[ExI] relevant skills movement, was: RE: emp again

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
Subject: Re: [ExI] relevant skills movement, was: RE: emp again

On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 10:49 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> >...arithmetic either makes children smart or makes them stupid.

>...It is a much better "waste" of time than most of the rest of what they
do...

Ja, so I agree that to a large extent the answer depends on what is the
alternative and what is the goal.

In my own mind, the goal is admission to Berkeley.  A still more ambitious
goal is admission to Stanford, but that would require a really good
scholarship for I cannot afford Stanford.  It looks to me like Berkeley is
nearly as good an education and the Taxifornia taxpayer picks up most of the
tab.  So getting into Berkeley is equivalent to getting about a 30k a year
scholarship.

If these are the goals, then I must help my son master the subject matter on
the SAT.  I know how to do that, being an SAThlete myself.  So he would need
language arts and such, as well as math skills.

However...

I am anticipating an eminent landslide change in the way top-end colleges do
their recruitment and award scholarships.  Some of the skills they look for
currently are irrelevant.  For instance, that arithmetic example: is not a
far more relevant skill demonstrated by the ability to use one's own cell
phone to do a bunch of calculations?  Think of all the stuff your cell phone
does.  Have you mastered all of it?  I haven't.  I can take pictures and
video, take notes, send yak-o-grams, do calcs, but I am not very fast at any
of this.  A more useful skill than doing long division is the ability to
whip out a phone and do five long divisions in the same amount of time.  But
will standardized testing reflect this?  How will we deal with college
recruitment based on the use of all available resources?  We know that it
gives an inherent advantage to those who can invest heavily in enhancements,
but that doesn't come to an end when college starts or ends.  So why would
we want to ignore the skillset of mastering the use of mechanical/electronic
augmentation and enhancements?

spike