521–530 of 748 posts
Like many readers of HN, I've taken a lot of math over the years--at least 25 semester long courses at the university level. So I have well informed opinions about what works and what doesn't work for me ; schools, on the other hand, have to educate everyone. This, perhaps, accounts for the wide range of opinions being expressed here. I think that we can agree that the whatever they are doing in the United States isn…
> Why not pick, say, the top four countries, (recently South Korea, Japan, Switzerland, and the Netherlands) and adopt their methods that are working? The critically important part of their method is funding of schools being independent from wealth of the kids’ parents. I’m not sure US can adopt that; American voters view that method as communism.
[0]: https://apps.urban.org/features/school-funding-do-poor-kids-...
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So you propose we handicap the geniuses to make the rest feel better? Who do you propose will invent great things to keep our world thriving if you’ve made all the geniuses average?
If you're going to teach math to kids in a normal school and not an academy for geniuses, before stratification based on level makes sense (and there's evidence doing this too early is harmful), you need to figure out how to do it in a way that works for the majority of students.
"A key sticking point in the approval process has been the framework’s recommendation that teachers refrain from labeling students as “naturally talented” in math."
/s, or is it??
I'm perpetually perplexed at why some people seem to think that lowering the standards is going to help anyone. Do they not realise the source of all scientific and technical advancement is really the result of a minority of high achievers, and that by trying to "flatten" this inequality and effectively make everyone equally stupid, they are also going to be affected negatively? applies social justice principles to m…
This is the problem. It's also horrifically bad for the future economy. For comparison, the rest of the world - at least the parts that want to catch up aren't running this slowly. Also - I think the lack of basic Science + Math education is part of the reason we see things like vaccine hesitancy - but that's just a guess. My daughter in grade 4 (Israel) is currently learning basic algebra tenets, notably associative…
It's spelled "SINE, COSINE, and TANGENT".
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Please show me the part of my comment where I alleged a conspiracy? Or said anything about the woke?
"The real goal of this change is to increase the gap between kids whose family situation will give them an opportunity to learn actual math before college, and those whose family situation will keep them permanently locked out of college"
I'm perpetually perplexed at why some people seem to think that lowering the standards is going to help anyone. Do they not realise the source of all scientific and technical advancement is really the result of a minority of high achievers, and that by trying to "flatten" this inequality and effectively make everyone equally stupid, they are also going to be affected negatively? applies social justice principles to m…
If there was a mixed program where you could either choose to have your children under Equitable Math or Common Core (the current standard which is adopted by the majority of US states), that would risk Equitable Math being framed as the way to fall behind. That's why the central contention is not about improving Common Core, but rather about whether all children should always be at the same level. Sometimes children…
Besides everyone knows what the real problem is: teachers not having decent levels at a bunch of subjects themselves, and not willing to improve. This is about saving money on the back of children, not about being equitable. Whilst there should be some allowance for high achievers and (very) low achievers that no teacher has much influence over, the average achievement of students is very much a property of the teacher, not so much of the students.
This is about cheaper and less capable (not just in subject knowledge either) teachers, at any cost to children.
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> Why exactly is it that you aren’t taught courses like math, or history or language according to your ability instead of your age? That's exactly the question. Under Equitable Math, all children must always be at the same level up until the senior year, and Algebra will not be offered in middle school. Some children are ready for Algebra in middle school, and some aren't. This is the most critical point of contentio…
> Under Equitable Math, all children must always be at the same level up until the senior year Are they really advocating putting all kids in the same math class regardless of ability? That seems completely insane to me. For some fraction of the class, literally handing them a textbook and telling them to go nuts would be better in every way. At the other end, some of those kids feel awful for holding the class back.…
It allows them to become teachers and school social workers and school admins and ... without requiring knowledge or capabilities they don't have?
School standards are about teachers and school management, not about students. Or, more to the point, they're about letting schools hire cheaper teachers, having simpler schedules, less hours, ... It massively simplifies the business that is a school.
At great cost to the kids and society as a whole, yes, but hey, savings! (goes on tv) "This is NOT about savings, this is about FAIRNESS. What are you, racist?"
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This is the problem. It's also horrifically bad for the future economy. For comparison, the rest of the world - at least the parts that want to catch up aren't running this slowly. Also - I think the lack of basic Science + Math education is part of the reason we see things like vaccine hesitancy - but that's just a guess. My daughter in grade 4 (Israel) is currently learning basic algebra tenets, notably associative…
The associative property is not remotely a basic algebra tenet (it's widely used, but it's a much more basic form of symbolic math). It's spelled "SINE, COSINE, and TANGENT".