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>> Across the 14 OECD countries within the 20 nations surveyed — including the US, Italy and the Netherlands — an average of 18 per cent of teens had difficulti

by tekla 2y ago

>> Across the 14 OECD countries within the 20 nations surveyed — including the US, Italy and the Netherlands — an average of 18 per cent of teens had difficulties using division to handle their finances. >> These low-performing students struggled with everyday spending decisions, such as calculating whether buying tomatoes by the box or kilogramme was better value. I have a hard time imagining how low education standards are.

galdosdi 2y ago
Let me help your imagination then! I substitute taught 10th grade math at a Midwestern public school district for half a year in 2021 I had multiple students who pulled out their calculators to multiply by 1 or by 0. This is extreme, most weren't that bad, but the median student was pretty confused about fractions. I was supposed to teach sines and cosines.
- dehrmann 2y ago
  And people wonder why you need a college degree for most jobs; all a high school diploma shows is you mostly showed up.
  - galdosdi 2y ago
    Didn't used to be this way. I recently looked at my mom's 1960s history book from 5th grade she found in her old things, and was pretty surprised at how the reading and content seemed be aimed at a similar level as 8th or 9th grade when I went to school in the 90s. And what I experienced when I worked in schools in 2021 was far lower standards than even then. I wonder if it just has to do with the low hanging fruit effect -- productivity goes down as you extend from harvesting just the lowest hanging fruit to all the fruit, even the most marginal. When my mom went to high school, she was the only one in her family who went. In the time and place she grew up in, going to high school was as rare and impressive as getting a postgraduate degree is today. Only students with sufficient motivation would even attempt high school. Needless to say, you don't have to worry about disruptive kids or keeping them motivated in that environment.
    - fxtentacle 2y ago
      Agree. It seems the modern "nobody left behind" approach had the unintended consequence of optimising for the lowest common denominator, which will obviously be a very low skill level.
  - hirvi74 2y ago
    There are a lot of college degrees like this too.
corimaith 2y ago
I can understand for the US where budgets have been slashed along with failures in specific policy like Common Core, but why is this also happening in other countries where there should be greater support systems? The Nordic countries falling behind USA is especially shocking, given their more homogeneous societies.
- Kon-Peki 2y ago
  Common Core would have been incredible if it weren't for the sellout state boards of education doing whatever the giant education corporations told (paid?) them to do. It would have finally given teachers the ability to manage individualized education for every student in their classes. Instead, we continue to heap more and more demands on teachers without any concern on whether a single human is able to meet them. And to make up for it, we continue to let the standards slip. Because there is no other option.

by tekla 2y ago

galdosdi 2y ago

Let me help your imagination then! I substitute taught 10th grade math at a Midwestern public school district for half a year in 2021 I had multiple students who pulled out their calculators to multiply by 1 or by 0. This is extreme, most weren't that bad, but the median student was pretty confused about fractions. I was supposed to teach sines and cosines.

dehrmann 2y ago
And people wonder why you need a college degree for most jobs; all a high school diploma shows is you mostly showed up.
- galdosdi 2y ago
  Didn't used to be this way. I recently looked at my mom's 1960s history book from 5th grade she found in her old things, and was pretty surprised at how the reading and content seemed be aimed at a similar level as 8th or 9th grade when I went to school in the 90s. And what I experienced when I worked in schools in 2021 was far lower standards than even then. I wonder if it just has to do with the low hanging fruit effect -- productivity goes down as you extend from harvesting just the lowest hanging fruit to all the fruit, even the most marginal. When my mom went to high school, she was the only one in her family who went. In the time and place she grew up in, going to high school was as rare and impressive as getting a postgraduate degree is today. Only students with sufficient motivation would even attempt high school. Needless to say, you don't have to worry about disruptive kids or keeping them motivated in that environment.
  - fxtentacle 2y ago
    Agree. It seems the modern "nobody left behind" approach had the unintended consequence of optimising for the lowest common denominator, which will obviously be a very low skill level.
- hirvi74 2y ago
  There are a lot of college degrees like this too.

corimaith 2y ago

I can understand for the US where budgets have been slashed along with failures in specific policy like Common Core, but why is this also happening in other countries where there should be greater support systems? The Nordic countries falling behind USA is especially shocking, given their more homogeneous societies.

Kon-Peki 2y ago
Common Core would have been incredible if it weren't for the sellout state boards of education doing whatever the giant education corporations told (paid?) them to do. It would have finally given teachers the ability to manage individualized education for every student in their classes. Instead, we continue to heap more and more demands on teachers without any concern on whether a single human is able to meet them. And to make up for it, we continue to let the standards slip. Because there is no other option.