[ExI] common core educations standards, was: RE: far future

[Kelly Anderson]

On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 11:12 AM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Problems with Common Core, No Child Left Behind, and all the rest of the
> fixes the education establishment gets into law:
>
> Educators do poor research, and I speak as a person who has presented ed.
> research at ed. conventions as well as psych. conventions.  Low standards
> of research, too much jumping on a popular wagon, etc.
>

They do GREAT research on the topic of "What will benefit the teacher's
union the most?"

In many states, Louisiana, for example, children with Down's Syndrome
> (trisomy 21 - average IQ = 25!) and other developmental disorders, are
> actually in the classes with normal children and are expected to have the
> same progress and teachers are punished when they don't perform.  This is
> just nuts.  And legislators have bought into the idea of everyone
> graduating from high school.  Even people with IQs of 70?
>

My daughter, who's IQ is 65ish graduated from High School. It is nuts. She
doesn't know enough to be walking around with a meaningless degree like
that.


> Just nuts.  Half or more of the students should be in some kind of trade
> school beginning 9th or 10 grade.  They don't need American Literature or
> algebra or advanced history classes.
>

She is in a job skills training thing now. They teach her to refold cloth,
straighten shelves, hang shirts on hangers, things she can do. She likes
it. It is fulfilling for her. But they wasted a lot of time getting her
there.

The world would have been better off if her mother had never had 8
children. They are all very low IQ, high volatility, will most likely end
up in jail or in today's version of an asylum, the group home.


> How many people use algebra in their careers?  Very very few.  Are there
> any people in science/technology with IQs below 100?  Very doubtful.  Why
> try to educate those below 100 with stuff they can't understand or use?
>

They do need to be educated to the point that they don't vote for
Democrats. Oh, that's the point of the educational system, my bad. Sorry.
Move on, nothing to see here.


> Education (sociology is worse) believes in the "You can be anything you
> want to be" myth.  Genetics, IQ, anything not totally environmental
> is NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT!!  That just has to change.
>

I would be happier if it did.


> One system in effect (if they haven't changed it) is the Russia one, where
> you have to pass tests to get into junior high school, then another for
> high school, then college, then grad school.  Effect?  They waste very few
> able students and don't waste time and money on those who can't cut it.
> Extreme?  Subject to false positives and false negatives?  Of course - any
> time you test and select you have those.
>

Does Russia have a social net like welfare or the like? I'm asking, I am
unsure of their system.


> I have no ideas on how things should be taught, just what, when and to
> whom.
>

And having no idea, shouldn't we try the widest variety of things? Ideas
are a multi-dimensional landscape of infinite size. But you can only expand
into the proximate possible. The more directions we go, the more things are
in the proximate possible. The common core directs everyone in the
direction of only one subset of possible idea spaces of the future. We need
more creativity and freedom to explore the memespace. Not less. Putting
everyone through the same educational system worked all right in the
British Empire, but it is wholley counter productive today.

I like art, because it teaches how to make things with materials. Even if
they are useless things by and large. It's the idea that I can take an idea
and make something tangible.

I like science because it is the basis for how we understand the world.

I like reading and writing because that allows us to communicate with each
other. (English grammar to a slightly lesser extent.)

I like math because that is another language of literacy that everyone
needs. Though I do agree with Arthur Benjamin that the pinnacle of
mathematics in a democratic republic should be statistics combined with an
understanding of VERY large numbers, rather than calculus. Statistics makes
good voters, Calculus does not.

A little history is a good thing. A bit of financial literacy would serve.
Typing. A little of a few other things is a good thing.

Aside from that, I'd say every student and teacher should be pretty much on
their own. They are all individuals and too many students just HATE school.
That is the first thing that really needs to change.

-Kelly
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