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Because back then the only math you needed was enough to count the animals on your farm and the size of your harvest? These days, high school is much more focu

Because back then the only math you needed was enough to count the animals on your farm and the size of your harvest? These days, high school is much more focused on being a generalized preparation for a college education, giving students a wide variety of knowledge in hopes that something of that lot interests them enough that they know what career they would like to further pursue.

ant5 16y ago
> Because back then the only math you needed was enough to count the animals on your farm and the size of your harvest? I can't think of any complex topic -- on par with school maths and science -- that took one hour a day for 180 days to learn, outside of the time I spent in school. > These days, high school is much more focused on being a generalized preparation for a college education, giving students a wide variety of knowledge in hopes that something of that lot interests them enough that they know what career they would like to further pursue. Translation: High school focuses entirely on college preparation to the detriment of encouraging useful, immediate work that demonstrates the basic cause and effect of applying real work output to produce genuine value. It strongly discourages interested teenagers from focusing on a specific area of real-world economic exchange, and perpetuates their state of child-like helplessness well into their 20s.
bmj 16y ago
The problem with this approach is that it immensely devalues non-knowledge-based jobs, which still very much serve as the backbone of our infrastructure.
- shadowfox 16y ago
  How do you suggest we remedy this?
  - pwhelan 16y ago
    I would imagine bringing back "shop class" would be a good start. Or allowing students to take electrician, plumbing, etc classes at another school for credit would be a good start. I much rather would have taken Electrician 101 than Introduction to Percussion in high school.
  - bmj 16y ago
    The other commenter makes a good point, but I also think we simply acknowledge that there are some jobs that do not require a full college-preparatory education. There are some trade schools available, but these are generally viewed as being for people who couldn't cut it, rather than people who have decided that the university route probably isn't for them.
patrickgzill 16y ago
Have you ever looked at what was required of an 8th-grade education "back in the day"? It was much more than counting bushels and goats. Assuming this is accurate: http://people.moreheadstate.edu/fs/w.willis/eighthgrade.html http://people.moreheadstate.edu/fs/w.willis/eighthgrade.html ... you can see that this has algebra, volume calculations, weights and measures, etc. I know many high school graduates that would have difficulty with both the math and other portions of the test. And, before you say that this is not representative, let me tell you that I have known many old farmers with only an 8th grade education who were in fact, able to operate at the above test's level. I recall in particular one couple that built a series of multi-million dollar nursing homes, learning to read and interpret blueprints and handle an architect's rule, on just such an 8th grade education.
- chbarts 16y ago
  > Assuming this is accurate: It isn't: http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

ant5 16y ago

> Because back then the only math you needed was enough to count the animals on your farm and the size of your harvest? I can't think of any complex topic -- on par with school maths and science -- that took one hour a day for 180 days to learn, outside of the time I spent in school. > These days, high school is much more focused on being a generalized preparation for a college education, giving students a wide variety of knowledge in hopes that something of that lot interests them enough that they know what career they would like to further pursue. Translation: High school focuses entirely on college preparation to the detriment of encouraging useful, immediate work that demonstrates the basic cause and effect of applying real work output to produce genuine value. It strongly discourages interested teenagers from focusing on a specific area of real-world economic exchange, and perpetuates their state of child-like helplessness well into their 20s.

bmj 16y ago

The problem with this approach is that it immensely devalues non-knowledge-based jobs, which still very much serve as the backbone of our infrastructure.

shadowfox 16y ago
How do you suggest we remedy this?
- pwhelan 16y ago
  I would imagine bringing back "shop class" would be a good start. Or allowing students to take electrician, plumbing, etc classes at another school for credit would be a good start. I much rather would have taken Electrician 101 than Introduction to Percussion in high school.
- bmj 16y ago
  The other commenter makes a good point, but I also think we simply acknowledge that there are some jobs that do not require a full college-preparatory education. There are some trade schools available, but these are generally viewed as being for people who couldn't cut it, rather than people who have decided that the university route probably isn't for them.

patrickgzill 16y ago

Have you ever looked at what was required of an 8th-grade education "back in the day"? It was much more than counting bushels and goats. Assuming this is accurate: http://people.moreheadstate.edu/fs/w.willis/eighthgrade.html http://people.moreheadstate.edu/fs/w.willis/eighthgrade.html ... you can see that this has algebra, volume calculations, weights and measures, etc. I know many high school graduates that would have difficulty with both the math and other portions of the test. And, before you say that this is not representative, let me tell you that I have known many old farmers with only an 8th grade education who were in fact, able to operate at the above test's level. I recall in particular one couple that built a series of multi-million dollar nursing homes, learning to read and interpret blueprints and handle an architect's rule, on just such an 8th grade education.

chbarts 16y ago
> Assuming this is accurate: It isn't: http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp