Oh, Oklahoma...

subigo

subigo

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I think that's pretty common everywhere. Most young kids are retarded when it comes to this nation's history.
 
hellblazer said:
I think that's pretty common everywhere. Most young kids are retarded when it comes to this nation's history.
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If it's not covered on one of those glorious standardized tests that are crammed down the throats of teachers and students, it's not heavily covered in many classrooms unfortunately.

Alternatively, the focus in education these days is teaching thought systems, problem solving and higher level thinking (analysis, synthesis, etc....) Knowledge, such as facts about the president, is the lowest form of knowledge and learning according to Blooms Taxonomy - the backbone of teaching these days.

Besides, why should students waste brain power memorizing things they can look up in less than a second from any hand held device? This is actually one of the largest debates in the educational community - what is the point of teaching facts to the point of memorization? Facts are readily available, but processing and applying those facts at the higher levels of reasoning are not. So teachers are starting to teach students to think, reason and apply the facts they can find anywhere in "real world" settings.

Of course, there are also plenty of dumb students, dumb parents and dumb teachers who teach, push and answer a test format to ensure they are "recognized" or whatever. ho-hum.
 
Did any of you take that test to see how you would do? Just curious.

I got one wrong. The stupid senator question, mostly because I understood in incorrectly , I thought they were asking about caps (like the presidency is 8 years) so I said "endless" which is true, if that were actually the question. DOH.
 
InternetAuthor said:
Besides, why should students waste brain power memorizing things they can look up in less than a second from any hand held device? This is actually one of the largest debates in the educational community - what is the point of teaching facts to the point of memorization?
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I disagree with this. Addition, especially multiplication, even spelling, require some sort of memorization initially. Kids learning 5 x 5 = 25, 5 x 6 = 30, etc. all require memorization initially before the concepts can be applied to greater things in math. Saying "they have calculators now so they don't need to learn this" wouldn't fly.

And relying on the 'net as a search tool for basic facts is ridiculous. Our forefathers would be rolling in their graves, esp. Mr. Washington himself, looking at the youth in todays America. For all the courage and wars our predecessors went through to give us freedom, it's a damn shame nobody remembers who fought the fight.
 
InternetAuthor said:
If it's not covered on one of those glorious standardized tests that are crammed down the throats of teachers and students, it's not heavily covered in many classrooms unfortunately.

Alternatively, the focus in education these days is teaching thought systems, problem solving and higher level thinking (analysis, synthesis, etc....) Knowledge, such as facts about the president, is the lowest form of knowledge and learning according to Blooms Taxonomy - the backbone of teaching these days.

Besides, why should students waste brain power memorizing things they can look up in less than a second from any hand held device? This is actually one of the largest debates in the educational community - what is the point of teaching facts to the point of memorization? Facts are readily available, but processing and applying those facts at the higher levels of reasoning are not. So teachers are starting to teach students to think, reason and apply the facts they can find anywhere in "real world" settings.

Of course, there are also plenty of dumb students, dumb parents and dumb teachers who teach, push and answer a test format to ensure they are "recognized" or whatever. ho-hum.
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I hear what you are saying but history (or social studies as it's called in Canada) and geography are still taught in your school system are they not?

From Grade 1 through 11 this is mandatory schooling in Canada. We were taught Canadian and American history, taught ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek history, some European history, some Asian, African and Middle Eastern history, we touched on most major wars but learned about WWI and WWII repeatedly over the years.

This is what I would consider basic human knowledge.
 
You find "tards" and "sheeple" every where you go. Check out the Howard Stern's interviews with Obama voters in New york. Oklahoma is a strange state. There are pockets of flaming liberals right next to pockets of ultra conservatives. It really depends upon what part of the city (Tulsa and Oklahoma City) you live in. I know, because I live in Tulsa.
 
Roundabout said:
Mr. Washington himself, looking at the youth in todays America. For all the courage and wars our predecessors went through to give us freedom, it's a damn shame nobody remembers who fought the fight.
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+Rep

There are elements in our society who push agendas of 'remaking' our country who feel their causes are better served when the youth grow up knowing nothing about this - just sayin'
 
LotsOfZeros said:
+Rep

There are elements in our society who push agendas of 'remaking' our country who feel their causes are better served when the youth grow up knowing nothing about this - just sayin'
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If you get a chance, read this book - it's amazing. On a sidenote, did you see Osama Bin Laden endorse Jimmy Carter?
 
Roundabout said:
I disagree with this. Addition, especially multiplication, even spelling, require some sort of memorization initially. Kids learning 5 x 5 = 25, 5 x 6 = 30, etc. all require memorization initially before the concepts can be applied to greater things in math. Saying "they have calculators now so they don't need to learn this" wouldn't fly.

And relying on the 'net as a search tool for basic facts is ridiculous. Our forefathers would be rolling in their graves, esp. Mr. Washington himself, looking at the youth in todays America. For all the courage and wars our predecessors went through to give us freedom, it's a damn shame nobody remembers who fought the fight.
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For the record, I prefer the middle road approach - cover facts and basics in an application fashion, much like you do spelling and math, but skip spending a week memorizing the capitals of African nations and memorizing and reciting the Preamble when kids are never taught what it actually means, but are required to blurt it out in front of the class. I'd rather have kids tie the text to history and purpose than have it memorized. Earlier comments were thoughts on the educational system as a whole.

Personally, I feel you must have facts to use them at a high reasoning level, but any teacher who stops at lecturing students about the facts only or applying them to a test that could change arbitrarily according to lawmakers is setting kids up to fail. Unfortunately, the tests have done the opposite in most cases. Ol' GW isn't on the test? He's not studied. Ask those kids what they do first with a reading passage, however, I'd wager most would tell you to highlight the title and read the questions. Test strategies since Kindergarten FTW.

And because I'm a teacher I can say this: Most students can't function or apply facts at a high level because they are never taught to do so. Teachers, as in those who are supposed to be teaching them to synthesize information across all levels, were never taught to think and process knowledge that way either and fail to see the value of it today. It's almost a cycle, unfortunately.
 
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I'm almost surprised that many students even know who Nixon is.
 
I would be willing to bet that if this information was disseminated on MTV the scores would be much higher. In addition to the joke that most parents are, I blame the pathetic ways children are being conditioned in this day and age. The whole "everybody is a winner" mentality, that everyone needs to be brought down to the level of the weakest. There is no struggle, there is no fight. Children are no longer taught to strive for something...anything. How much of what an individual knows was learned in school? I would wager a very small percentage. I know a majority of the knowledge and skills I have were self taught, because my parents helped foster a genuine thirst for knowledge within me. I was bought microscopes and soldering irons as a kid. We were at the library several times a month. Because of this, I WANT to learn. I don't feel that education is an obligation, but instead it is a gift.

I hated going to public school, and not for the typical reasons. It seemed that knowledge was an afterthought. That the true priority was making sure that we knew just enough to graduate, just enough to push us through the system. The whole focus was on drilling facts into our heads. You were taught to memorize a solution to an equation instead of learn how to find the answer. Children are no longer taught theory, just facts. It seemed as if the only focus was on memorization and not on what it should have been, reasoning and critical thinking. Being able to solve problems, instead of just regurgitating and answer. Kids are just given fish, instead of being taught how to catch their own.



But then again, these are the people who are filling up our bank accounts.
 
Sometimes I wonder if they fuck up these tests on purpose. Think about their age and how many tests a week they get. Most are probably already in a "Fuck the System" mentality (I know I was) So some guy comes along and says "Take this test, it won't go on your public record but just answer the questions the best you can" Maybe this is their middle finger to authority and more testing. Maybe they really should have a category that says "fuck off" next to "I don't know."

By the way, I did this once on a standardized test. It was third grade and it felt like we were getting these stupid state testing and federal testing every other week. So I made a design out of the bubble answers. I chuckle now to think that some official somewhere said Wow this person is seriously retarded. I was never a good artist either so no one would have known that I was being creative. :D
 
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