Uh oh....
So, I don't think anybody would be startled to learn that the average American's grasp of basic scientific facts is not particularly, uh.... keen.
But looking at the results of a 2001 National Science Foundation poll of scientific literacy I have to say I am horrified.
Not real clear astrophysics, or the electromagnetic spectrum, or the relationship of the forces that shape the universe? Fine.
But:
Nearly half (46%) didn't know how long the Earth takes to orbit the sun, given the choice of an hour, a day or a year.
More than half, 52%, didn't know that electrons are smaller than atoms.
55% thought lasers work by focusing sound waves.
And, God help us, fully 25% were of the opinion that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
And this is leaving aside the huge numbers that put man as contemporaneous with dinosaurs and don't, or won't, know that we evolved form earlier species (I figure these figures might be skewed by a kind of "protest" vote that is aware of the prevailing wisdom but rejects it for religious reasons. I'm going to be charitable and assume that that isn't the explanation for thinking the Sun revolves around the Earth).
I know the whole "Americans don't know shit" thing has been done to death, but fuckin' A! This is utterly disgraceful.
I'm guessing you get a better shot at science and tech in the public schools than you do at history or literature, but maybe not?
I definitely don't want to see the national history quiz. Shit, I don't want to see the national "what happened today" quiz.
It's like the whole country are contestants on the Saturday Night Live version of "Jeapordy".
But looking at the results of a 2001 National Science Foundation poll of scientific literacy I have to say I am horrified.
Not real clear astrophysics, or the electromagnetic spectrum, or the relationship of the forces that shape the universe? Fine.
But:
Nearly half (46%) didn't know how long the Earth takes to orbit the sun, given the choice of an hour, a day or a year.
More than half, 52%, didn't know that electrons are smaller than atoms.
55% thought lasers work by focusing sound waves.
And, God help us, fully 25% were of the opinion that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
And this is leaving aside the huge numbers that put man as contemporaneous with dinosaurs and don't, or won't, know that we evolved form earlier species (I figure these figures might be skewed by a kind of "protest" vote that is aware of the prevailing wisdom but rejects it for religious reasons. I'm going to be charitable and assume that that isn't the explanation for thinking the Sun revolves around the Earth).
I know the whole "Americans don't know shit" thing has been done to death, but fuckin' A! This is utterly disgraceful.
I'm guessing you get a better shot at science and tech in the public schools than you do at history or literature, but maybe not?
I definitely don't want to see the national history quiz. Shit, I don't want to see the national "what happened today" quiz.
It's like the whole country are contestants on the Saturday Night Live version of "Jeapordy".
Comments
"No, God help your mother, Alex...as she revolves around my ****!!! Huh Heh Heh Huh..."
</Sean Connery voice>
Seriously though, Americans are bred to be idiots. What did you expect?
I've quite a few teacher friends, and not one of them hasn't mentioned to me in the last year on how their grading must be 'adjusted' to meet certain 'standards' or their funding will be fucked. Questions are becoming easier and more leading. Answers are pretty much handed out. Kids aren't being challenged to learn *anything*. Quite simply, only those that have a natural curiousity and a predisposition to learn are actually learning.
Thank God for fast food employers.
edit: changed punctuation. I "am" American
Our education system needs to be tailored like this.
Child:
4 yrs old- Pre-School
6 yrs old - First Grade
12 yrs old- Enter Middle School
14 yrs old -Enter High School take basic subjects
16-18 yrs old- Move to specialized area of school similar to choosing a major.
American education is too bland and cookie cutter to have much success. Uniforms should be required, fuk your child's "individuality", you're at school to learn not attend a fashion show.
All schools should be required to have electronic access to a childs course history, grades and performance reports whether the parents utilize them are not.
Teachers should be paid more but have higher standards. Problem students would be noted early and weigh differently on the success scale.
More funding more funding more funding. Every school should have capable facilities including a computer lab and chemistry lab. The computer lab would have to be multi-platform no vendor specific deals allowed.
The results we see simply point to the truth. Americans watch too much television and have becomes the boobs in front of the tubes. Read a book...go take a walk. Turn off the television!
Originally posted by NJ Tom
The wealthier a nation becomes, the fatter, slower, and dumber the population is. Funny wha'?
I think people are a bit too critical. I don't imagine that the rest of the world would fair much better, if at all, on these questions. As far as fatter and slower, these are obvious tie ins to prosperity, but the masses have never been well educated, and in this day and age it's not necessarily the "system." Any graduate of the public school system should be able to answer those simple questions. The problem is that mainstream culture has not evolved.
The "problem" with education today isn't the school system. The problem is the students. The fact that terrifically under-funded schools in the former USSR seem to yield better average students than US schools seems to me to indicate that more funding won't help anything.
Among all the factors that contribute to this (besides the limitless introversion of the middle class), we can add the fact that high schoolers have no incentive to get a good grade on these international tests. They haven't got a thing to do with their GPA, college entrance, and they'll never know their scores. The only good thing about them is you miss one day of class of [name your least favorite subject].
You could conclude from these exams that American high-schoolers are ill-taught and ill-prepared for the competitive global economy. But what if you look at these tests like a capitalist rather than an educator? Nothing is at stake for kids when they take the international exams and the NAEP. Students don't even learn how they scored. ...
The dubiousness of these test results becomes clear when you compare them to the results of tests that actually do matter for teenagers: high-school exit exams and college boards. Nineteen states now require their students to pass assessments before they can don a cap and gown; seven others are testing students but not yet withholding diplomas. When states begin imposing penalties for failure, it makes a difference?sometimes a big one. Look at Texas: In 2004, results counted toward graduation for the first time, and pass rates on both the math and English portions of the test leapt almost 20 points. According to Julie Jary, who oversees student assessment for the state, no substantive alterations were made to the test. What changed was students' motivation: When their diplomas were hanging in the balance, they managed to give more correct answers.
--B
What I didn't learn in school (in the US)
1) Who won the Civil War? Who started it? Why?
2) Why we have Congress & House?
3) How did we get out of the great depression?
4) Where did all the Indians go?
5) Where does money come from?
6) Why do we pay taxes?
7) When did 'monogamy' begin?
8) Why is Dark Side of the Moon the best album?
9) -please continue posting your own list of 'lacks'-
reg
Fuck no, we decided as this is Fascist England to do what "someone" wants and to keep the kids stupid.
P.S Seg, any predictions for saturday? I expect you to have the last laugh !
Edited to spell pupils correctly (!)
Originally posted by Alex London
I have come back from the first day of term at the inner London primary school where I work. 92% of the puils have English as an additional language, 70% get free school meals, 28 % are the children of refugees or asylum seekers, 20% have no previous schooling. Did the Headmistress, the Teachers, the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator, the Learning Mentors, the Teaching Assistants, the Targeted Pupil Initiative Worker (me ) spend all day discussing how to raise standards, encourage progress for all,make all feel valued and welcome, make education enjoyable and rewarding so as to facilitate life-long learning?
Fuck no, we decided as this is Fascist England to do what "someone" wants and to keep the kids stupid.
P.S Seg, any predictions for saturday? I expect you to have the last laugh !
But what did that entail Mr London? get specific . . . . sounds interesting . . . .
i've spoken to people just in the last two weeks who:
1-dont know the names of all 9 (current) planets or even that we have nine.
2-look confused when i ask how many states we have and are shocked when i say 50.
3-dont know who the vice president is.
4-cannot name all the states that border the state they live in.
5-think that england is somewhere near romania or that greenland is england.
6-cannot give me the name of the last 10 presidents starting with the current one.
7-cant name two roman emperors, any two, and wonder why im asking.
8-scrunch their face up and start checking the map when i ask them in what city in america is the american embassy? (there is none)
face it, people just dont read. but they can tell you the latest sports scores, and who brad pitt is dating.
i belive there should be an amount of "walking around knowledge" general stuff that everyone should know like what the tallest mountian is on earth, simple stuff like that. but people have no desire to read and i dont see how you enrich your mind and learn if you dont read...
Originally posted by futuremac
its surprising how little people know,
i've spoken to people just in the last two weeks who:
1-dont know the names of all 9 (current) planets or even that we have nine.
2-look confused when i ask how many states we have and are shocked when i say 50.
3-dont know who the vice president is.
4-cannot name all the states that border the state they live in.
5-think that england is somewhere near romania or that greenland is england.
6-cannot give me the name of the last 10 presidents starting with the current one.
7-cant name two roman emperors, any two, and wonder why im asking.
8-scrunch their face up and start checking the map when i ask them in what city in america is the american embassy? (there is none)
face it, people just dont read. but they can tell you the latest sports scores, and who brad pitt is dating.
i belive there should be an amount of "walking around knowledge" general stuff that everyone should know like what the tallest mountian is on earth, simple stuff like that. but people have no desire to read and i dont see how you enrich your mind and learn if you dont read...
Perhaps since K-12 schools don't seem to be able to impart specific or particular knowledge, they could concentrate on teaching "contexts".
For instance, I seem to recall that having to memorize the planets of our solar system sort of became the whole deal when it came to celestial mechanics, something you crammed for then promptly forgot. That, and a great deal of information on the composition of each planet.
Instead, you could concentrate on the idea of a planetary system: the shape of it, it's tendencies (with our very own sol system as an example), lots of models (do they still make orrery?), etc.
Maybe if you just hammered on that for 4 or 5 years, at least later in life when a citizen reads about a NASA probe to Jupiter they can sort of picture what's going on.
I use this example because pretty much no one I know (ostensibly educated people all) who isn't declared as a "science buff" has the faintest idea how the solar system is configured, much less galaxies or galactic clusters or the larger universe. Hence, they are more or less immune to any new info that involves these entities, since they have no context to place the information within.
I would imagine that the same strategy might serve for geography, history and other branches of science; less so for math which is pretty much all particulars.
Teachers: forgive me if this bone ignorant and this is already widely done. My grade school days seemed intent on putting the cart before the horse and bludgeoning us with "facts" and "lists" and "great men" and "trade routes" without ever getting around to the big picture.
I can remember more than a few "aha!" moments in college when the "why" was finally revealed and I thought "Shit! Why didn't they tell us that first? Was it a secret?"
Once you add a strong "I am my own" attitude to this commoditization, I don't see things turning out any differently.
Having said that, I distinctly recall intentionally filling out scantrons without reading questions and such for these type of anonymous assessments for which nothing is at stake. I'm sure I got ~75% or 80% wrong or so and that in no way correlated with my ignorance, vast as it may be but rather was just a reflection on the fact that I was a stupid adolescent and that's the sort of thing kids do sometimes when they are 14. So I dunno that you can necessarily read as much into this sort of data in cases where the students are not required to perform well to please parents or pass onto to another grade or graduate.
7-cant name two roman emperors, any two, and wonder why im asking.
Well I would be a bit puzzled on the why you are asking as well even though I could name two. I mean it is a bit of an odd question to just go up and ask someone. "Hi, how are you? Good. Name two Roman Emporers!"
no thats not how these usually start. the one a few weeks ago started because they saw me reading the ny times (which is considered odd around here as most read only the small town paper,usually just the crime and sports sections) and i was reading about these possible new "planets" past pluto and weather pluto should even be considered a planet.
that led one of them to say that pluto was the largest planet (??) which led to me being quizzed about stuff which i then asked them about. then we all started asking each other trivia questions.
it was alot of fun, but i was shocked at the lack of "walking around knowledge" there was one guy who got the planets right by remembering a song he learned in school which taught that. then we talked about how the planets were named after gods and that led to the roman emperors question. (julius ceasar and nero should be easy for anyone)
when i was a kid if you failed too much you weren't passed to the next grade. period.
i saw kids who stayed back 3,4, times until they "got it" (or turned 16) now they pass these kids without knowing as much. i just dont think its all the schools fault either. in my home we had "a day without tv" (or radio) every few weeks, and we were told to get a book and read it.
while i was cracking open books, my school friends were out playing games, and got mad when i aced the test, and wouldn't let them cheat.
i also went to the library and read because i found out the school wasen't telling us everything (who knew christopher columbus had vd?)
Originally posted by futuremac
(julius ceasar and nero should be easy for anyone)
That's Julius Caesar.
Originally posted by shetline
That's Julius Caesar.
Too much Ceasar dressing at McD.