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Part of it is leveling, but another part is trying to tone down the tournament aspect of K-12 education, that places undue stress on kids without necessarily ma
by analog31 5y ago
Part of it is leveling, but another part is trying to tone down the tournament aspect of K-12 education, that places undue stress on kids without necessarily making them any smarter in the long run. How many AP classes is your kid taking? That's a huge drag on the kids who enjoy learning more than they enjoy competition.
And the kids who are "advanced" in math greatly outnumber those who are still doing anything with math by age 25, which is close to zero, even in supposedly technical fields. I was not an exceptional math student in high school, but became a math major and still use math today.
And it distorts the subject matter itself. 40 years ago, my high school didn't offer calculus because it would be "elitist," though we did have an elite hockey team. But at the same time, we got more interesting material in math, including proofs and problems that had no answer. Today: No proofs, but lots of drill work. Proofs were what made math come alive for me.
- mattcwilson 5y agoI would need to see far less emphasis on competition sports and extracurricular activities in American schools before I could credibly entertain an argument that it’s academics that is creating unreasonable pressure on kids to succeed. It’s a school. You are literally there to learn things.
- civilized 5y agoThe worst kind of Envious Levelers are the hypocrites. They want to compete in the arenas they believe they can win in, like sports. They only want to stifle competition in areas where they feel lesser and don't want anyone potentially looking better than them.
- civilized 5y agoSome people like to compete. Others don't. Are we to understand that the latter can't tolerate the existence of the former?