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#1
10-30-2005, 04:01 PM
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Education Part ll
This is the second part to an earlier writing about education in the United States. As you may recall, I advocated for the privatization of all schools from kindergarten to graduate studies. This piece will focus on the curriculum that needs to be followed.
Everytime I encounter someone in the workplace, I am reminded of just how much we have failed to properly educate United States citizens in the fundamentals of communication: reading, writing and speaking. Few would argue that the time is long overdue for the United States to "get back to the basics" of a fully functional education system. We need to exclusively focus on the development of communication skills from kindergarten to eighth grade along with annual testing that measures apptitude and interest. Training in mathematics should be limited to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Unless communication skills are fully mastered, there is no need to advance to high school. For those who graduate to high school, the emphasis could evolve into a curriculum of philosophy, sociology, economics, psychology, science and religious studies. Books such as "For Dummies" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide" could be used to foster an understanding of different religions. Athletic activity would be strictly confined to cardio vascular exercises and all sports would be eliminated. While there would still be an emphasis on communication skills, the focus would now be on developing a foundation of basic knowledge so as to be able to graduate to college. Testing for apptitude and interest would continue through high school increasing the chances of picking the right field of study . Those not continuing on to college would enter some type of apprenticeship training for the purpose of learning a trade. For those who do graduate to college, the student would continue to study an advanced version of the same curriculum as high school but only for the first two years then they would complete their education by strictly focusing on coursework designed to train them in their field of study. Nearing graduation, internships would be required to begin the transition to the working world. Think of how different our society would be if our education system could just teach the fundamentals of reading, writing and speaking. 
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#2
10-30-2005, 04:27 PM
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Re: Education Part ll
[ QUOTE ]
Athletic activity would be strictly confined to cardio vascular exercises and all sports would be eliminated. [/ QUOTE ] You've got to be kidding on this part. I was agreeing with you until i read this part. Whats the logic in this? Some of the best lessons I've learned while in high school came from the football field. I take it you have never played sports?
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#4
10-30-2005, 06:25 PM
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Re: Education Part ll
[ QUOTE ]
...we have failed to properly educate... [/ QUOTE ] Who is this "we" you speak of? How can you teach someone who does not want to be taught? How do you go about convincing children their education is important? How do you get them to put their education at the top of their little "To Do" lists? How do you impress upon budding athletes how their chance of succeeding in the "bigs" is infintesimal? How do you show the lil' darlins' their peers' opinions aren't the most important thing in their life? No teacher, no school board can do this. Public, Private, Secular, Religious - it doesn't matter the type of education offered if a child isn't interested. We have on 2+2, a number of <21. They can rattle off odds, implied odds, EV, and percentages many have never even heard of. They can multi-table for hours on end. And they can't spell, can't comprehend the intent of a post they're replying to, make outlandish statements, and don't know the difference between your, you're, there, their or they're. And it's not just the <21. You'll find college students and "graduates" just as bad. So, what "we" is going to do this massive re-direction of an all too common way of thinking, and attitude?
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#5
10-30-2005, 09:10 PM
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Re: Education Part ll
[ QUOTE ]
We have on 2+2, a number of <21. They can rattle off odds, implied odds, EV, and percentages many have never even heard of. They can multi-table for hours on end. And they can't spell, can't comprehend the intent of a post they're replying to, make outlandish statements, and don't know the difference between your, you're, there, their or they're. [/ QUOTE ] I'm guilty of what you speak of, and there are a few excuses/reasons that come to mind. First of all many of us "kids" are used to talking to friends online and not using great grammer. We are looking for ways to shorten words and it becomes a habit, like saying ok, instead of okay; or even not using apostrophes in contractions. We talk online so often it becomes normal. Also we are so used to having spell check on our word processors that auto correct as you type, so why bother even typing in the apostrophe when it will automaticlly add it in there, it saves time. This is like muscle memory, or what ever it's called. Much of this grammar stuff is being blown out of proportion. While most of the typos that occur on this forum are from laziness, i do agree i can't spell well, however everything is done on computers that have spell check, except this forum that your better off teaching kids things like how to use the technology.
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#6
10-30-2005, 10:23 PM
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Re: Education Part ll
Since this thread seems to be dying from lack of interest I don't think I'll get accused of highjacking...
Fish, Thank you for your commments. Nicely put. An easy read. Understandable. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Yes, I know about 'net shorthand. I've been online since AOL was a noob and dumping 3.5" disks everywhere they could. (an anecdotal comment. not intended for making any point.) I know shorthand when I see it and usually disregard it as that. What I've got a problem with is the lack of clarity in so many posts. I can make sense of shorthand, but not gibberish. I sometimes read a reply to a post and it's just incomprehensible. Typos are not just an indication of haste, to me they also represent an "I don't care" attitude. All my business life I've run into, around and over, people with that attitude. They're losers. (notice I didn't say "loosers?" j/k) I know the convenience of spell-check. It's a crutch for many. It could be a teaching aid. It depends on the user. MS Word used to have another tool, Grammar Check. (My version is out of date since I don't need it for business any more and don't know about the newer releases.) Another crutch, or aid. Lastly, any comments on the rest of my post? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] p.s. Good luck to you in whatever you undertake.
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#9
10-30-2005, 11:47 PM
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Re: Education Part ll
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] We have on 2+2, a number of <21. They can rattle off odds, implied odds, EV, and percentages many have never even heard of. They can multi-table for hours on end. And they can't spell, can't comprehend the intent of a post they're replying to, make outlandish statements, and don't know the difference between your, you're, there, their or they're. [/ QUOTE ] I'm guilty of what you speak of, and there are a few excuses/reasons that come to mind. First of all many of us "kids" are used to talking to friends online and not using great grammer. We are looking for ways to shorten words and it becomes a habit, like saying ok, instead of okay; or even not using apostrophes in contractions. We talk online so often it becomes normal. Also we are so used to having spell check on our word processors that auto correct as you type, so why bother even typing in the apostrophe when it will automaticlly add it in there, it saves time. This is like muscle memory, or what ever it's called. Much of this grammar stuff is being blown out of proportion. While most of the typos that occur on this forum are from laziness, i do agree i can't spell well, however everything is done on computers that have spell check, except this forum that your better off teaching kids things like how to use the technology. [/ QUOTE ] While I'd like to believe this is true, it's been my experience (from when I was in high school, college, and my time working in the software industry where there are many intelligent people with poor writing skills) that the inability to spell/the inability to write well are characteristics found in people who aren’t very well read. In fact, if I were to broaden this slightly, I would suggest that a majority of the skilled communicators (particularly skilled writers) I’ve met in my life were avid readers; and the opposite was true for those with poor communication skills.
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