Helping Goose with her math homework...

[unixronin]

... I find myself seriously beginning to question whether it is the goal of the US primary education system to achieve a specified uniform standard of education, or a specified uniform standard of ignorance.  Goose's fourth-grade math class doesn't seem to be about teaching kids to do math, as to teach them the metaphorical equivalent of counting on their fingers.  For instance, in questions on making change, they're not allowed to say "Three quarters, a dime and three pennies," they're required to draw little pictures of rows of coins.  HELLO???  That's going to stand them in great stead when they're figuring out if they can make their rent and their car payment out of their Wal-Mart paycheck, isn't it?

(Hmm, on second thoughts, for a Wal-Mart paycheck, maybe just lining up rows of coins would be practical....)

Comments

Indeed.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

And the principle of mediocrity comes home to roost once again.

This is the great failure of the commons: To mandate that everyone should have equal access to everything, is to mandate that everything be lowered to a level attainable by the least.

Re: Indeed.

[freetrav.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's the principle of mediocrity; I think it's far worse. Consider: In many states, mine among them, the education pie has a limited size. In my state, the group that has unlimited first call on funds are those students who have 'special needs' - physical or mental handicaps, requiring special accommodations - and there is NO LIMIT on what the state must spend on these children - there is one school that specializes in handling a certain kind of handicapped child; one family at the other end of the state from the school has their child flown home every weekend - and not commercially - and flown back to live at the school every week - because the parent insisted that the child go to that school, rather than accept the arrangement that the district proposed - but because the child is handicapped, the child's home district foots the bill. No discretion. And these are the children that represent the LOWEST return on investment. Meanwhile, the children that would represent the HIGHEST return on investment - the ones that it is politically incorrect to call 'gifted and talented' - are having programs aimed at their needs cut, and cut, and cut some more, because after the wastes suck up as much as they can, the 'average' kids - whose average is getting lower and lower, definitely - get next call, and there isn't really enough money for them after the wastes are done.

Worst off are the 'special needs' kids that were like me - tremendously intelligent, but with psychological issues ranging from emotionally-developmentally disabled to mild austistic-spectrum disorders (e.g., Asperger's) - they get squat, tossed into the 'mainstream' (average/normal) classes, where they're disruptive and don't get stretched to their full potential.

Urf. Am I on a goddam soapbox again?