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- From: paj@uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson)
- Newsgroups: sci.math
- Subject: Re: What can we have for an educational system?
- Message-ID: <2186@snap>
- Date: 11 Nov 92 09:21:57 GMT
- References: <Bx79Lo.LG1@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <83160@ut-emx.uucp> <BxEtLC.1H2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <BALDWIN.92Nov8172729@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil>
- Reply-To: paj@uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson)
- Organization: GEC-Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, UK
- Lines: 69
-
- My S.O. teaches physics and maths to `A' level in the English state
- school system. I don't know exactly how that translates to the US
- system, but `A' levels are what you need to get into University here.
- Students typically take three, exceptional students may do four.
-
- In article <BALDWIN.92Nov8172729@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil> baldwin@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil (J.D. Baldwin) writes:
-
- [Proposing a course of action to fix the US education system]
-
- >1. Abolish the education major, or at least its role in the teacher
- > certification process. Math should be taught by people who have
- > studied math. More about this below.
-
- My SO (Roxane) has commented that most of what she learned at Teacher
- Training College was pretty useless. The set of social skills needed
- to stay on top of a rebellious class was not on the curriculum.
-
- >2. [Much comment deleted]
- > In any case, a system full of teachers competent in their
- > fields, even if they are blindly groping their way toward the
- > correct way to teach their material, is bound to be better than
- > what we have now, which is a system replete with idiots, with
- > a solid grasp on the current WRONG way to teach it.
-
- Roxane is a very competent physicist who is also working towards an
- Open University degree (this impresses the hell out of the kids).
- While this level of commitment may be unusual, I get the impression
- that teachers who are incompetent in their main subject are also a
- rarity.
-
- However, there is an acute shortage of teachers in the sciences.
- Every job Roxane has applied for, she has been offered. (BTW, in the
- UK teaching establishment they have this silly system where you are
- offered the job at the interview, and must decide right then whether
- to accept, but I digress). This leads to PE and history teachers
- having to do the sciences as a sideline.
-
- > [...] We merely wish non-falsehoods to be
- >taught, so that there is less to unlearn at later stages. How many of
- >us were mislead in school by being told that astronauts float
- >"weightless" in space because the earth doesn't exert a gravitational
- >force on them? [...]
-
- I have helped Roxane with the preparation of work material for her
- classes. In the 8th or 9th grade, when things like space and rockets
- are handled for the first time, the top set might be able to handle
- the concept of gravity being balanced by centrifugal force in an
- orbit. The middle might be able to recite this without really
- understanding it, and it will go straight over the heads of the bottom
- set.
-
- >(And all of this is quite aside from the fact that the truly
- >outstanding student would have the needed expertise at hand when he
- >began to outstrip the curriculum and pursue independent study. But
- >that's another post.)
-
- Roxane once had one of these students. However the parents wanted her
- (the student) to be "normal and happy" i.e. not a genius. Roxane gave
- her as much help as possible (lending `A' level text books for
- instance) but once this girl had outstriped Roxane's knowledge she was
- on here own. The parents don't always know best.
-
- Paul.
-
- --
- Paul Johnson (paj@gec-mrc.co.uk). | Tel: +44 245 73331 ext 3245
- --------------------------------------------+----------------------------------
- These ideas and others like them can be had | GEC-Marconi Research is not
- for $0.02 each from any reputable idealist. | responsible for my opinions
-