May-11
30
A Test From 100 Years Ago
By
How many students in our government-run high schools could pass the math portion of this test without a calculator or even to be able to estimate the answer. Or how many can correctly answer one question pertaining to grammar.
I suspect very few.
No related posts.
This test is all well and good, but did this particular school provide the true educational necessities? What I am speaking of in particular is HSD 2025, Freshman Year Initiative and the newest group hug therapy. And even better, could these young skulls full of mush from 100 years ago roller skate and skate board like the Hudson students?
Modern Day Education
Interesting the subjects left off the test:Calculuschemistryanalysis of literatureShakespeareengineeringphysics<p>All of the above are available to the students of HHS (in between the hugging and “Kumbya” singing).
Sorry for the jumbled list above. I cannot seem to get the comment form to recognize paragraph breaks.
I never said that they weren’t any legitimate course offerings at the Hudson High School. The issue at hand is that there are way too many fluff courses and “feel good” programs. And what about the fact that the guy retiring with the roller skates around his neck is making more than someone teaching AP History? That’s not right and you know it.
The headline for this test states cleary that it was for eighth grade students. It looks like reading and comprehension are also lacking in government education.
I believe that while it is great that calculus, chemistry and a wide range of AP courses are available, what is missing is basic compentencies for all students. Yes, some are college bound and will succeed in whatever they choose to pursue. But those ‘left behind’ are lacking in just the basics. The left likes to talk about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, all because of those mean republicans. Might this be a case of the smart getting smarter and the less capable being allowed to become even less capable all at the hands of our liberal educrats?
I should have said ‘what is missing is basic competency for all students’….sorry for my incorrect grammar.
Dr.G., What do you define as “basic competency”?
Readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic. You know, basic sentence structure, the ability to solve simple, real life maht problems, a basic understanding of real history. Instead school kids today are taught ‘Real Math’ here in Hudson, which is the most bizarre math curriculum I have ever seen, they are read ‘Heather Has Two Mommies’ as gradeschool children, they are all put on a mission from a yound age to save the earth and the rainforests from mean, rich, white people, and the list goes on. Schools have lost their way and are indoctrinating instead of teaching for far too much of the school day. The days turn into years and many students are robbed of a basic education.
It sounds like your real concern is with the content of the curriculum, not the skills being taught. I do not have extensive experience with math curricula, but my daughter is working through the everyday math curriculum, and it seems to be working. She comprehends the concepts and can work the problems. As far as promoting a social agenda, I can see how some topics (such as homosexuality) are definitely going to make some people unhappy. I don’t consider it indoctrination–I consider it consistent with our individualistic strain in America. The school curriculum does not tell kids to be one way or another; the goal is merely to help students develop the ability to accept that other people may make different life choices than they do, and that our society is stronger if we can allow for those differences. I know you probably don’t agree with this, and I do not intend to try to change your mind. I just wanted to distinguish between the skill level of our students–which is quite high, actually–and your concerns with the liberal agenda of the public school system.
Having taught at the university level in several universities across the nation, I can say that the lack of basic writing, spelling and computational skills of college students is nothing short of shocking. Perhaps the time spent ‘indoctrinating’ students that various behaviors and lifestyles are not just diverse, but good and acceptable (despite conflicting with the religious convictions of many Christians) could be spent teaching some of these basic skills that are lacking. That’s my problem with the current focus, or lack thereof, in public education.
Well said Doc
Dr. G
After talking with professors over the years plus having taught at the college level myself, two themes seem to be constant about today’s students. The basic math and reasoning skill of estimation is almost non-existent. I blame this squarely on the new math programs with their reliance on the calculator. Students, primarily in government schools are not forced to proof a division or multiplication problem by reverse operation. A logical conclusion depends on the solution working forwards and backwards.
Secondly, writing skills that include spelling, grammar, and presenting an organized thought is nearly extinct. If it was not for spell or grammar check on a computer, many would be considered borderline illiterate.
Something has failed terribly and I think it is pretty easy to point the finger in the right direction. I will have more to say on this over the weekend. As an introduction let me close with this; at one time this country up until about forty years ago produced an army of engineers and scientists, plus our student achievement ranked near the top in the world. We now have sank near the bottom. For those of us that graduated from high school in the mid-1970s, compare the curriculum then to now.
Dr. G, I concur but allow me to expand briefly. I remember quite vividly personally addressing the then Director of Curriculum for the School District of Hudson on this basic matter of graduation requirements in an open school board meeting (and in the local paper as well, if memory serves). At that time, and I have no reason to believe it is any different now, a student could actually graduate from Hudson High School and not be qualified to apply to the University of Wisconsin. Now, on the surface, one might argue, as Dr. Sambs did at the time, that not all kids are “college material” and to require them to take Algebra II and or Chemistry and Physics was unfair – too many, in his opinion, would “fall through the cracks.” Ostensibly, and without any evidence to support the position, this pathetic district bureaucrat merely assumed “too many” kids would either fail these courses, or do so poorly as to in some way negatively affect their self esteem. My reply was quick and pointed: getting a high school diploma should actually carry with it some meaning, and taking Algebra II and or Chemistry and Physics is primary to a rudimentary understanding of reality; it ought to be required REGARDLESS of a student’s future academic plans. They, and the world around them, would be demonstrably better for their having taking and done miserably, rather than not taking them, getting a watered down diploma and having taken Sports Marketing, or Fly Fishing instead.