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At the risk of being downvoted, let me rant: We need to reinstate hard-assed, traditional, back to basics curriculum. Period. Get rid of teacher credentialin

At the risk of being downvoted, let me rant: We need to reinstate hard-assed, traditional, back to basics curriculum. Period. Get rid of teacher credentialing systems and touchy-feely bullshit, and have kids start memorizing formulas, diagramming sentences, and reading classics again. And have them do A LOT of homework. And quit telling them and their parents that the primary thing is to have fun and feel satisfied -- it isn't. Then we won't have a goddam brain drain -- it is an embarrassment to the American people that we can't educate ourselves.

bilbo0s 17y ago
Wish I could upvote this more. Doesn't matter the color of the student, EVERYONE should be getting pushed right now. Bravo wsprague
tokenadult 17y ago
I have a somewhat different kind of suggestion for what would most improve math teaching in the United States. See some of my favorite articles on the subject by mathematicians http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/amed1.pdf http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/ame... http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/index.html http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/ind... http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0503/0503081v1.pdf http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0503/0503081v1.pdf for the idea that proper mathematical education includes learning certain facts by heart through practice, but also includes a lot of flexibility of thinking and making deep connections between seemingly unrelated subjects.
- wsprague 17y ago
  My only concern is that we have to come up with a plan that can be explained to the 100,000 or primary school teachers in the USA. Rarefied curriculums are like rarefied programming languages -- they don't "take", or they just distract. We need a Python, not an ML to explain to folks, and, honestly, "drill the crap out of your students and test them regularly" is easy to explain in a staff meeting... and would be a vast improvement over the BS that passes for education these days.
alextp 17y ago
I agree with you in principle but not in practice. Yes, feel-good bulshit is bad, yes, people should study more, etc. I just don't think you would really like to breed a country full of tied-down people trained to death to repeat and worship whatever it is they learned at school. I tend to think of myself as intelligent enough, and I know for sure that I would never survive school with drilled exercises and a classical education (I find most of the classic authors dull and naive; latin is an overrated language; the greek philosophers, specially, only sound smart when read with tons of allowances like one reads the bible). Also, any sort of education focused on getting exercises and drills "right" without discussion will only breed conformists and people without creativity. I don't know. The way it sounds to me is that there is a worship of some sorts of classical culture and discipline that I find deplorable. What I would change in american schooling would be: more geography, real history (without turning famous people such as the founding fathers or Ben Franklin or Abe Lincoln into mythological images and instead studying them in their socio-political context with all flaws included), less emphasis on pseudo-cultural non-academic activities (debating club, etc) in admissions office.

bilbo0s 17y ago

Wish I could upvote this more. Doesn't matter the color of the student, EVERYONE should be getting pushed right now. Bravo wsprague

tokenadult 17y ago

I have a somewhat different kind of suggestion for what would most improve math teaching in the United States. See some of my favorite articles on the subject by mathematicians http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/amed1.pdf http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/ame... http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/index.html http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99/ind... http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0503/0503081v1.pdf http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/math/pdf/0503/0503081v1.pdf for the idea that proper mathematical education includes learning certain facts by heart through practice, but also includes a lot of flexibility of thinking and making deep connections between seemingly unrelated subjects.

wsprague 17y ago
My only concern is that we have to come up with a plan that can be explained to the 100,000 or primary school teachers in the USA. Rarefied curriculums are like rarefied programming languages -- they don't "take", or they just distract. We need a Python, not an ML to explain to folks, and, honestly, "drill the crap out of your students and test them regularly" is easy to explain in a staff meeting... and would be a vast improvement over the BS that passes for education these days.

alextp 17y ago

I agree with you in principle but not in practice. Yes, feel-good bulshit is bad, yes, people should study more, etc. I just don't think you would really like to breed a country full of tied-down people trained to death to repeat and worship whatever it is they learned at school. I tend to think of myself as intelligent enough, and I know for sure that I would never survive school with drilled exercises and a classical education (I find most of the classic authors dull and naive; latin is an overrated language; the greek philosophers, specially, only sound smart when read with tons of allowances like one reads the bible). Also, any sort of education focused on getting exercises and drills "right" without discussion will only breed conformists and people without creativity. I don't know. The way it sounds to me is that there is a worship of some sorts of classical culture and discipline that I find deplorable. What I would change in american schooling would be: more geography, real history (without turning famous people such as the founding fathers or Ben Franklin or Abe Lincoln into mythological images and instead studying them in their socio-political context with all flaws included), less emphasis on pseudo-cultural non-academic activities (debating club, etc) in admissions office.