On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:52:11 -0400, Gene Kearns
wrote:

On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:02:22 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch penned the
following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

|Just had a bunch of local science teachers visit here to see how
|things are done in an environment like this. They asked me what I
|thought of science and math education and I told them that science and
|especially math are taught as if it existed apart from life. .... Kids are
|bored silly at how it is taught today and I never learned anything in
|science in high school.

You have to understand how today's education is defined. "Education,"
now, is defined as earning a certain score on a "standardized" test.
"No Child Left Behind" has destroyed any hope of children
understanding the course content, because that is not how
"accountability" and "Adequate Yearly Progress" are defined. My wife
teaches middle school and the 6-8 grade students lost approximately a
month of school due to having to take test after test after test. They
showed great "Adequate Yearly Progress!"

The only problem is that when these students matriculate to the
Community College or University system, (with respect to Reading,
Math, and Composition) approximately 60% can't function at entry level
competence in at least one of the disciplines and 75%+ are not
competent in at least two.

Funny, I taught middle school also. We did the testing in a one week
period. Yes, the test was 'standardized', in that all Virginia
students in that grade and subject took the same test. The test was
designed to determine if the students could meet the objectives of the
program of instruction. If a certain score was not earned, then the
student was deemed not to have met the objectives of the program of
instruction.

It's when there are no standards that children get 'left behind'.
Prior to the act, many states had no standards whatsoever. Now many of
the states are trying to develop a nationwide set of standards. *That*
will probably be a dumbed down mess.
--

John H