From:	Iridios iridios@*********.com
Subject:	the value of education (OT-rant, long)
Date:	Mon, 12 Jul 1999 22:03:02 -0400

Wordman wrote:

> And the problem is that _both_ of these methods are wrong. The basic flaw of
> the American school system is that students are not taught how to think.

Agreed, especially if you add "...for themselves."



> Did Columbus "discover" the New World before or after Shakespeare wrote
> Hamlet?

I admit, I do not know the answer to this. Partly my fault, but I
feel that the damned religious private school I went to had something
to do with it. They didn't have us read the classics unless it was
accepted "religious" classics. :(

(BTW, if anyone decides to send their kids to private school, try to
send them to a secular one.)


> Another example about what I mean can be illustrated by the following math
> problem:
>
> 1999 + 1999 = ?
>
> The way I was taught to solve this was: add the two nines in the ones place
> together to get 18, carry the one. Add the carry to the next to numbers and
> carry and so on.
>
> Why did I have to learn myself that the best way to answer this is to
> realize the meaning of the numbers and use it? Doing this lets you realize
> that this problem is really 2000 + 2000 - 2. You can do that in your head in
> about a second,...

Not everyone is capable of even doing that one easily. I know for a
fact, that my sister would refuse to do "2000 + 2000 - 2" on the
grounds that it is too hard. (I am dead serious here.) My S.O. is
significantly more accepting of math but refuses to believe in
imaginary numbers.



>... while the mechanical way I was taught is both lengthy and
> error prone.
>
> Teaching facts over meaning does not yeild education. It yeilds someone who
> knows facts.
>
> > If you value your kids (or those you haven't had yet), I
> > give four pieces of advise:
> > 1) Send them to a private school, at least for high school.
>
> Ug. I haven't met many people from private school that I didn't want to
> smack within the first five minutes. If you want them sociall maladjusted,
> send them to private school. If you want them to have some inkling of how
> people in the real world act, send them to public school.

--
Iridios
"Accept what you cannot avoid,
Avoid what you cannot accept."