109 replies to this topic

[mweb08]

I'm all for teaching personal finance in schools, but 10 seems young for that. A primary purpose of education is to develop the mind, and having a kid memorize times tables or dates of wars is not the best way to do that imo. Rather than focusing on stuff like that, more thought provoking activities is preferential. That applies to math as well, and the ability to think through those problems in multiple ways can help with non math situations.

It's never too early to teach that.

Eh, agree to disagree.

And considering your stance on other things, I'm surprised you don't feel the onus to learn how to manage money should be mostly, if not completely on the parents and their kids themselves.

[SportsGuy]

Teaching problem solving skills is never ever a waste of time. It's process over product. The product is that you have 3-4 ways to solve a math problem. The process is that you learn to solve problems, think outside the box, look at things in other ways, question why the answer is the answer. Those skills and that way of thinking is pretty invaluable and highly transferable which is what you want out of an educational practice.

That's great...I'm not arguing against any of this or saying any different.

I'm not saying to not teach it. I'm saying to teach it, let the kids figure it out from there, don't mark it wrong if it's right and spend more time teaching things that matter more.

And maybe math isn't even the best example. There are countless amounts of worth subjects and wastes of time in schools.

Math is the example being used for me because of the very thing brought up in Chris' article that he posted early in the thread.

If any of you think that kid should have been marked wrong, you are crazy and if you, as a teacher, marks that student wrong, I hope to god you don't teach my child.

[SportsGuy]

Eh, agree to disagree. And considering your stance on other things, I'm surprised you don't feel the onus to learn how to manage money should be mostly, if not completely on the parents and their kids themselves.

All education should mostly be on the parents. I don't care what it is.

That being said, school is there and you have to be there, so that stuff should be reinforced
And since most parents don't educate enough, school needs to.

[RShack]

Eh, agree to disagree.

And considering your stance on other things, I'm surprised you don't feel the onus to learn how to manage money should be mostly, if not completely on the parents and their kids themselves.

 

Plus, if they teach that in school, they're gonna teach sensible buy-and-hold strategies... they're not gonna teach them to make trades like crazy and flip stocks at every opportunity... and we know how Rob feels about making trades  

[mweb08]

So Rob, what changes would you make to school curriculum?

[SportsGuy]

Plus, if they teach that in school, they're gonna teach sensible buy-and-hold strategies... they're not gonna teach them to make trades like crazy and flip stocks at every opportunity... and we know how Rob feels about making trades  

I feel the same way your buddy Andy MacPhail feels.

This team basically made the run they did based off of trades. Try not to forget that.

I just don't fall in love with the players like you do.

[SportsGuy]

So Rob, what changes would you make to school curriculum?

They need to teach more everyday things. Things that you actually need when you grow up.

That is what they teach more of in private schools and the public schools need to adopt that.

I would like to see foreign languages introduced at earlier ages too. I know at my nephews school, they start Spanish classes at like 5 years old. That's pretty cool and that's important nowadays.

I would like to see classes on ethics and things like that too.

I hate the idea of year round school and the whole 180 days stuff is bullshit because too many days are wastes of time for you guys and the students. That should be adjusted too.

[Mackus]

Spanish is more important than math? What kind of RINO are you?

[DJ MC]

don't mark it wrong if it's right

 

You're quite hung up on this idea. And for many (if not most) things, you would be right; the most important thing is finding the correct answer, whichever method you use.

 

However, I think there needs to be more details for the scenario you're relaying. It would make perfect sense, for example, to mark one method wrong when you are in the process of teaching another method. As opposed to doing math further into the year and marking a solution as incorrect for using one method over another.

 

I can absolutely see a parent (especially now) flipping out over the "incorrect" right answer even if it was for the reason I said. That doesn't make the system wrong, though.

[Mackus]

Are they even doing that "marking it wrong if it's right" stuff? Hasn't that weird test that started this debate been distanced from Common Core and instead was just some teacher not understanding the basics of the commutative property?

[SportsGuy]

Spanish is more important than math? What kind of RINO are you?

Not more important...just something else that should be taught at early ages.

[Mackus]

Agree early foreign language is a great idea.

[mweb08]

So Rob, what changes would you make to school curriculum?

They need to teach more everyday things. Things that you actually need when you grow up.


That is what they teach more of in private schools and the public schools need to adopt that.


I would like to see foreign languages introduced at earlier ages too. I know at my nephews school, they start Spanish classes at like 5 years old. That's pretty cool and that's important nowadays.


I would like to see classes on ethics and things like that too.


I hate the idea of year round school and the whole 180 days stuff is bullshit because too many days are wastes of time for you guys and the students. That should be adjusted too.

Well I agree about foreign language.

Not sure what else you'd specifically want based on this post. Ethics would be fine as a high school class, but maybe you're just talking everyday right and wrong kind of stuff?

Many private schools also teach the religion of their choice. Is that good?

[SportsGuy]

Are they even doing that "marking it wrong if it's right" stuff? Hasn't that weird test that started this debate been distanced from Common Core and instead was just some teacher not understanding the basics of the commutative property?

I started this conversation because I really am ignorant to this and, as I said before, the sampling of people I have talked to about it is small.

I wanted to hear what other parents and teachers felt. I feel education is garbage in this country and needs to be fixed, so I think this is important.

Now, with that as the background, to answer your question...based on the SSS of people I have talked to, yes they are marking them wrong. Now, does that happen everywhere with every teacher? I have no idea. If it is, that's a huge problem. If it's not, then people need to follow Seth's advice and get over it.

Ricker brought up a larger, more political issue and I agree with a lot of his concerns but I am trying to discuss just the pure implementation of common core and if what they are doing is right. People I know, both parents and teachers, think it's bullshit. But again, that's a small sampling and isn't a fair way to judge this imo.

I will say that I am going to be very hesitant about anything this state has adopted before Hogan. Not trying to make this political...just saying that the decision making in Maryland was pretty bad and that alone makes me skeptical of it but I'm trying not to be close minded on an issue I know little about.

[SportsGuy]

Well I agree about foreign language. Not sure what else you'd specifically want based on this post. Ethics would be fine as a high school class, but maybe you're just talking everyday right and wrong kind of stuff? Many private schools also teach the religion of their choice. Is that good?

Where my nephew goes to school, they teach them about all religions.

If you just teach basic stuff, I'm ok with that. Let the kids know people are different but different is good and things like that. But I don't like the idea of getting into specifics and pushing God down the throats of kids(I don't know if they do that, just saying I wouldn't be for that).

[mweb08]

Well I agree about foreign language. Not sure what else you'd specifically want based on this post. Ethics would be fine as a high school class, but maybe you're just talking everyday right and wrong kind of stuff? Many private schools also teach the religion of their choice. Is that good?

Where my nephew goes to school, they teach them about all religions.


If you just teach basic stuff, I'm ok with that. Let the kids know people are different but different is good and things like that. But I don't like the idea of getting into specifics and pushing God down the throats of kids(I don't know if they do that, just saying I wouldn't be for that).

Well many private schools are tied to a religion, so that often happens at those schools.

Teaching all religions is a good thing, but there are plenty of people in this country that can't handle that.

[mweb08]

Btw, Maryland does very well in education rankings.

[mweb08]

Move to Scandinavia if you want your kid to get a great education.

[JeremyStrain]

There is a lot of "teaching to the test" with this stuff right? Ala The Wire?

 

Yes and no. That part about making teacher's jobs based on test results is what leads to "teaching to the test". Would you want to take a job where your job security was completely out of your control? No matter how great or poor of a teacher you are, you can't control what they put on that test. Some might not test well, some might not care enough to try, some might just have a bad day.

 

So some teachers will try to increase their odds as well as they can, which is so OVER focusing on the tests that other things fall by the wayside. That's more or less the gist from the Wire.

 

Common sense would say the harder areas to staff, the inner city or the "have not" areas will find it even HARDER to get teachers or good teachers because it lowers their odds of keeping their job since they would be so reliant on the scores. DC has a pretty rough patch of this right now, because they traded higher salaries for job security, and really good teachers are getting fired because they have a year of bad test scores, no matter what their track record was before.

[mweb08]

The U.S. History test here in the city is also rather bad.