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Two articles on the front page. One lamenting that college graduates don't have any real skills and the other saying that Kindergarten is now harder than ever.

qntty 11y ago
Maybe not unrelated New research sounds a particularly disquieting note. A major evaluation of Tennessee’s publicly funded preschool system, published in September, found that although children who had attended preschool initially exhibited more “school readiness” skills when they entered kindergarten than did their non-preschool-attending peers, by the time they were in first grade their attitudes toward school were deteriorating. And by second grade they performed worse on tests measuring literacy, language, and math skills. The researchers told New York magazine that overreliance on direct instruction and repetitive, poorly structured pedagogy were likely culprits; children who’d been subjected to the same insipid tasks year after year after year were understandably losing their enthusiasm for learning.
- chrisdbaldwin 11y ago
  > ... children who’d been subjected to the same insipid tasks year after year after year were understandably losing their enthusiasm for learning. And yet we pretend this isn't by design! The US system is based on 18th-19th century's Prussian system which was used in their military to create more obedient soldiers. That's why school is soul crushing and so many children suffer in school. We are teaching them obedience above all else. The system stinks.
  - cafard 11y ago
    I think that the Prussian bit is overdone. For one thing, the Prussian government was not trying to create more obedient soldiers--it had ample & brutal discipline for that--but literate ones. For another, it was the widespread literacy that US reformers were looking at.
- lintiness 11y ago
  maybe their "attitudes toward school were deteriorating" because they were in classrooms slowed by the non-preschool students. it's always seemed to me that policy like "no child left behind" is fundamentally misguided: teaching for average rather than excellence. isn't society better served by a few outstanding students meeting their maximum potential than it is by the group meeting some mean?
  - anigbrowl 11y ago
    Maybe, maybe not. That's sort of the French approach, and French society is very classist with rule by elite. Mass literacy has turned out to be economically better than having only the upper and professional classes able to read, I'd say. This seems like the sort of thing you should be able to experiment with a simulation environment.
MIKarlsen 11y ago
I can't seem to find the one about college graduates. Could you point me in the right direction?

qntty 11y ago

Maybe not unrelated New research sounds a particularly disquieting note. A major evaluation of Tennessee’s publicly funded preschool system, published in September, found that although children who had attended preschool initially exhibited more “school readiness” skills when they entered kindergarten than did their non-preschool-attending peers, by the time they were in first grade their attitudes toward school were deteriorating. And by second grade they performed worse on tests measuring literacy, language, and math skills. The researchers told New York magazine that overreliance on direct instruction and repetitive, poorly structured pedagogy were likely culprits; children who’d been subjected to the same insipid tasks year after year after year were understandably losing their enthusiasm for learning.

chrisdbaldwin 11y ago
> ... children who’d been subjected to the same insipid tasks year after year after year were understandably losing their enthusiasm for learning. And yet we pretend this isn't by design! The US system is based on 18th-19th century's Prussian system which was used in their military to create more obedient soldiers. That's why school is soul crushing and so many children suffer in school. We are teaching them obedience above all else. The system stinks.
- cafard 11y ago
  I think that the Prussian bit is overdone. For one thing, the Prussian government was not trying to create more obedient soldiers--it had ample & brutal discipline for that--but literate ones. For another, it was the widespread literacy that US reformers were looking at.
lintiness 11y ago
maybe their "attitudes toward school were deteriorating" because they were in classrooms slowed by the non-preschool students. it's always seemed to me that policy like "no child left behind" is fundamentally misguided: teaching for average rather than excellence. isn't society better served by a few outstanding students meeting their maximum potential than it is by the group meeting some mean?
- anigbrowl 11y ago
  Maybe, maybe not. That's sort of the French approach, and French society is very classist with rule by elite. Mass literacy has turned out to be economically better than having only the upper and professional classes able to read, I'd say. This seems like the sort of thing you should be able to experiment with a simulation environment.

MIKarlsen 11y ago

I can't seem to find the one about college graduates. Could you point me in the right direction?