Toadfish Monastery

One of my colleagues markets text mining software. He reckons Britain and the U.S. are the only countries in the world where he first has to explain what nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs are.

Elsewhere the prodigies are getting younger...

what are adjectives?

Quote from: goat starer on August 24, 2007, 09:06:01 PM
what are adjectives?

An objective decription?

I think?

Cool kid!

Quote from: goat starer on August 24, 2007, 09:06:01 PM
what are adjectives?

It's what you call swear words after you add an 'ing' suffix and put it in front of a pejorative.

I've begun to believe that the problems with education are caused by educational theorists.

Every time you turn around, 'teaching' is be redefined into "application of another theory". Just in READING...Whole Language, See and Say, Phonics, Phonetics...and a thousand more 'theories' on the most effective way to teach. One the poor kid can read, there are another 100 thousand MORE theories of education...all designed to reinforce the ego of their 'founder' and carefully implemented in the least helpful way to the end users of the educational product--the student.

If there were more emphasis on imparting needed knowledge and less emphasis on teaching to the test, teaching in accordance with a specific process or theory and a realization that the system should serve the LEARNER, not the other way around, we'd have better educated students and fewer teachers that hate to teach.

Now don't go and get all logical on us, please Chatty.  You know that the edumacashum theorists get all confused when you start pointing out the blindingly obvious. 

someone said diagramming sentences

  fluffy says NO ( I have PTSD from 9th grade English)

Education Theory---- big problem
aka
"no child left behind"
the teachers can't do anything but teach the test-they are stuck

but almost no one teaches this kiddos (and if they miss it at home then they need it at school) critical thinking
our little (and not so little scholars) need to have the phrases
(oh really?)
(have you tested that)
(where did you get that information and how do you know it is factual?)
(prove it!)
and
(just because many people believe something does not make it true.)
instead of so much of the misinformation they get and have no tool to evaluate.

we do need math(english/language/history) etc taught on different levels-- not dumbed down levels like so many are afraid of
but different
usable and relevant levels
their are basics we all need  but then do some specialization and teach in different ways to cover all and get them literate enough to think for themselves.

You are indeed right, Anthro.
My mother is a teacher in a very poor elementary school, and she spends the entire year trying to teach the kids so they're ready for the test (she very good at it, actually). She also manages to teach them to read well.

But she spends so much time teaching reading that other topics--history, geography, math (not as much, but to some degree), and science are crammed in the week before the test.
And that's no way to teach anything, but it's actually teach or keep her job.

I am thorn about standarised tests, may be because I survived a grueling 18 hour test split in 3 6 hour sessions prior to my high school graduation back home. The test in itself will never be perfect but the results gave a good anecdotal correlation with the academic performance of my classmates.

In any case, what may be the main problem with education is the wholesale approach to the problem. Different kids may learn better with different approaches but that would imply extra work by identifying who learns better in which way, and according to their knowledge and ability to learn.   

I was thinking about that recently.
Divide the kids up according to how they learn, and teach to that. All the auditory kids, in one class, visual in another, etc.
I'm not sure if it would work, but it's a thought.

I've read a nice quote the other day about education that might fit in here:

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
- Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

Just thought I'd post it...

Quote from: Kanaloa the Squidly on August 26, 2007, 12:01:16 AM
I was thinking about that recently.
Divide the kids up according to how they learn, and teach to that. All the auditory kids, in one class, visual in another, etc.
I'm not sure if it would work, but it's a thought.

It would certainly be a step in the right direction. I think that any division/custom-tailoring of the educational experience, according to any dimension, is a step in the right direction. Ultimately, the solution is completely individualized education, I think, and we're gonna get there if we keep on offering specialized options.

I doubt that a completely individualized education is a good idea. You need to learn how to deal with others no matter how unpleasant it may be.

Oh, no, not in the sense of individualization being equal to isolation! Not by any means! Sorry I didn't make myself clear.

Education ought to be individualized in the sense that there is no standard progression of classes. No such thing as "first grade math," then "second grade math," then "third grade math," and so forth. Classes ought to be offered independent of grade level and based solely on the ability to do well in that class. There'd be even more interaction with other people then, instead of just with people from the same grade level.