Re: Asimov - Assumptions, the audience and arithmetic - Rant?
Hey Y'all,
One of the more amazing things I've witnessed in the past few years is the
inability of (some) high school graduates, and youngsters still in high
school, who can not figure out simple math...addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division. Many are incapable of accurately counting
change back to a customer.
I was in a fast-food restaurant recently and watched as a young man
literally asked his manager to help him give me change for a ten dollar
bill. I was embarrassed for the young man and for the manager. My order
came to something like $4.27 and this young man was totally clueless.
To be fair, he could have been a little befuddled and feeling under the gun. I know I had to be taught how to count back change, even though I was quite good at math. Part of the problem with maths education in the U.S. is that it isn't always connected to real life situations. Pedagogically, they try, but, even my own experience, it just never seemed concrete enough.
I used to manage a restaurant--back when they first starting using touchscreen computers to automate many of the functions service staff had done by hand or in their heads: memorize prices, add them, and calculate sales tax without the help of a chart. Technology is only part of the problem. Still, technology is only part of the problem.
One day, the flakey system broke down and my waitresses said, "looks like we'll have to go home. Nothing works!" :) I just asked her what she thought people did in the profession for the past 100 years.
The same principle holds true for (some) high school students and graduates<snip>
who can not write coherent sentences and paragraphs, coupled with their
inability to spell correctly. My neighbor is a high school English teacher
and has frequently told me horror stories about the abilities (or lack
thereof) of some of the students she has attempted to teach.
It's the same way at finer unis. I taught at three very elite colleges in the Northeast. Basic skills were often lacking. It certainly wasn't as pronounced as it was in the state colleges where I taught. However, you'd think that the advantages of private school k-12 educations would have made a significant difference.
However, when to wistful olden daze rant mode takes over, I always try to remember this: the refrain, "things ain't what they used to be," is perennial. It's a prominent theme in the literatures on the history of US youth, education and generational relations.
I'd recommend a work by a mentor and friend, _Teaching in America: The Slow Revolution_ by Jerry Grant and Christine Murray. This is one of the better analyses of schooling and the various debates of teacher's pay, merit, privatization, and so forth. Jerry's a sociologist who, years ago, was a reporter covering the education beat for the Washington Post. He eventually headed off to Harvard.
For fun :)
http://www.trepan8.com/temp/romjul.swf
Kelley
--
Kelley Walker
Organizational Researcher/Technical Writer
Interpact Inc., Security Awareness
www.interpactinc.com/
Internet & Computer Ethics for Kids: www.nicekids.net/
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References:
Asimov - Assumptions, the audience and arithmetic - Rant?: From: tronajc
Re: Asimov - Assumptions, the audience and arithmetic - Rant?: From: Tom Sullivan
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