On 22 April 2011 10:39, Patrick Bartek
<bartek047@yahoo.com> wrote:
--- On Thu, 4/21/11, Alan McConnell <alan@patriot.net> wrote:
> A couple of comments.
>
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 01:15:08PM -0400, Miles Fidelman
> wrote:
> >
> > >It's been my experience that most users never read
> the manual.
> > Too much trouble. When something breaks, they
> find someone to
> > fix it or tell them how to. No learning
> required.
> If someone tells you how to, you've
> certainly learned something.
Only if they retain it.
> Haven't we all been to school?
Yes, but a lot has changed--for the worse--since I attended. A few years ago, tutored my niece, who is now a college junior, with her high school geometry and algebra. The texts reminded me of the ones I had used in 8th grade--large print, simple language, few or no proofs of theorems, etc. They weren't even required to prove or even shown the proof of The Pythagorean Theorem. Amazing! Her history and English text books were equally retrograded. I also discovered that the grading system had been significantly downgraded since I attended. Most of the honor roll students in her school would have only been C students, average, in mine. In mine, you had to have an overall average of 90%, B minus, or higher to make the honor roll. Something not all that easy to do. In her's, 80% was a B minus; in mine, C minus. Lower standards begets lower achievement. No wonder the median high school graduate (in the US, anyway) only reads at an 8th grade level.
Yes, I've found this to be exactly the case. I've developed a strong interest in quantum, chaos and game theory so I decided to up my math ability. Applied to the local tech. colleges and discovered that they could teach me household budgeting and a bit about statistics.
The logs, algebra, geometry, etc., that I was learning in my first year of high school, isn't taught here in Australia until after the third year of high school, now. To get anything better I have to drop work/career and go to university at a phenomenal cost.
The 'conspiracy theory' that we are educated to meet the standards of a 'product' that the corporate entities require, isn't a far-flung one.
Regards,
Weaver.