"Is Our Children Learnin'" Good?

[furrbear]

Fine then: What is your name? Do you know what your name is? CAN YOU ANSWER THIS QUESTION?
[Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs]

Comments

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

[anziulewicz.livejournal.com]

Next time you are talking to a kid, ask if he or she can tell you how many years it takes for the Earth to go once around the Sun.

[bearbarry.livejournal.com]

I would like to see the results if the same test were given to Oklahoma's state legislature.

I spent a substantial part of my day Friday trying to convince the freshman in my Integrated Science class that the seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth's axis and not by the earth's proximity to the sun. This is a standard that goes back to 3rd grade!

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I was in a training class yesterday and the guy, 27, next to me asked why it was getting dark earlier, and I jokingly gave him a ben-stien bland answer of the tilt of the earth's axis. He looked at me like I was nuts. First I thought it was the delivery, but after a moment, and giving a little more information, I found it was the actual fact that the Earth is titled on it's axis was blowing his mind.

Sheesh.

[bearbarry.livejournal.com]

I teach at a magnet school that is consistently rated among the top 50 public schools nationally. I've also taught at a private school and can tell you the situation is little better there. Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

[tbrough.livejournal.com]

Please, You guys, and Texas? Secede already? Please?

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

That would only raise the scores a few points, you need to get rid of the whole South to really improve.

[varsitynj.livejournal.com]

Frightening.

FRIGHTENING IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

Its not just the south. A friend of mine teaches geography as SF State and sez that freshmen students, when presented with a map of rivers of the USA cannot point ot the Mississippi. If presented with a map of South America cannot pick out the Amazon.... you get the idea. Most of these "students" cannot distinguish Washington State from Washington DC. On a blank map of the world, they cannot pick out more than one ocean/sea correctly. Education???? Bah! Humbug!

Its not surprising that we live in a world of mindless sheep!

Re: FRIGHTENING IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT

[hickbear.livejournal.com]

Ed, unfortunately that's a "nation of mindless sheep" and not so much a "world" of 'em. One of the eleventeen-zillion things that surprised us after our move to Canada was the overwhelming lessening - not elimination, but lessening - of the number of StoopdFucks we'd encounter on the roads, in the stores, etc.

BTW, I just finally got around to friending you here. Ask theotherqpc about me if you need a recommendation. ;-}}}}

Re: FRIGHTENING IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT

[tbrough.livejournal.com]

It cracks me up when I get flack for posting my "Keeping America Stupid" tags and comments, yet whenever I see this kind of report, it makes me sadder that it's all coming true. And it pisses me off that there's a subset of people that are actually proud of their "anti-intellectionism," like the twits that are suddenly shocked that "czars" are in the White House.

Re: FRIGHTENING IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT

[hickbear.livejournal.com]

My aunt won't, or can't, or refuses to, believe that I can get my "news" from more than one source, since her favorite is so "Fair And Balanced".

Right. As "Fair" as Simon Legree, and as "Balanced" as Blanche DuBois.

Anyways, she apparently prefers her thoughts to be predisgested for her convenience. Then again, she won't/can't/refuses to understand that it was the damned Marriage DiscriminationProtection Amendments - that she enthusiastically supported - that are the reason her one and only "blood" nephew no longer resides in her same country. *Sigh*

[airporter.livejournal.com]

Should I be concerned that I could answer more correctly than the average Oklahoma High School student?

[urbear]

All these questions, along with 90 others that are quite similar, are in the pool that's used for the 10-question test that potential citizens must pass before they're naturalized. I had to deal with the test myself, and when I reviewed the list in preparation for it, I found that I could answer about 95 out of the hundred questions without hesitation. I've concluded that the average Canadian knows far more about the workings of the US government than the average American. Scary.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

To paraphrase George Carlin, the problem isn't so much with how dumb the average American is: the problem is that half of them are even dumber. Math and science education are in an even more execrable state.

When I was still living in Iowa, the clan volunteered me to tutor my nephew in mathematics. It turned out to be surprisingly hard. While eighth–grade math is as easy for me as falling off a log, I had a hell of a time persuading my nephew that math was worth learning.

My nephew made it clear to me that he knew why I got volunteered: because nobody else in the family could understand eighth–grade math. If the rest of the family gets by just fine without even an eighth–grade understanding of math, why should he have to study it?

Good luck persuading a thirteen–year–old that math is worthwhile: every single day they see evidence it is not, and as a result they don’t bother to learn it. As soon as the test is over, they forget the material.