Posted on 12/19/2017 2:44:20 PM PST by RicocheT
"The U.S. is about to spend a small fortune on teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM....That’s a good investment in theory, but the American education system is in no position to make the most of it."
"...Students should reach college prepared to take serious science and engineering courses, yet many don’t. Our math teaching is half a century out of date, and without math there is no STEM. Computer science builds on electronics and “discrete mathematics,” as opposed to the classical type leading to calculus."
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Those are not stem toys. Stem toys are broken bicycles, lawnmowers, tractors, an old truck, a welder, a lathe, a mill and a job building things.
Having little or no money and a desire for things you don’t have and can’t get other than to fix or build them helps too.
I don’t know what it takes to be an electrical or chemical engineer. I never have really figured out what makes those guys tick.
“I was a Business major with a concentration in programming. And I have an Accounting degree. So no Math really”
Wow, so you are saying you do not have to understand programming implications of Binary, Octal, and Hex (all are math)?
You definitely are in a different programming environment than I experienced.
It also coincides with the desire to flatten out any racial/class differences in scholastic performance. The false notion that you can raise one group up by tearing another group down. Additionally the general cultural decline where the bottom sets the cultural agenda and all others ape it.
Alinsky the cause of the all, I doubt it. You give him too much credit.
Real useful guidance to kids is apparently STILL useless.
I have a good acquaintance who was a chemistry major via a career in well construction operations. He made COO in an oil company. Another majored in Physics, did a tour in the army as a combat engineer then came back and slogged his way to a masters in Petroleum Engineering along with his wife and two children.
There is too much information available today for children to not take responsibility and dig though to find their own answers. That is unless they are too busy playing grab ass and sports. There is no reason to be ignorant unless you are not too swift and if you are not too swift you don’t need to know about engineering as a life’s work. This does not mean you can’t do something else and be successful though. The most wealthy guy in my Dad’s high school class was a trash hauler. Some guidance from someone who can suggest the right questions to ask though would be helpful to youngsters.
Too old soon, too late smart (experienced is more like it)
Art is only essential for self-actualization for someone who can’t fill that need by building something functional and pleasing to himself and useful to others.
I like art but I would rather create something useful. It takes all kinds. Art I really admire though is someone who can compose or play an instrument well because I can’t do that... yet.
HALF LIFE of STEM
STEM careers have a half life of only a few years.
By the time you approach 40 years or 35 years old,
you had better be well into your stable career of auto mechanic or heating/air conditioning.
STEM operates on 1 to 3 month Projects, but real mortgages are 30 years for a house. Houston, we have a probldm here.
Do not do STEM.
It would be OK if the STEAM curriculum were composed of Thermodynamics. (Little play on a branch of physics).
All that matters is price.
I remember this teacher who said to keep paper and pencil by your bed because you will figure equations in your dreams. The first time that happened I went in to the chalk talkers( math club) and told them, and one guy looked at me rolling his eyes " What a dorko, took you long enough, we all did that since we were kids!."
As a retired Physicist, let me assure you that you couldn’t be more wrong. I used Calculus literally every day in my research.
Congrats. I remember engineering school I think there were five women, two or three graduated. Don't know what year you were in but back in the later 70's early 80's there just wasn't that much interest with women in engineering. That is cool!
Hey App:
I am STEM(Programmer). Math was unnecessary.
Where did you learn to think logically - typing or recess?
Nicely played
Competent managers base their decisions on profitability, not cost.
I don't mind the idiots who don't know any better and hire third-world cheapos. Invariably they come to me to clean up the bird cages, and I hammer them for it at the cash register.
You’re right ii is a shame it’s not emphasized. If I had a “conspiracy theory” frame of mind I would think it was by design.
They haven’t figured out a way to test “proofs”. If it’s not tested - it’s not taught
Thanks, I graduated in 1981. Yeah, we were a rarity. And I had to pull my own weight to verify that I belonged there. I’ve always loved math so it came pretty easily to me. I tutored engineering on campus my junior and senior year. The professors and my fellow students eventually got to see me as just one of them. However, there was another woman in some of my classes who they said was just there for an MRS degree. She really didn’t do any worse than some of the guys, but you know how they talk…
That’s true, nowadays it is so much easier. Kids can Google all the information that they want to get. And yet are still more ignorant than prior generations. Go figure.
Teach, hell! They can't "do" the math themselves. Schools should be hiring retired engineers and chemists to teach math and science, but the "managers" of the "ed biz" put far more value on the "teaching credential" than actually knowing the subject matter.
That is because they know the answer and not the reason.
Government ed is a massive failure. The only thing that will save US education is to privatize it at all levels. The other uncomfortable fact in this is that many people are not capable of understanding any of these subjects. Leftists refuse to believe that some are more intelligent than others.
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