Almost 70% of 8th Grader are Stupid...

a reply to: Cygnis

As far as I can tell, standards are being lowered not risen. No quite seriously From the University level on down, it seems to be being dumbed down.

a reply to: Edumakated

I learnt more out of school than when I did attending school. Hell a drunk sixty four year old taught me more about electronics than high school ever did. I believe there are three key words to help kids grow their minds-make learning fun.

Hands up if you enjoyed a teacher who just scribbled stuff on a chalkboard? i'm guessing there is not many raised hands. My English teachers in high school used to give us unorthodox assignments like promoting a product, reviewing a product from a medium of their choice, that sort of thing. I have no idea what an adverb is but I got an A in Enlish for years on end throughout primary and high school because we were taught in an unorthodox manor, and this teaching method could be applied to any other class.

I believe that teachers should have a hands on approach...to teaching-not the Catholic school style of teaching but allowing students to enjoy learning through varying activities.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Edumakated

Stupid? No.

It's called ignorant. They're uneducated. Which is not the same as stupid.

If the maths problems are expressed in concepts they can understand in their environment, they can solve them.
This led to one teacher being suspended and fired for her exam paper:

www.mirror.co.uk...

a reply to: stormcell

Holy crap...

I'm not even sure where to go with that. It's almost painful to be rendered speechless like this...on an internet chat board no less.

How'd the kids do?

a reply to: Edumakated

If youre gonna call a large group of people stupid, at least use proper grammar in your title, moron. I think you were one of those stupid kids.

a reply to: seagull

That is an extreme example of teacher burnout if I ever saw one. At least I hope that's what it is.

I read that and the only thing I could think of was June Cleaver talking jive in airplane.

a reply to: ketsuko

It's possible. But we have to be honest, the situation ain't going to get better with the same people who messed it up, trying to fix it up.

Bmore needs some actually doers.

The education system was hijacked long ago. Now you may reap the "benefits."

Something I always thought of when it came to the public school systems.

Why not pay the kids for good grades? As I see it the system is carrots and sticks but there are far too many sticks holding the kids back. And a lot of the kids are not actually thinking about their future as adults. And for the 10 and under crowd adulthood is still a lifetime away from them. Why would they think about something that's a abstract concept at that point in their lives? Most kids are just trying to get to next week. And summer vacation. School is something to be endured. If they could most of them would just quit and play video games all day.

But if you added a financial incentive for the kids to do well I think a lot of them would just to get the money.

Say if the kid gets graded on 8 subjects during the school year give them like $10 a week for a quarter they get an A. $2 a week for a B and nothing for a C or lower. Imagine how animated some of those inner city kids would get for a free $80 a week.

Think about it. Put them on salary.

a reply to: ntech

And the money for this idea would come from where?

a reply to: Aazadan

Raise taxes of course.

Isn't that the answer for everything, according to many?

We haven't been raising standards, we have been lowering them so JoJo the idiot boy doesn't get his feelings hurt when all the other kids get promoted to the next grade. We can't have that. So lets dumb them all down until JoJo fits right in with the rest. Who cares if the rest of the world is advancing and passing us in nearly every category? Our kids may not know math or English but they have learned that being masculine is a mental health disorder and being butthurt is how politics works.

a reply to: Aazadan

And the money for this idea would come from where?

Same place all money comes from: nowhere!
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Perhaps we could motivate the kids by actually giving them interesting challenges?

a reply to: ntech

Wouldn't it be better to have them want to learn?

Pay 'em for an A? What's to keep 'em from cheating? After all, that money is incentive to do that, as well.

No. The answer, as it's always been is good teachers, preferably great ones, who make learning fun.

Over the years, I've had many a teacher, on many a topic, yet the one teacher that I'll forever hold above all others is Mrs. Anderson, my 4th grade teacher.

Almost 50 years have passed since a little boy sat in her classroom, yet I remember, with great respect and affection virtually every day in that classroom. The same thing can not be said for many of the other teachers I had. Many, I can't even remember their names, muchless that she couldn't abide the feel of chalk dust on her hands, so she had a special chalkstick holder, and an undying love of Mark Twain--she read to us in class every afternoon, and the works of Mark Twain featured prominently, it's where my love of Twain originated.

No, the answer isn't money--though that does help--it's having teachers to whom teaching isn't a job...it's a calling from something outside of themselves.

When teacher love their calling, kids will respond, and love to learn.

I coached Youth Soccer for many years, and too often I saw kids not having fun, because the coaches, and too often the parents, weren't there to have fun...

Again, I lucked out on that--My first coach was Mr. Corn, by day he ran a very successful tree trimming business, by night he was a very enthusiastic soccer coach--who knew less about the game than many of us kids --but what he had was an infectious sense of fun. I was one of those kids who knew more about the game than he did, what I didn't know, and he taught me, was how to be good at it, yet still have fun.

The same can be said for the classroom. Enthusiasm. Fun. Learning. Not mutually exclusive, yet somewhere along the line, that seems to be being forgotten.

Now I'm ramblin'...

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Aazadan

Raise taxes of course.

Isn't that the answer for everything, according to many?

It's the answer to many things, though I do wonder if the money could be spent more effectively. Assume this program is successful, lets say the average payout is $30 per week per student. There's about 40 million school age kids in the US. 40 million * $30/week is $1.2 billion. There's about 36 weeks of school, so that's a $43.2 billion dollar program. In contrast, if we funneled that money directly to teachers to raise their salaries and hire better teachers you would be talking about a $47,000 per year raise for teachers, or increasing their salaries by over 100%.

a reply to: Aazadan

So are you suggesting : as long as we're indoctrinating the little buggers to become button-pushing sheep; might as well get them inculcated with some greed as well?
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'Cause greed isn't useful in controlling folks at all in our society, right?

a reply to: Edumakated

If the System was set up to focus primarily on learning rather than socialization, we'd see a lot more bright minds coming out of these Institutions. People generally grow faster in knowledge after they leave them, than while they're in them, due to letting go of the hive mind mentality and learning to question everything rather than mindlessly embracing everything they're told to.

originally posted by: Vroomfondel
We haven't been raising standards, we have been lowering them so JoJo the idiot boy doesn't get his feelings hurt when all the other kids get promoted to the next grade. We can't have that. So lets dumb them all down until JoJo fits right in with the rest. Who cares if the rest of the world is advancing and passing us in nearly every category? Our kids may not know math or English but they have learned that being masculine is a mental health disorder and being butthurt is how politics works.

The lowering of education standards is by design, the population is too high and smart educated people are a problem for big government, Jojo the idiot boy is the sales gimmick used to sell the general public as to why the standards are lowered.

The lowered standards are apparent in the Alfie Evans threads.

originally posted by: Nothin
a reply to: Aazadan

So are you suggesting : as long as we're indoctrinating the little buggers to become button-pushing sheep; might as well get them inculcated with some greed as well?
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'Cause greed isn't useful in controlling folks at all in our society, right?

Well, my first question is to challenge your assertion that the school system is indoctrination.

Can we agree that the primary purpose of grade school it to create an adult who has basic life skills and knows how to behave in society? Which isn't to be confused with job skills.

If we can agree on that, then can we agree that there's certain behaviors that should be conformed to? That's not indoctrination, that's just getting people to meet a certain minimum standard.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

It is against a governments own self interest to want a dumbed down society. A dumbed down society means there are fewer thinkers in society to create taxable products, it reduces GDP and therefore reduces the governments income. Furthermore, it means there is a shortage of educated individuals to hold government positions.