Re: [math-fun] NYTimes: How to Fix Our Math Education
FYI -- Below are some of my favorite quotes on learning. I seem to recall that famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said something about banning the word 'teaching' from the language & replacing it with 'learning', but I haven't been able to locate the quote. How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it. --Alexandre Dumas Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. --Plato I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. --Mark Twain A child educated only at school is an uneducated child. --George Santayana Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand. --Confucius Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three. --Confucius A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled. --Plutarch Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means. --Albert Einstein Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. --Malcom S. Forbes 'Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail'. --Ralph Waldo Emerson 'Some of us are just less damaged than others.' (by schooling) --Buckminster Fuller 'We can easily forgive a child whom is frightened of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.' --Plato 'Evolution favors the survival of the wisest.' --Jonas Salk 'Remember a dead fish can float downstream but it takes a live one to swim upstream'. --W C Fields 'Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them too quickly, we keep them from reinventing it themselves'. --Piaget 'I believe babies are born as innovative personalities... But our social processes work to stamp out exploration and questioning.' --Jay Forrestor Prof MIT 'What we want to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.' --G B Shaw 'I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.' --Winston Churchill 'Imagination is more important than knowledge.' --Albert Einstein
Here's a news article [ http://news.yahoo.com/ind-vouchers-prompt-thousands-change-schools-170216446... ] with headline "Indiana vouchers prompt thousands to change schools". It looks like, given the freedom to choose and take their money with them, people will desert the public schools. Not all families have this freedom. Sometimes, it is reserved for economically or scholastically poor students. Here's an idea. A gifted student will normally strive for 100% on these performance exams that have become so important in recent times. Public schools like smart students since the high grades help their rating score and bring increased funding. But suppose instead these students conspire to achieve 0%. Say there are fifty 5-choice questions, 0.8^50 = 1.4e-5, so there's a subtle message in that zero score. -- Gene
Our bailed-out bankers are living proof that this strategy can work a treat. Whether the effects on the rest of the population are desirable is debatable ... WFL On 8/28/11, Eugene Salamin <gene_salamin@yahoo.com> wrote:
Here's a news article [ http://news.yahoo.com/ind-vouchers-prompt-thousands-change-schools-170216446... ] with headline "Indiana vouchers prompt thousands to change schools". It looks like, given the freedom to choose and take their money with them, people will desert the public schools.
Not all families have this freedom. Sometimes, it is reserved for economically or scholastically poor students. Here's an idea. A gifted student will normally strive for 100% on these performance exams that have become so important in recent times. Public schools like smart students since the high grades help their rating score and bring increased funding. But suppose instead these students conspire to achieve 0%. Say there are fifty 5-choice questions, 0.8^50 = 1.4e-5, so there's a subtle message in that zero score.
-- Gene _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
I have had school administrators tell me that they opposed having a gifted/magnet school because (1) it would take away from the regular kids' experience, if the local school lost the gifted kids, and (2) it didn't seem fair that the local school would lose the high test scores. I considered suggesting to kids that they subvert the performance exams in the way that you suggest, but never did so. Bill C. -----Original Message----- From: math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Eugene Salamin Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 3:20 PM To: math-fun Subject: Re: [math-fun] NYTimes: How to Fix Our Math Education Here's a news article [ http://news.yahoo.com/ind-vouchers-prompt-thousands-change-schools-170216446... ] with headline "Indiana vouchers prompt thousands to change schools". It looks like, given the freedom to choose and take their money with them, people will desert the public schools. Not all families have this freedom. Sometimes, it is reserved for economically or scholastically poor students. Here's an idea. A gifted student will normally strive for 100% on these performance exams that have become so important in recent times. Public schools like smart students since the high grades help their rating score and bring increased funding. But suppose instead these students conspire to achieve 0%. Say there are fifty 5-choice questions, 0.8^50 = 1.4e-5, so there's a subtle message in that zero score. -- Gene _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
participants (4)
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Cordwell, William R -
Eugene Salamin -
Fred lunnon -
Henry Baker