What do they teach in K-12 these days, anything????

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

I've been out of K-12 going on 5 years now, but I heard rumors as to what my school now teaches.

When I was there, cursive was made optional in 2nd grade; most of us opted to use chicken scratch (or, a hybrid language between the two). 5th grade, we had to learn band, "music", and choir. Middle school still had the typical classes, but in our case, we had a block devoted to various "shop" mechanics (for example, I worked with plastic molds, programming, how to write checks and maintaining a check book, use a simple CNC for small items). Highschool had three special classes:

1. Global Awareness I & II (History credits) - These classes were devoted to the dark side of history (aka, the stuff we talked about on ATS all the time - also known as Conspiracy Hour 101).

2. Honors-Level Science classes: All 4 of my high school years were spent with these long classes; I got to see how all of the maths and sciences interacted with each other, as opposed to seeing them all separate.

3. Research - Here, I got special blocks in the day to run scientific experiments. You did one project a year, and had to go through all the steps of the scientific method. At the end of the year, you presented your findings, and made a college-level presentation complete with a paper. 4 projects total by the end of the year. That class, if any of them, prepped me for the real world.

Now, from what I've heard: The classes at the middle school and high school became more "structured" since I left. There's been cut back on classes that allow one a "break" (music, art, programming). The hands-on research class became a worthless AP course (where you are taught how to do an experiment rather than doing it; and it's one course for one year, not 4 year's worth of courses). They also increased the typical school day hours.

I'm glad I got out when I did - because after my grade left, thing's went downhill quickly.

-fossilera

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

They teach "Google".

They don't train the child to obtain knowledge, they train the children to "Google". What I mean by that is that they train children a way to find out what 2+2 is without actually doing the work.

They don't teach HOW to determine what 2 + 2 is.


Why learn the states when you can simply "Google" it?

I blame calculators. When I was in school, calculator were banned from use. We actually had to learn the fundamentals of math and reason why the square root of 81 was 9.

Now? Math classes teach students how to use calculators.

Take away someone's iPhone/computer and they are morons, completely helpless.


Anyway, just my take on it.