Posted on 09/18/2006 5:18:06 PM PDT by mathprof
The countries that outperform the United States in math and science education have some things in common. They set national priorities for what public school children should learn and when. They also spend a lot of energy ensuring that every school has a high-quality curriculum that is harnessed to clearly articulated national goals. This country, by contrast, has a wildly uneven system of standards and tests that varies from place to place. We are also notoriously susceptible to educational fads.
One of the most infamous fads took root in the late 1980’s, when many schools moved away from traditional mathematics instruction, which required drills and problem solving. The new system, sometimes derided as “fuzzy math,’’ allowed children to wander through problems in a random way without ever learning basic multiplication or division. As a result, mastery of high-level math and science was unlikely. The new math curriculum was a mile wide and an inch deep, as the saying goes, touching on dozens of topics each year.
Many people trace this unfortunate development to a 1989 report by an influential group, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. School districts read its recommendations as a call to reject rote learning. Last week the council reversed itself, laying out new recommendations that will focus on a few basic skills at each grade level.
Under the new (old) plan, students will once again move through the basics — addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and so on — building the skills that are meant to prepare them for algebra by seventh grade. This new approach is being seen as an attempt to emulate countries like Singapore, which ranks at the top internationally in math.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It's been a couple of decades now, but that's still something I remember from attending government schools. More than once my math tests or homework were marked down because, "you didn't show your steps". Just sheer idiocy! The fact that someone can work something out in their head and get the right answer is the surest indication that they have mastered the subject matter.
I tend to agree with you. Our results reflect the testing of ALL of our population, which includes many who perform quite poorly.
In terms of the very top performers, the US does very well. We certainly do extremely well at the University level and the awards and accomplishments of our research mathematicians.
You're right that China and other nations weed out students in a way that would (rightfully) never fly in America, but if you look at the books used in Chinese schools, they're much more informative than their American counterparts. Lots of proofs, with few pictures or any other junk like that. The books also cost significantly less, since they don't have to be updated every few years to keep up with current events and since, due to the absence of color photographs, they don't have to be printed on high-gloss paper.
What style of Kung Fu do you practice?
This is an admission of malpractice. Sadly their liability for serious damage inflicted on innocent kids and families cannot be established and punished. Such is true of so much of the evil the left has wrought.
I'm perfectly willing to blame the teacher's unions for their complicity in this. If they cared half as much about rigorous education as they did about fighting "the man," we wouldn't be nearly as far behind the rest of the world as we are now.
Yes, I agree. This isn't about the number of brilliant mathematicians declining, it's about the basic math skills of everyday people declining, which needs to stop.
They are better off not doing it.
Homework aside from maybe reading a chapter or two of some book is busywork. The motive behind homework is not to have the child learn anything but to make the kids and parents jump through the school's hoops.
I found this out when I was taking care of my niece and she had two hours of homework a night that required my helping her. She was in FOURTH grade. I asked her teacher finally why she had so much. I thought maybe she was not doing her worksheets in class.
To my surprise the teacher admitted that it was deliberate and designed to "get the parents involved and make parents and kids work together."
It was a waste of her time and mine for no other reason then this airhead wanted to control what she did outside of the class room.
Oh goody, another teacher bashing session here on FR.
There are some good ones out there, I have four in my family. YOU try doing what they do for 40 grand a year.
I agree with some of that, like reading chapters in books for busyork, but the only way you learn math, for example, is by doing problems. Same with chemistry. So you have to do your homework there.
Does that mean I can get some guy to come to my class and whack a couple of students in the butt with a bamboo pole?
You don't do it by sending a kid home with a worksheet that has 50 problems on it.
Thankfully they finally pulled her and put her in a private school where she is doing very well, learning a lot and has no homework except for weekend reading.
Ever try to grade 30 or 40 homework papers night after night? I grade primarily for completion in math, but the students know that I consider it their responsibility to bring up at the beginning of class on the date due any problems they had trouble with. If they don't, and they blow the next test, tough noogies.
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