When a government spends around 8* more on "defence" than education is it any wonder that knives and guns are more highly valued than learning ? The UK education budget is considerably higher than the US one, in fact it's actually around double our defence budget. Of course that means that per capita we spend vastly more on education than the US plus we also have many pupils, in particular aged from 11-16, whose parent's choose "public schools" i.e. private education - though IMO these should be gradually phased out along with any educational institutions having religious bias of any variety - except for those specifically for training of religion/theology aimed at having such a vocation - and only then at 16+. On 25 Aug 2011, at 19:48, Adam P. Goucher wrote:
The tragedy is that students who might have become mathematicians and scientists are frustrated and discouraged by a system that is geared towards the dumbest of the dumb. There is no "one size fits all" solution.
I have to agree with you there. Indeed, most maths tests are so routine that anyone capable of typing expressions into Wolfram Alpha could attain very high grades. I advocate the approach in Gerry Leversha's "Crossing the Bridge", which promotes a more articulate, thoughtful way of solving problems.
Only by breaking the public education monopoly, and opening up education to competition will we discover the best processes.
Hmm, that sounds like Darwinian evolution. Unsuccessful curricula die out, and the schools originally teaching them adopt successful curricula and alter them slightly...
Sincerely,
Adam P. Goucher
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