American children continue to fall behind in education

[godix]

In other worlds, hooray for liberal arts?

I was avoiding that term since it's gotten corrupted and these days carries connotations exactly opposite what I mean but yeah, hooray for liberal arts.

Obviously the school still strives to do a good job with its humanities courses, but the hyperfocus on the sciences is undeniable. It's TJHS for Science and Technology, after all.

And this is why I was avoiding it. Liberal arts, in the original sense of the term, is not just the humanities and it most definately isn't the opposite of science & technology. There is plenty of room for focusing on how to think in physics, engineering, chemistry, or other hard sciences. Actually those are exactly the subjects where it's most important to know how to problem solve rather than rote memorization.

[Orwell]

gg edukacion suxxxzorz

My own middle school experience was it was basically a huge waste of time now that I reflect on it in any detail. Everything that I got a basic introduction to, with the exception of a few math concepts has been repeated in highschool, and is now being repeated in community college. If you didn't learn how write a summary in middle school, please kill yourself.

It could be however that I was the one who screwed up, I didn't spend enough time smoking stolen cigerattes in the bathroom stalls and was instead expecting to learn something. Wait, am I talking about community college or middle school?

[Kionon]

I learned more from my own work than I ever did from school. Period. A truly disgusting episode in my life was sophomore year of high school. We had to go the library and choose a book to write a report on. It had to be this many chapters, or this many pages, or what have you. I'm sure you can imagine some of what the choices were. I chose Jane Eyre. I was on a real 19th Century feminist literature kick at the time, coming off of reading a lot of Jane Austin's novels, etc...

My teacher asked, "Are you sure you want to do this book?" I remember looking at her like she was a complete idiot.

My parents are both librarians. I had already read all but one of Charles Dickens novels by the age of 12 (including the pickwick papers). My IQ was estimated at 130 while I was still in the sixth grade. You're damn right I'm sure.

That was the day I was sure government mandated education had failed.

[JaddziaDax]

In middle school I learned more of what I learned in Elementary, how to fake doing homework at the last minute...

Though learning how to get around from class to class was an interesting experience... I also learned not to rely on lockers and just carry all the crap in my backpack, because there wasn't time and my locker was never clean.

[jasper-isis]

Obviously the school still strives to do a good job with its humanities courses, but the hyperfocus on the sciences is undeniable. It's TJHS for Science and Technology, after all.

And this is why I was avoiding it. Liberal arts, in the original sense of the term, is not just the humanities and it most definately isn't the opposite of science & technology. There is plenty of room for focusing on how to think in physics, engineering, chemistry, or other hard sciences. Actually those are exactly the subjects where it's most important to know how to problem solve rather than rote memorization.

Oh believe me, I completely understand that. The things I've absorbed through a science-heavy curriculum have undoubtedly shaped the way I think about the world. (For example, the experimental method probably runs in my blood by now.) But it wasn't until I got to college that I was confronted with the question of how a museum should go about returning its looted artifacts to Italy, or whether it should be legal to help euthanize a patient with 90% of his body covered in third degree burns, or what our ye olde philosophers would say regarding the value of modern pornography.

The thing is that you still need a balance of the different subjects in order to have the full liberal arts experience. But "Sci/Tech" high schools are becoming a fad these days. People see names like Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Bronx Science, and Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy up near the top of the list and think "ah, so that's what we should be focusing on." Then they go and restructure their courses in a half-assed manner. Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland has been trying for years to get more finalists into the Intel Science Talent Search than TJHSST. They finally succeeded after designing a whole curriculum around the competition. All I can say is... good job?

[CodeZTM]

btw Code...have you thought about where you're going to school yet?

Yah. A local university (Arkansas Tech University) in my hometown. Getting some sort of degree there, then move out of state for either further education or to get a job. I'm wanting to move to either Atlanta, Georgia or to some other city similar to that. (hopefully)

And I will be quite honest. I have no idea what I am going to major in. That's why I'm such and avocate for choosing classes based on careers. This way, I would have been able to decide what kind of profession I believe I couldn't do. I've been bouncing back and forth from Education to Law to Pharmacy (after sorting through dozens of possible majors). But I've got a lot of people trying to pressure me here (in both school and home) to take the Law path. I just don't know what I want, and that bugs the crap out of me. X_X

I don't know, there is a reverse side to that - often being able to choose wrong in high school saves one headache in college.

I agree fully. I've learned that I will never be a doctor by my pitiful performance in Human Anatomy and Biology classes taken in 10th and 12th grade respectively. I was really going down that road for a while too. But then I realized how much I hated anatomy and biology, which helped me pinpoint closer to my direction.

That was the day I was sure government mandated education had failed.

Agreed. Similar expierence happened to me in my Junior year of high school. I was trying to take both the ACT and SAT, and I had my paperwork filled out. I brought it to my counselor to get him to give me our school's code. He basically flat out told me that I would fail the SAT, and that I should stick to the ACT (since the ACT is the only test our colleges require in Arkansas). Regardless to say, I was pissed.

In middle school I learned more of what I learned in Elementary, how to fake doing homework at the last minute...

Middle school, for me, was useless. We basically did the exact same thing every year for four years. We had one hour dedicated to doing some sort of volunteer work for the school. So I worked in the library. I still, to this day, find that I learned more from working/reading in that library than I did in any of those useless classes in MS.

[requiett]

I blame AMVs. Just look at how much time you dumbasses spent debating the issue. Not to mention the time you spend "editing."