Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire AMERICA'S FAILING SCHOOLS.

If the student is paying attention to you and they're not getting it, it's your fault. That's the difference between a good teacher and not. Teaching isn't easy. You're the only one who understands it. You have to understand your subject from all directions and be able to explain it in novel ways. The only way the knowledge is transferred is if you figure out how make it obvious to them. After that point is when study comes in.

Every student is not Pythagoras. We all remember him. We all consider his theorem to be easy and simple now, but how many would have figured it out without someone explaining it in an obvious way? I had teachers who made everything obvious and I've had teachers who were useless and had to teach myself. I try to be the former.

Bullshit. Math requires a bit of wrestling with to master.

To be plain, I don't mean make it harder than necessary, be less than clear in explanations and demonstrations or whatever. However, math isn't just a collection of facts and formulas to be remembered and demonstrated examples to be regurgitated. The student must come to understand the principles involved and their application to problems which are not just like the ones shown in class. For many if not most students this understanding comes only after a good bit of work on their part.

I earned a PhD in mathematics and I can assure you as the level of study rises so does the outside of class effort expected of the student. Most people haven't encountered five problem homework sets that eat up the best part of two weeks to complete.

I hav one grand daughter in private school and 5 home school. No liberal crap
Thought to them. Sure proud of my kids

Can't believe (((wiki/google))) has not wiped it clean, yet.


The seed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School

The problem with math is you have to make it relevant. Too many kids cannot see the relevancy of math. I know I didn't. I took some algebra in high school and I tried again in college. I decided that the teachers could find their own GD x because I wasn't doing it any more. Now, if you wanted to teach me about keeping a check book, managing money, investing in the market, knowing what the rule of 72 means or doing your income tax. I can do that.

I got better at math when I started taking some CAD classes and some tool and die classes. That is relevant. But, no one teaches life skills and no one teaches machine shop skills in high school any more. The crap they tried shoving off in high school math was absolutely stupid except for the kids headed for college. But, to hell with the kids who just want to move on with life.

kwg

Which is true of all graduate disciplines. Nothing unique.

Our college algebra was considered very tough. That was the reason every body failed all those years.


Then they got a couple new teachers.....and people started passing.

Teachers matter.

I think the issue here is you confuse teaching with lecturing. You expect to lay it out for them, then they make the effort to bridge the gap. That's not teaching. It's also nonsensical because the one holding the knowledge is the only one holding the materials with which the bridge can be made.

I always thought the problem with professors not teaching, especially in upper level courses, is they usually only understood the material well enough to use it. (Think of whatever is the math equivalent of physical chemistry.) To teach you have to understand it so well as to explain it to a six year old well enough they have at least a vague understanding. That holds with what you say. When you're at the cutting edge, you just got there yourself. And then there's the need to understand people well enough to guess where they are, too, in order to bring them to understanding. It's a special skill set few have.

Wiki is rasis & anti-semitic

But,but..... there self esteem is like redonculous ( ).

Given the virus situation, our governor has declared that students no longer need to pass a proficiency test to earn a high school diploma. I guess participation is all that is needed now.

Teachers teach, responsibility of Learning belongs to the parents.

I took calculus in college and ended up with all theory and not a clue as to what it was used for. They didn't teach that part of it. Some years later I considered going back and studying engineering so I had to brush up on the math. A friend gave me a business calculus book to study. It was full of practical examples. The light switch clicked on. All they'd have to do is throw in some useful examples and many students would get it a lot faster and easier. Learning limits and integrals is a waste of time if you don't know what to do with them. Make it meaningful to the students.

My 3d semester of calc was taught by an educated idiot. In any class of 100 there's always 1 or 2 who can get it no matter how hard it is. He taught to them and let the others be damned. They were slackers. He made it so hard that the engineering students were having to take his class 2 or 3 times to get through it. I dropped out at midterm with a score of 45 and I was in the top 1/3 of the class.

The solution for parents is obvious: homeschool.

so feasible for so many. I dont know why everyone isnt doing it.

For many college is a giant waste of time and money.

Once upon a time the less gifted students failed out of grade school and went to work at jobs that didn't require "book learning".

A lot of those jobs/industries are gone. Along with the rise of LBJ's great society we have a growing segment of leaches that expect to be taken care of whether they work/contribute or not.

It looks like some are saying FU to the scam university's and going the trade school route to a decent living.

White Males Are Bailing on College

It goes deeper than school, and back more than two generations, cause it`s the Parents that are failing, because our entire social system has failed. My wife works at a school, has for 5 yrs. now as a part-time, 6.5 hours a day, EA. The stories she brings home of the behavior of most parents, would have you believing it`s 1821, not 2021. Horrid, and not getting any better. Best part, NO ONE is held accountable, certantly not the parents.
If you want to destroy America, 1st.grade school is the place to start. If you have kids in school, get involved and push back. That does work.

But how did they matter?

Amen!