161–170 of 278 posts
Look, I understand that this should be a topic of conversation. I have no problem with that. If Québécois feel like the education they are receiving is sub-par then there definitely should be a discussion about it. But! What I also think is distressing is that, based on this article (and its author) alone, there is also an extreme lack of understanding of statistics. The evidence presented is purely anecdotal. I read…
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For [1]: [2] disputes [1]. It states in [2] that it's the top 20% of _high school_ students on page 17. A very different stat. And [1] doesn't say college graduates, it just says graduates. For [2] It's strange when I see these stats. Where I live in the US, 60-80% of high school teachers (depending on school) have advanced degrees (masters or higher). And that's also a weird stat to cite. What percentage of teachers…
IME most school teachers with advanced degrees obtain them from pay-for-grade schools. Those degrees are essential for them to either move up the ranks in their programs or bump up their salary (here in GA a master's degree can be a $10k or more pay raise). It creates a strong financial motivation to get the degree, but they don't actually have time or desire to earn it. Same thing in military service (officer's in m…
This is a point that is often lost in these discussions. We've worked hard in the West to make higher education a commodity, but we haven't considered the unintended consequences. One of those is that if every millenial kid has an advanced degree, what makes them special snowflakes and differentiates them from the hoi polloi? Grade inflation and degree inflation mean that there's less incentive to get an advanced degree since ROI keeps decreasing while at the same time tuition keeps rising.
I doubt our PhD-holding children will be flipping burgers, though—the robots will do that.
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In my first year of university we had to do a maths module. My final score was 120%. Imagine just many different broken and non-mathematical things have to go into that!
I graduated High School with a 6.022 GPA[1]! Texas is Awesome! 1. Normal max is 4.0, school gave extra credit for Advanced Placement and college concurrent courses.
It is massively stupid and unfair -- but there is a part of me that sees that as preparation for real life, a great deal of which is run in stupid and unfair ways. While you'd like to change that, you also have to know how to respond to it when you can't change it.
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As a Mexican, I don't like it much either, but I'm also tired of trying to convince the world that America isn't the US. Here is some consolation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29g57XTYgLE
There are three [0] "America"s -- North, South, and United States of. Clarification is only required when context is inadequate to distinguish between them. Similarly, "star" can refer to a shape, a celestial body, or a talented/lead performer or athlete. You wouldn't interrupt a conversation about sports to say "stars aren't just guys like LeBron James; Aldebaran is also a star." That would be asinine and obnoxious.…
Depends whom I'm talking to. When I talk to you and others like you, I'll be careful to note that unqualified "America" to you almost always means "the United States". It never meant that to me growing up, nor to a bunch of other people. However, due to the global influence of the US, most of the world considers "America" to be the "US".
It's not really about context or anything that could be called objective. It just means different things to different people. And because for me "America" has very emotional meanings (such as for example, Morelos' proclamation that "... so Americans may only be distinguished by vice or virtue"[1] or Luis Miguel's song "América"[2], or Las Águilas del América [3]), I will never personally accept the meaning of "US" for "America".
You may have other emotional attachments to the meaning of "America", so I will try to respect those when I use the word around you or others like you.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentimientos_de_la_Naci%C3%B3n
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3u7qU_09w
[3] note their logo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Am%C3%A9rica
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Teachers in the US are paid more than teachers in Finland: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/09/09/business/econ...
Adjust those for cost of living and the US would be even more competitive.
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As a Mexican, I don't like it much either, but I'm also tired of trying to convince the world that America isn't the US. Here is some consolation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29g57XTYgLE
There are three [0] "America"s -- North, South, and United States of. Clarification is only required when context is inadequate to distinguish between them. Similarly, "star" can refer to a shape, a celestial body, or a talented/lead performer or athlete. You wouldn't interrupt a conversation about sports to say "stars aren't just guys like LeBron James; Aldebaran is also a star." That would be asinine and obnoxious.…
I know you were not replying to my post directly, but to clarify my position: I'm european, I don't particularly care about the distinction, I just found that it was a very depressing message to put on a university t-shirt from outside USA.
Ah, and please, out of respect for everyone's time and sanity, stop patronizing other people.
I teach high school, and a colleague of mine went to an education conference a couple weeks ago. She was sitting at a table with three elementary school teachers. They were talking about how to gauge student progress when the students had taken a 100-question test, and a 50-question test. None of the three teachers realized that you had to scale the test scores before making a comparison between the two tests. These…
This isn't just frighteningly ignorant, it ends up having a devastating impact on many young people. One anecdote: I knew a bright young student who loved learning, but hated school. Why? He took algebra and french in 8th grade; he passed algebra and failed french. When he got to 9th grade he was placed in algebra again, and french 2. The school would not budge from its original placement; I don't know the rationale.…
Grade might be a proxy for mastery in some situations but it's likely not in the majority. Grade is more often than not a combination of mastery, ability to take tests, willingness to do homework and an accounting of how often you show up.
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> I want smart teachers to take control of education so this s* doesn't happen nearly as often as it does. This is the job of parents, not teachers. What does take control even mean? Public school teachers have no control.
> "What does take control even mean? Public school teachers have no control." If they already had control, then they wouldn't need to take it, would they?