[ExI] Fwd: year round school

[John Grigg]

 Bill W wrote:
"Just wondering on a different subject:  how many high school grads read
books like those they studied in Western literature?  Maube more than those
that use algebra, but I'll bet it's not many.  the average American reads
one book a year.  Which means, of course, that quite a large percentage
read no books at all. (Here is a good case for using the median, not the
mean - put a lot of zeros in the equation and it skews the mean).

Intellectuals plan curricula.  Maybe they should have some blue collar
workers on those committees to bring a tint of reality to the
requirements.  Home Ec - how to raise children - home finances - religion -
civics - courses everyone needs and no one gets."

I find it hard to believe that  the average American only reads one book a
year, especially considering all the books that are sold annually. Even the
less educated/cultured folks I know, still read at least 2 or 3 books a
year, usually horror, romance or thrillers.

Yes, it would be nice if every public high school taught home finance,
civics, home ec and auto shop. My highschool had long since phased out auto
shop and teaching driver's education, by the time I got there. But keep in
mind that even music departments at public schools are often seen as
expendable.

I never received the "good at math genes" despite coming from a family of
nothing but engineers, on my father's side of the family. I have an uncle
who was actually inducted into the IBM Engineering Hall of Fame! But I have
never met him. I recall taking an algebra class in college, which started
at 7am and I am not a morning person... Lol And on top of that, the
instructor talked at auctioneer speeds! We would shout, "slow down," she
should apologize, and then a few minutes later be back again at oral warp
speed 9.

John


On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 10:22 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com>
>
> >...I am lucky to know the kind of students who make stepping stones out
> of stumbling blocks.  But I see plenty of students who find ways to turn
> stepping stones into stumbling blocks.  Some step up, some fall down.
>  spike
>
>
> As with any new technology being used by a lotta people, new and fun ways
> to do things are discovered.  Online learning using Zoom is a great
> example.  Google classroom is even better in some ways, but I know more
> about Zoom, so this essay is mostly about that platform.
>
> I mentioned in an earlier commentary that in current public schools,
> students are required to attend (so their cameras must be on and the
> student must appear in the field of view to verify presence) but are not
> actually required to participate in order to get a passing grade.  The
> students can sign up to be graded on a pass/fail basis this year.  If a
> student is satisfied with her GPA, there is no compelling reason to not use
> P/F grading, ja?  Some go into this year with a 4.0, clearly no way to
> improve, plenty of ways to fumble, take the safe P which does not calculate
> into GPA.
>
> Zoom has a background feature where it somehow does face recognition and
> shows only the face.  This feature works, even if the camera can only see
> the top of the head (anyone here know how the heck that works (I can report
> that it does work well.))  With background running, you can't tell where
> the student is located.  My son went to a dentist appointment yesterday,
> took his ChromeBook with him with Zoom running, attended class on the trip
> over, during the preliminaries at the office and kept the camera running
> right up until the dentist arrived.  Cameras can be turned off temporarily
> (which is a good thing (a most advisable thing in some circumstances (if
> one is a news commentator for instance in a meeting with colleagues.)))
> The teacher and classmates couldn't even tell he was away from his desk.
>
> Some use a phone to attend meetings, or go somewhere.  Usually you can
> tell when someone is walking.  If they don't have backgrounder on, then one
> can see trees passing by, dead giveaway, but more common is that the person
> appears to be looking up at about pi/4 radians, and rocking left and
> right.  She's walking, not in class.
>
> The camera and screen are usually two separate things, and need not be in
> the same direction.  A Zoom meeting can show the participant in side view
> for instance, and some do.  Often the camera is the phone, so she can take
> it into the bathroom, on mute so the meeting people cannot hear the flush
> (and some do (it is hard to tell when someone does that (if they know how
> to use their phones correctly.)))
>
> One of my son's classes requires two separate devices, each with a camera,
> to take tests.  Reasoning: their school-issued ChromeBook has a camera, but
> a second camera is required to watch the test space and verify the student
> isn't cheating.  The test question goes up on the ChromeBook screen, the
> second device watches everything.  The process works.
>
> spike
>
>
>
>
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