quote:

ORIGINAL: OffTheBeatenTrak

From my expirence school student these days do tend to be ahead in terms of education compared to the education level of student when i was at school. Key aspects of subjects that were covered last year of school are now tend to be covered with in the first years of school.

About 2 years after i left school i went to collage finding i had extra time around the main course i decide to retake GCSE maths, most because i didn't really try properly at maths and i still got a C grade so i thourght i'd do it properly this time and hopefully get a higher grade. Any way the point is, i was advised by the tutor that they would be no benifit to retake the course because the level of a C grade had raisen so much that any improvement i grain wouldn't be reflected with the end grade.

I think possibly the main problem here is that most of the resources and improvements are being concentrated to the later stages of school life in a bid to raise the 11+ and GCSE scores and targets. Unfortunatly i get the impression that the first few years of education are not much of a priority.

quote:

ORIGINAL: domiguy

I wouldn't want my little Domidudes knowing anything about yogurt...It's proven that such knowledge can lead to "pussyesque" activities.

quote:

ORIGINAL: sleazy

And at the risk of sounding exceedingly picky, I see all too many resumes/CVs where straight A students have gone to "collage", which I think sort of proves my point, on first reading I pick up no less than three simple spelling errors, sure some words like necessary are good for anyone to trip over every once in a while, but for so many to mess up where they recieved a supposedly advanced education gives me cause for concern.


(A recount in the tradition of Florida ups the tally to 5)

quote:

ORIGINAL: OffTheBeatenTrak

From my expirence school student these days do tend to be ahead in terms of education compared to the education level of student when i was at school. Key aspects of subjects that were covered last year of school are now tend to be covered with in the first years of school.

quote:

ORIGINAL: missturbation

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/28022007/140/townie-children-think-cows-lay-eggs.html

1 in 10 8 year old british city kids do not know that pork chops come from a pig.
1 in 10 city kids didnt know where yoghurt comes from.
2% of city kids thought that eggs came from cows!!
 
This is so wrong, are these kids never visiting the country, farms etc? I find it pretty sad.  

quote:

ORIGINAL: missturbation
1 in 10 8 year old british city kids do not know that pork chops come from a pig.
1 in 10 city kids didnt know where yoghurt comes from.
2% of city kids thought that eggs came from cows!!
 
This is so wrong, are these kids never visiting the country, farms etc? I find it pretty sad.  

quote:

ORIGINAL: FelinePersuasion
Yup when I went to highschool, which was not long ago 2003, we didn't have algebra and stuff untill about 6th /7th grade, when I went to keys class the requirement before adult ed 6 months or so ago, one of the guysthere had kids in grade school who werre doing pre algebra.

quote:

ORIGINAL: soultoshare
When I was in school, back in the stone age, I didn't see fractions until about the 6th grade or so, give or take a year....my UM started doing them in the 1st grade!  Biology in the 4th grade......I got that in the 10th grade.  I was an average student, much to the dismay of my mother.....she aced math, I literally squeaked by with a point to spare.  My neice at 5 years old, knew more about computers than I did!  I've improved, but still....having to ask a 5 year old how to run photoshop is pretty pathetic!

quote:

ORIGINAL: sleazy

I dont think the issue is visting farms, more an issue of either visiting a school on a more regular basis, and those schools actually being allowed to teach. (yes there is a lot of blame to be laid at the feet of parents too)

Bearing in mind that a school trip to a community farm requires site visits, risk assements, parental consents criminal record checks, and a box and a half of other paperwork I am was not really surprised to find out that my kids would be lucky to get one school trip per year.

quote:

ORIGINAL: sleazy
I remember using good ole fashioned printed log & sin tables, not that I have ever used them since really, as for taking a calculator into an exam that would have got me in serious trouble. I was taught long division with pen and paper under the age of 11, I dread to think at what age it is taught now, if at all. I remember the balance scales at round the edge of the classroom, made of either wood or plastic for peanuts I would imagine, whereas at my sons school there were digital scales costing tens, if not hundreds of pounds each. Sure life is different now and balance scales and the abacus have been replaced, but certainly the balance scale actually teaches far more than weights and measures given a teacher that knows their bacon (or pork). I am not certain that a little box that produces an answer straight out gives any real understanding of how the answer was right, just imagine if a faulty batch of calculators were produced with a minor but consistent error in them, it could alter the entire world :)

quote:

ORIGINAL: soultoshare
I went thru that with my UM's math......we went shopping for his school suppilies, he showed me the calculator that he needed for his math class.....OMG!!!!!  the thing must have had about 30 buttons on it!  I'd need a class on just how to turn the blasted thing on!  But what really upset me about his school was that instead of teaching the basics of math, english and the other classes, they are now teaching them to use the MACHINES instead.  I couldn't help him with his math homework because it was more advanced than what I took in school!  I once asked him how he would do his math if the batteries went dead in his calculator, his response to that was "I carrry extras...we all do!"  I carried extra pens.....sometimes I can't help but wonder if all this technology is a help or hinderance to learning.