On 22 April 2011 10:39, Patrick Bartek <bartek...@yahoo.com> wrote: > --- On Thu, 4/21/11, Alan McConnell <a...@patriot.net> wrote: > > > A couple of comments. > > > > On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 01:15:08PM -0400, Miles Fidelman > > wrote: > > > > > > >It's been my experience that most users never read > > the manual. > > > Too much trouble. When something breaks, they > > find someone to > > > fix it or tell them how to. No learning > > required. > > If someone tells you how to, you've > > certainly learned something. > > Only if they retain it. > > > Haven't we all been to school? > > Yes, but a lot has changed--for the worse--since I attended. A few years > ago, tutored my niece, who is now a college junior, with her high school > geometry and algebra. The texts reminded me of the ones I had used in 8th > grade--large print, simple language, few or no proofs of theorems, etc. > They weren't even required to prove or even shown the proof of The > Pythagorean Theorem. Amazing! Her history and English text books were > equally retrograded. I also discovered that the grading system had been > significantly downgraded since I attended. Most of the honor roll students > in her school would have only been C students, average, in mine. In mine, > you had to have an overall average of 90%, B minus, or higher to make the > honor roll. Something not all that easy to do. In her's, 80% was a B > minus; in mine, C minus. Lower standards begets lower achievement. No > wonder the median high school graduate (in the US, anyway) only reads at an > 8th grade level. >
Yes, I've found this to be exactly the case. I've developed a strong interest in quantum, chaos and game theory so I decided to up my math ability. Applied to the local tech. colleges and discovered that they could teach me household budgeting and a bit about statistics. The logs, algebra, geometry, etc., that I was learning in my first year of high school, isn't taught here in Australia until after the third year of high school, now. To get anything better I have to drop work/career and go to university at a phenomenal cost. The 'conspiracy theory' that we are educated to meet the standards of a 'product' that the corporate entities require, isn't a far-flung one. Regards, Weaver. -- Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. — Lucius Annæus Seneca. Terrorism, the new religion.
