American kids, dumber than dirt

Aw, that's bullshit, Vern. The kids haven't changed, you have.

 

Writing Irish, I agree with your comments about kids not being taught grammar anymore. I was a teaching assistant at a state university the past two years, and despite their being a mandatory writing program, I still had to explain to the students how to construct a sentence. Most students (most of whom were freshmen) didn't even know what a subject or a predicate was. These concepts are just not being taught in public school anymore, so much so that I had to spend practically an entire discussion section discussing writing before they did their first assignment of the semester. I actually had to teach them the basic 3 page essay format.

These are things they should know well by the time they finish high school.

 

FH, You are absoulutley right. Sort of. They are not being challenged in the academics. They come to school at 8A and leave at 3:30P. That's it in terms of academics. In terms of "The Test" they come to school at 8A, watch Test reviews on the cafeteria screen while they eat breakfast, hear Test slogans during the morning announcements, see more Test reviews as they eat lunch, stay after school for extended day until 5:30-6:00P as frequently as Monday-Thursday, have mandatory Test oriented homework Monday-Thursday, Test study packets that are mandatory over the Christmas Holidays (SORRY! mid-winter break), and mandatory Saturday School from January until the late April Test dates.
This is not chisled in stone in EVERY Texas school or school district, but it is more than common in all districts in the Houston area, including the part about breakfast and lunch video reviews. The announcement, extended day, mandatory homework, holiday review packets and Saturday Schooll are in my building and almost universal in our district of 65 schools (including five high schools), because in Texas, if you don't pass "The Exit Level Test" in high school, you are not allowed, by state law, to receive a diploma, even if you are the class Valedictorian. TRUE!, and it has hapopened. You receive onl;y a "Certificate of Attendance". AlleyAllen went through this crap, but he passed everything, as did his siblings. So, tell me, Texas and No Child Left Behind supporters, when in Hell are we going to teach them academics?

And Gold, we may well be behind in education. But we can kick the living S**T out of anybody when it comes to taking a test. As the kids say, "We've got it wired."

 

My nephew would be better in that type of school system. The one he is in now teaches to the high achievers and leaves the average to below average in a lurch.

It's my sister's feeling that school would rather push this type of kid into special education so they are not counted in the standardised tests and pull down district averages.

My sister is in constant struggle to keep her son "mainstream". She feels that the teachers do not want to take time out to help average student. They just want to roll through an overly aggressive curriculum.

What's intersting is that if you take his standardised test scores and compare them to other districts their is a huge difference. In his district his scores are well below the norm but in comparision to more rural districts his scores would put him in middle to upper half of class.

 

Bringing this thread back. I have two kids and we've been in three different school districts. The one we're in now is like the one Boom is talking about. My youngest is like Boom's nephew. Her test scores are above the state average but below the school average and she struggles.

The district has dropped class rank. They found that colleges were not taking into consideration that this is a high-achieving district when they compared it to other districts in the college application process. Class rank doesn't show where the kids aim here. The district feels that grades are a better way to go and I agree with them. And as far as the grades, they don't give them out easy. The curriculum is extremely demanding.

 

Good comments throughout, and solutions are tough. I don't have kids, and I have no idea how to fix the education problems. But those who learn to read young, and then develop a lifelong thirst for reading, are in much better shape to handle school and then life itself, whether or not they can make it through college.

You can find your answers in books, and you can do it by yourself if you know your way around books and a library. But young people get sidetracked really early if they don't learn to read well and comprehend well. If they can't do that, they have no chance at math or anything else.

Don Henley sang the same tune 25 years ago:

 

Just because :

 

That column is really scary.
And if you're offended by the Christian "slap," well, you're too easily offended.
His point was that there's a lot of people who don't (and won't) think for themselves.
Nothing more, nothing less.

 

Fine. Then just phrase it the way you just did. He didn't have to offend anybody to make that point. But he couldn't help himself.

 

They do in Hoover

 

The estimating thing is a good tool to have. As others have stated, it's a good way to be able to do math quickly in one's head.

I was never taught to estimate, but my mom's a math teacher, so through the years, when I've asked a math question, she's forced me to estimate to figure out the answer. Meaning, if I asked what 12 percent of 43 was, she'd make me do 10 percent of 43 first, and then do 2 percent of 43 and figure it out that way.

So it's helped me figure out taxes or know how much I'm spending at the grocery store by rounding up or down.

What gets me is helping my mom grade papers when I'm home for the holidays and seeing the number of students who can't tell you what percent 1/2 is. Her students are primarily low-income students, though, and whoever said this is right: the number one factor in education is income status. There are of course some exceptions, but not many.