I work in the food service section of a retail store, and some of the young people I work with have no idea what a half or a quarter pound of food looks like when weighed on a food scale! I have tried to explain to them that 1/2 pound looks the same as 1/2 dollar, that is, .50, etc. Finally one young lady told me that they don't teach those things in school anymore! I was shocked! Is true all over the country? How can kids know how to do anything without learning fractions?
I hadn't heard about them not learning fractions, but I know in many ways young folks don't get a well rounded education any more.
I hadn't heard it either. I knew they no longer teach History the way we learned it, and no more cursive writing, but apparently, not elementary math either.
Makes you wonder just how the Chinese do it. They must be beat their children, or they have the secret to getting the offspring to enjoy so much education. Do we have any teachers that could weigh in on this subject?
That's ridiculous. The state of the education system today is really appalling. Mathematics is certainly one of the basic skills people need in life so they should teach it alongside Literacy as one of the most important things.
It seems to me like the "no child left behind" idea is leaving our children without a good education. It used to be that if a student had not learned the basics required to pass to the next grade in school, they were held back and re-taught them for another year. Now, they have decided that holding the child back is disruptive to their self-esteem (or some such thing), so they send them on through, whether they are learning things or not. We now have high school graduates , and probably college students, who can't properly read, write, and do mathmatics. They have no idea how to make change for a dollar bill. They can't even tell time on a regular watch, anymore, either. We have a special in the local grocery store called "pick five". You can choose any item that is designated as a pick five item, and get all five items for $20, which makes the average cost $4 per item. When you look at the weights and costs of the items, and choose items that are marked between $4-5, then you can find some good bargains with the pick five option. However, many of the items on the special plan are only between $3-4 each, so you are actually paying more by choosing those items than if you bought the item separately and paid the marked price. Yet, people grab their five items , not checking the original pricing, and think that they are getting a good deal.
What they are aiming for, I believe, is an educational system that will determine, early in a child's life, what he or she has an aptitude for, and gear their education to that end (training children to do this job or that job, depending on their scores on national testing and the needs of society), after exempting the children of the wealthy and influencial, the effect being to cement a class system whereby only the very exceptional children will be able to break out.
The training the kids are getting today in school leave alot to be desired. I ask my grandkids questions that I feel they should have the answer to and they look at me like I am crazy. The kids are not taught to read hand writing, if they are not taught to read handwriting how do you expect them to be able to sign their names and read writen documents. Not all documents are typed.
In our public school system, there is very little homework now. Rather, they have lengthened the school day and shortened the lunch periods, giving them study periods during the school year. I think the idea is to prevent parents from being able to have any input on their children's education.
I agree Ken, When our children were in school, and it was our responsibility to help them with their homework. The subject work had to relate to what we parents were taught in our own time of education. If it didn't we knew somethings wasn't right, and that it was time to speak to the teacher. Not so today.
I was on a scuba dive vacation and met a person who was taking math with another person. Later I talked to one of the gentleman and I asked a question what was 30 divided by 1/2 + 1/2 0f 30 He quickly replied 30. I told him he was wrong and the answer is 75 He began to laugh and said you are right and then when on to tell me he was a Doctor of Mathematics and he also hates fractions.
I don't have a great head for math so, if I don't use something for a while, I forget it. I was the program chairman for the emergency medical technology program for a couple of state college campuses, and would have a new paramedic class coming in every two years. Paramedics had to learn to do calculations for pharmaceuticals although we pretty much never had to do them in the field, since the dosages were spelled out for us in our protocols. From the business math instructor at one of the campuses, I learned a way of doing medical calculations by proportions, rather than the standard algebraic method used in the textbooks. It was much easier, and made perfect sense while was preparing for my classes, and teaching them, but I would sometimes forget between paramedic classes and had to relearn it every couple of years. I am reminded of it because it involved converting everything into a fraction. I would, of course, also teach the textbook method, and some people could understand it better that way, while the proportions method would make more sense to others.
All of this reminds me of a disastrous visit to a delicatessen. Spotting some cheese that I liked, I asked the girl behind the counter (she was about 18, I'd guess) for about 200 grams. This was clearly beyond any comprehension she had. "How much is that?" she asked. "Roughly between 199 and 201 grams," I replied. I know, I know, such sarcasm is unbecoming, but there are times when you cannot help yourself.
That's rediculous. We really need some actual, raw analytic calculations in the school. I get it, they do most of it on calculators but still. What is this direction the school is going nowadays..