I purchased a 1/2 gallon of milk from out corner deli yesterday. The young girl checking me out did not know the difference between a quart and a half gallon. She asked me if the milk was a quart or 1/2. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when I pay me property tax.
That and they are taught a “canned” curriculum so they can pass a standardized test, nothing more, nothing less. Also, I never say a calculator until I was in college. We had to memorize times tables and such and certain formulas.
The same “canned” stuff is also taught in history and geography which have become more like sociology classes that hard fact based classes.
I agree. I am not sure why the kids need to learn 4 different ways to solve for 4 X 7. It is going to be 28 every single time. Why not just memorize it and be done with it?
I stopped at a little antique/used-furniture store the other day and bought a small end-table for $12. The kid at the register was probably 18.
I gave him a twenty and two ones. He stared at the money, perplexed, and handed me back the two ones saying, “It’s only twelve dollars. This is a twenty.”
One basic problem is that mathematics is no longer taught as a “rational” or “logical” subject. This makes it impossible to study science properly, too.
I have to tell you, I work with numbers all day every day but it is your basic addition, subtraction, fractions and ratios, the stuff you can do in your head without even thinking about it.
My daughter however is in AP algebra in her sophomore year at HS and my eyes just glaze over when I try to remember all that stuff. The problem is I can do it in my head and it just comes to me, but when she asked me to show her how I do it I can't.
Same thing with her geometry class and proofs - "Of course the two lines are parallel and the angels are the same, what do you mean I have to prove it - it's right there, what are you blind!!" They usually have mom help them out now...
My six year old son recently discovered my calculator, and now that he is learning math in kindergarten, he has confiscated the calculator for himself. However, he hasn't been using it to replace his own math work, he is using it to TEACH himself math. At his age, much of what you need to learn about math comes from memorization. He is now teaching himself the basic multiplication table (10x10). I fully expect him to know it before he enters the first grade.
Everyday for anything under 20x20. I freak out the cashier because I'm usually faster than her machine.
Who uses math and science? I do, even though I do not work in a strictly scientific field. My family used “real world” examples to teach math concepts to me when I was a wee bairn. For example, they used money and units of measure as a means to teach fractions. I also use math (including geometry) quite a bit in my hobby.
I’m still trying to figure out the “need” for one of those Texas Instruments graphing calculators by junior high school. Seems like learning the calculator would take more time than learning the math the calculator is to perform.
Another reason to homeschool.
Education majors have the lowest SAT, ACT, and GRE scores on campus.
I conclude that too many government teachers are:
1) Math phobics themselves.
2) Don’t have a high enough IQ to master math.
3) Were government school graduates themselves.
Also, the parents of school kids are, for the most part, were recently government schooled in “new” math methods, and therefore completely unable to teach their kids basic math.
Doesn't everyone do this?
Language is all abstracted symbols, but the manipulations on language elements are loosely ruled. And language is learned so early that the child is not conscious of the abstracted nature of it. Thus language and problem solving using language only give a vague hint of how to do math.
However learning rote how to count, how to add numbers from 1-100, how to subtract same, memorizing times table, learning long division, learning fractions and reduction of fractions -- these give the prerequisite confidence needed to play the mind games of explorations in math, logic and algebras.
The discover it yourself approaches are like throwing a three year old in a ten foot deep pool and saying "Swim", or like making the first driving lesson for a 16 year old pulling unto a freeway at rush hour, at twilight in the rain. Predictable disasters!
Language is all abstracted symbols, but the manipulations on language elements are loosely ruled. And language is learned so early that the child is not conscious of the abstracted nature of it. Thus language and problem solving using language only give a vague hint of how to do math.
However learning rote how to count, how to add numbers from 1-100, how to subtract same, memorizing times table, learning long division, learning fractions and reduction of fractions -- these give the prerequisite confidence needed to play the mind games of explorations in math, logic and algebras.
The discover it yourself approaches are like throwing a three year old in a ten foot deep pool and saying "Swim", or like making the first driving lesson for a 16 year old pulling unto a freeway at rush hour, at twilight in the rain. Predictable disasters!
Do you really think that with the brain that either evolution handed down, or God bestowed upon us, we are incapable of learning science and math if we put our mind to it? Absolutely not! We can all learn everything taught in school, it merely requires effort, determination, and perseverance.
Amen! I wanted to repeat it for the Bell Curve crowd here.
Our sons are homeschooled. Science is no problem for them, though they do have to explain it to me. ;-) But math: #1 is a math whiz, and #3 is quickly becoming one. But I thought #2 would never learn it, even though I spent more time with him than the other two. We'd kept him out of school because we feared he would be labeled, and I was beginning to think maybe he really can't do math. Maybe there's something wrong. He was doing math a year behind schedule and struggling even with that...
...until a month ago, when one day he commented out of the blue, "I'll never get into college." (Note: He's 10.) LOL. ;-) Immediately, he set himself to the task, and he progressed very quickly. To my amazement, within a month, he has caught up to grade level, and now math is his favorite subject. He's so proud of himself. :-)
No one can make someone learn anything. That someone has to want to do it.