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walstan
Guest
As a member of the “Bar” the drinks must be on you!!!
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Richardols
Guest
Why not? Belly-up!
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otm
Guest
Your humor quotient appears to be a bit small. I wasn’t trying to jerk your chain - at least, not really hard.
However, I have been around long enough to know that a whole lot of goofy ideas have come out of California. And not all of them have been from private citizens and private businesses.
Seems they had this governor some time back who decided that development was a bad word, so he locked down the road building projects in the state. As in, “The freeway stops here”. did wonders for the then current real estate owners, as it did lock down development, and in turn drove house prices through the roof. And they are still astronomical.
By the way, I would challenge you that the “pass through” is not part of political correctness; some of the goofy ideas that get passed off as new learning models have kept Johnny and Suzie from learning to read and write, and they just got moved along with the rest of their class. Wouldn’t be politically correct to make comparisons. Besides, they had **so much ** self esteem!
And the go around that went over bi-lingual education vs. education in one language - English, to be exact - set off a firestorm of protests, never mind the statistically significant higher test scores from the groups who abandoned the politically correct dual language mode. It was a right nice firestorm that issue created.
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otm
Guest
Well, if you look at learning as a contiuum, then perhaps those first few weeks do amount to something. On the other hand, if you look at learing as a series of discrete events, then you are right, whatever happens in the first few weeks doesn’t amount to squat.
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AlanFromWichita
Guest
Hmmm.
How so?
How do these views differ in their ramifications for the importance on knowing the performance during the first week of the course when trying to establish a final grade?
Alan
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otm
Guest
Interesting question; the more I think about it, the more I think I should flip the two.
If learining is a contiuum, then it would not matter; the objective is to know the entire matteer, and if the foundational matter was not immediately grasped, but later understood along with the subsequent information in a way that tested the entire knowledge set, the early grade would be replaced by the later grade showing final absorbtion of the material.
However, if it were a discrete set, then the early grade would be sui juris; a law (or set) unto itself and having no interconnection with later material, and should not therefore have impact on the later material grade; in fact, one whould have a series of grades, not averaged, but each indicating performance on that discrete set of material.
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Thekla
Guest
So the problem is my inability to take a joke rather than your inability to tell one. That explains it. I’ve never met a child who can’t read or write. I’ve met many who can’t read or write at grade level and now they get to spend three years in 4th grade. Teachers believe that every child can learn, but learn at the same pace? the same amount? Only nitwits in government would fall for that one.
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batteddy
Guest
“What does homework have to do with a grade? Isn’t it like scratch paper where they learn their craft and then come in to show it off by performing on tests? Is this catering to those who do a lot of work but Couldn’t Care Less to do more than suffer through The Last Exam?”
As a high school student, and an exceptionally gifted one (in the top 5 in my year out of 300 definitely, probably top 3, maybe even #1) I totally agree.
It does two things, I’ve concluded: it allows the teachers to at once be exceptionally lazy, and exceptionally busy. It allows them to be at once extremely compassionate, and entirely bitchy.
They give all this homework, and I think the original intent is to inflate the grades with easy assignments. But then when kids don’t do it, they crack down and start yelling about “responsibility” and “not questioning authority”. And then they talk about how many hours they spend at home grading. Well, you wouldn’t have to grade so much if you didn’t assign so much. And then the whole establishment is flamingly liberal…well, the women and the gay men at least.
My chemistry teacher, however, who all the kids like more than their feminist and pro-gay, but extraordinarily bitter, English teachers…is a very conservative member of the NRA!!!
Even though Biology and English have to a great degree gone liberal…I though chemistry and math were exact sciences which this couldn’t be done to…but I’m apparently wrong about math.
As a high school student, and an exceptionally gifted one (in the top 5 in my year out of 300 definitely, probably top 3, maybe even #1) I totally agree.
It does two things, I’ve concluded: it allows the teachers to at once be exceptionally lazy, and exceptionally busy. It allows them to be at once extremely compassionate, and entirely bitchy.
They give all this homework, and I think the original intent is to inflate the grades with easy assignments. But then when kids don’t do it, they crack down and start yelling about “responsibility” and “not questioning authority”. And then they talk about how many hours they spend at home grading. Well, you wouldn’t have to grade so much if you didn’t assign so much. And then the whole establishment is flamingly liberal…well, the women and the gay men at least.
My chemistry teacher, however, who all the kids like more than their feminist and pro-gay, but extraordinarily bitter, English teachers…is a very conservative member of the NRA!!!
Even though Biology and English have to a great degree gone liberal…I though chemistry and math were exact sciences which this couldn’t be done to…but I’m apparently wrong about math.
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abcdefg
Guest
I love maths in its purest form. don’t bring those idiotic real life problem in.
1 gay + 1 lesbian = ?
1 gay + 1 lesbian = ?
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Peace-bwu
Guest
Funny, I hate math because my brain thinks a bit like you,relativistic, but less organized. From the time I was a first grader learning simple addition and subtraction I would see numbers like values of color and vibrations in space and start thinking of all the various things that could affect that value. It would cloud my thinking because I could never see a math problem as a simple math problem. I especially hate algebra, but always did very well in geometry because the problems are more specific with definitions etc. I could visualize the forms perfectly. Algebra is like torture for me uless I have a real life problem to work out. I got A’s in every subject in school but failed miserably at algebra until I took physics and micro and macro economics, then I was able to do it. I know that I learn math in a very different way, but doubt it has anything to do with my heritage… do you think they could devise a math course based specifically on a female of Hungarian/irish/German (Bavarian) descent with possibly a bit of African in the mix?Not if you’re talking X + X = 2X,
where X = 1
and the units are 10^5 miles/s
In this case,
Then if you, like me, are relativistic in your thinking of the universe, it’s really: 1 + 1 < 2 although for routine cases 1 + 1 = 2 because it works for most everyday arithmetic. For space cadets like me I have to account for the speed of light.
Alan
P.S. why? Well, clearly…
http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/mathfigs/eq-gamma.gif
of couse one would need to factor in all the enviromental conditions and individual personality traits…I want a Math curriculum just for me, that would be excellent.
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otm
Guest
And you’ve never had any pressure from parents to move the child, as that would hurt his or her self esteem, and they’d be teased?
And speaking of nitwits in government, who are the teachers employed by? Or are we only speaking of parochial schools?
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otm
Guest
batteddy said:
Maybe you can have perfect recollection of any statement, fact or figure, but most mere mortals learn by doing and re doing.
Sadly, homework is designed to help teach, but most students simply see it as a task to be put up with and grudingly dealt with, and think they have learned something if they can manage a half-witted response on a test.
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otm
Guest
the answer:
One androgyn.
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