On May 13, 9:48=A0am, Beliavsky <beliav...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On May 12, 10:08=A0pm, Ablang <ron...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> They should read "The Bell Curve" or Charles Murray's recent essay
> "The age of educational romanticism: On requiring every child to be
> above average"
> by Charles
Murrayhttp://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-age-of-educa=
tional-roman....
A superb article. It is quite thoughtful and well written.
I agree with its conclusions. However in today's political climate it
is not
socially acceptable to suggest that some people or groups of people
are
intellectually inferior. I am afraid that this social climate will
lead to a rejection
of what Mr. Murray has written.
Look what happened to Shockley & J. Watson for example.
The article does fail to mention one thing that I believe is
applicable.
Success in school depends not only upon ability, (which is clearly
lacking
in a large ****tion of the population), but also upon MOTIVATION. Too
many
people simply don't VALUE education. And these people have no chance
of succeeding. An interesting question is whether lack of motivation
is a result
of lack of ability. How strong is the correlation between the two?
I suspect that
it is very strong, but lack data. Have any stuidies been done? I
would enjoy
seeing some discussion about this within this NG.
>
> Most people are not smart enough to go to college, but they can be
> productive members of society. People who have not mastered algebra
> should not be in college in the first place.
Bingo!
> > At Sierra College in Rocklin, for example, of the 199 sections of math
> > being taught this year, 68 of them =96 34 percent =96 are arithmetic,
pr=
e-
> > algebra or beginning algebra. Most students seeking a two-year or
four-
> > year degree must master those levels of math and in many cases go
> > beyond.
>
> > Five years ago, the percentage of remedial math courses at Sierra was
> > 28 percent.
>
> > Last year at Cosumnes River College in Elk Grove, 40.8 percent of
> > incoming students who took a math placement exam tested into
> > arithmetic or pre-algebra, up from 38.1 percent two years earlier. The
> > pro****tion of courses in beginning algebra, pre-algebra and arithmetic
> > at Cosumnes has marched steadily upward, from 43 percent in 2003 to
> > almost 52 percent this year.
Colleges are under financial pressure to admit any warm body that can
pay the
tuition. The results quoted above are entirely predictable.
> > "It's the million-dollar question," said Mary Martin, math department
> > chair at Cosumnes. "We are asking more of our high school students, so
> > why isn't it transferring over to college?"
Because most colleges don't CARE as long as the students can pay the
tuition.
>
> I bet that most of the people struggling with high school math in
> college never actually learned it in high school.
This is no surprise.
> > California high schools have responded to the monumental task of
> > getting students through algebra, Martin and other math professors
> > say, but the push is falling short.
>
> > It has educators concerned because algebra is considered a key subject
> > for developing critical thinking skills.
>
> It's more likely that people who cannot grasp algebra are limited in
> "developing critical thinking skills" because they are not that
> smart..
This is also no surprise.
|
