the basics -- like Ohm's law. She only got her degree because she was a female minority in a male dominated department.
I could go on. But you get the drift. There's nothing wrong with taking a test. That is of course, if the parents are actually teaching their kids.