Our Educational System-Science

[Janderso]

speed of steel vs glass ball rolling.

Tell me about it, no seriously.

 

[Peyton Price 17]

Tell me about it, no seriously.

steel was faster and went for longer it hit a wood door and was loud.. sorry I mean acrylic, not glass.

 

[Aukai]

If they would make sure students can read, AND comprehend, the rest would fall inline on it's own. Teachers send students home for the parents to continue teaching, Now with families having both parents working, or the parents not able to teach because of their education level, the ignorance is perpetuated. Just my feeling, I was a very poor student with professional student parents both had multiple Masters. I read my way to where I am, not far, but I got somewhere

 

[Peyton Price 17]

If they would make sure students can read, AND comprehend, the rest would fall inline on it's own. Teachers send students home for the parents to continue teaching, Now with families having both parents working, or the parents not able to teach because of their education level, the ignorance is perpetuated. Just my feeling, I was a very poor student with professional student parents both had multiple Masters. I read my way to where I am, not far, but I got somewhere

I saw a book about machine shop class for 5th grade. first in it was to single-point thread a bold and nut! that would end with broken machines and tools even in 8th grade. someone pushed a kid down the stairs for walking slow. they started pushing me in the hallways so I stood still at the stairs and that stopped pushing people because I would let them go if they stopped pushing me.

 

[Braeden P]

I do feel that schools are not teaching important stuff anymore they don't teach you how to use a credit card and in exploring tec all we do is typing and we did the same lessons on typing every year and Richard most people do the same now turn it in later get a lower grade I turn mine in as soon as I can but for science turn it in late no points taken off and most stuff is 5 points if you do the work and are 50% correct you get full points you can delete half the stuff and you will get full points! what happened

 

[KevinM]

It's telling that the word "book" shows up often in this thread.

 

[Aukai]

Bullying has gotten out of hand, and parents who fight the teachers for reprimanding the student, where did that come from? Not from my childhood.....

 

[Braeden P]

my school says if you are being bullied ask them to be your friend my dad says punch them in the face one way stops it guess which one

 

[Aukai]

LOL I got in 1 fight in high school, I would not say I won, but I did knock him on his a$$ one time, and never had an issue after that.

 

[Aaron_W]

I think some people are predisposed to be curious Jeff. Whether that be about the world around them or some subject in particular.
I've been a self-proclaimed nerd since I was in elementary school and read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z. I'm still an information sponge.
Others I've known are not the same way, and are reluctant learners.

Agree, some people just don't care. You see this in all fields as well, not just science. I've chatted with other firefighters, you ask some about the engine they are on and all they know is it is red, others know it is a 1998 Pierce Arrow with a Cummins L10 engine, 1500gpm 2 stage Hale pump and a 600 gallon tank.

Some people just don't care to know anything more than they have to. I do not fall into that category often learning esoteric details just because I find them interesting.

I was one of those kids who scored well above my grade level on school tests, but got terrible grades. I scored 12/9 (12th grade, 9 months aka high school graduate) for reading comprehension and vocabulary in the 5th grade. I was bored out of my skull in most of my classes other than science and history. I love learning but hated school until I got into college.

My Son went to grade school in Pa, back in the 90's. I was shocked to learn that their kindergarten, had kids that could not speak English. There was about five kids that had adult translators, translating what the teacher said for the kids. How can anybody learn like that?


To my amazement, that is something they do not teach any more. Worse yet, they teach estimation, even when the kid knows the answer, they have to estimate the wrong answer. You teach your kid things to help them out, and it ends up hruting them.

Estimation is a useful skill, but as with most things context matters. Schools are often terrible about explaining the how but not the why it is important which becomes confusing. They teach exact calculations and estimation but probably give little instruction on when it is appropriate to use them.

I hated math until the 8th grade, it made no sense to me and had little useful purpose. My 8th grade math teacher Mr Plash, offered to let kids come in at lunch to work on their particular issues in math. In just a few days math started to make sense because in these less formal lunch sessions he could get away from the official curriculum and focus not just how, but why what we were learning mattered. He helped us see how we would use math in our lives beyond counting how many cookies we had. Showing things like the difference between buying a car with cash or a low interest loan vs a high interest credit card (8th graders are old enough to care about money) or how being able to figure out the volume of an area so you know how much concrete to buy for a patio. Real world problems we could care about instead of just being theory.

He also used these sessions it as a way to impart useful life skills related to math like showing how much buying something on a credit card without paying it off quickly really costs, and how to write a check and maintain a budget by showing how fees add up, if you don't track your budget well. Important stuff school never formally taught me.

Just for context I graduated high school in 1986.

My screen name (and avatar) are that of a know-it-all knowledgeable person from a long forgotten cartoon. I was given the name by a friend back in the 70s because there was no Google (or internet) and I was only too happy to answer his questions and explain how things work. I haven't changed much.

It truly does relate to curiosity and the ability to retain information (both useful and useless).
I'm still curious, but the retention is beginning to slip, so now I just make sh*t up.

Now where did I leave my 3 dimensional blackboard.

In defense of the California school system, I feel as though my education in the sixties and early 70's was pretty darn good for public schools.
Somewhere along the line it started to falter.
My wife was a teacher in California until her retirement a few years ago. According to her, border states suffered low test results partially due to a language barrier. I won't get into the political side of the subject
My boys both agreed, Dad, you are just strange. My oldest said, school wasn't exactly a place I paid much attention. He's the one that made $194,000 last year.

School testing is pretty awful, and does a poor job of factoring in the conditions surrounding the school. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to understand a school with a large population of students whose primary language is not English, schools with a large number of low income students etc are not going to perform as well as schools in high income areas, yet the powers that be always seem shocked when the tests reveal problems in problem areas.