Cris Prystay discusses the growing use of the Singapore Math curriculum in US schools.
Category: Education
Corporate Illiteracy
R. Craig Hogan, a former university professor who heads an online school for business writing here, received an anguished e-mail message recently from a prospective student.
“i need help,” said the message, which was devoid of punctuation. “i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you”.
Hundreds of inquiries from managers and executives seeking to improve their own or their workers’ writing pop into Hogan’s computer in-basket each month, he says, describing a number that has surged as e-mail has replaced the phone for much workplace communication. Millions of employees must write more frequently on the job than previously. And many are making a hash of it.
“E-mail is a party to which English teachers have not been invited,” Hogan said. “It has companies tearing their hair out.”
Economic Time Bomb: US Teens are Among the Worst at Math
June Kronholz summarizes the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment, which finds that:
The percentage of top-achieving math students in the nation is about half that of other industrialized countries, and the gap between scores of whites and minority groups — who will make up an increasing share of the labor force in coming decades — is enormous.
Here’s the report. Slashdot discussion.
The Tyranny of Low Expectations
At one level, the debate is over current controversies in public education: Many parents believe that their children, mostly in elite schools, are being pushed too hard in a hypercompetitive atmosphere. But other parents are complaining about a decline in programs for gifted children, leaving students to languish in “untracked” and unstimulating classrooms. Some critics of education believe that boys especially are languishing in schools that emphasize cooperation instead of competition. No Child Left Behind, indeed.
But the basic issue is the same one raised four decades ago by Kurt Vonnegut in “Harrison Bergeron,” a short story set in the America of 2081, about a 14-year-old genius and star athlete. To keep others from feeling inferior, the Handicapper General weighs him down with 300-pound weights and makes him wear earphones that blast noise, so he cannot take “unfair advantage” of his brain.
That’s hardly the America of 2004, but today’s children do grow up with soccer leagues and spelling bees where everyone gets a prize. On some playgrounds dodge ball is deemed too traumatic to the dodging-impaired. Some parents consider musical chairs dangerously exclusionary.
Fascinating article….
Lessig @ Bloggercon
Larry Lessig welcomed Bloggercon participants to Stanford Law School this morning with a useful comment (I’m paraphrasing):
“In normal times, people come to univerisities to learn things, these are extraordinary times: Universities, Chicago, Harvard, Northwestern don’t have a clue – we need to go out and find things.
Check the bloggercon site for mp3’s later.
Silicon Valley School District Cuts Salaries by 5%
Facing a budget crisis, California’s Silicon Valley school district has resorted to cutting salaries of teachers and other employees by 5 percent.
This is one of the problems that can arise when districts become too dependent on rising property taxes (Silicon Valley has a number of empty office buildings, due to the dot com crash).
Music and Math
At 28, Manjul Bhargava has already won a coveted full professorship at Princeton University. An expert in number theory, the study of the properties and relationships of numbers, Bhargava is also a master of the tabla, a small Indian hand drum used to create music with rhythmic, precise patterns.
Number theory is the type of math that describes the swirl in the head of a sunflower and the curve of a chambered nautilus. Bhargava says it’s also hidden in the rhythms of classical Indian music, which is both mathematical and improvisational. He sees close links between his two loves — both create beauty and elegance by weaving together seemingly unconnected ideas.
Famed Aerospace Designer Burt Rutan on the Government’s Role in Technology Development
?And we?re sitting there amazed throughout the 1960s. We were amazed because our country was going from Walt Disney and von Braun talking about it?all the way to a plan to land a man on the Moon?Wow!?
The right to dream
But as a kid back then, Rutan continued, the right to dream of going to the Moon or into space was reserved for only ?professional astronauts? ? an enormously dangerous and expensive undertaking.
Over the decades, Rutan said, despite the promise of the Space Shuttle to lower costs of getting to space, a kid?s hope of personal access to space in their lifetime remained in limbo.
?Look at the progress in 25 years of trying to replace the mistake of the shuttle. It?s more expensive?not less?a horrible mistake,? Rutan said. ?They knew it right away. And they?ve spent billions?arguably nearly $100 billion over all these years trying to sort out how to correct that mistake?trying to solve the problem of access to space. The problem is?it?s the government trying to do it.?
I believe Rutan is correct. Government should generally provide incentives for private industry to address problems that we as a society believe need attention. Examples include: broadband (true 2 way), education, energy and space exploration.
Cisco CEO Chambers calls for education reform & broadband push
Chambers did not get specific with respect to education reform, but did mention some problematic data:
- Fewer than 6 percent of master’s degrees issued in the U.S. in 2001-02 were in engineering, and fewer than 1 percent were in math, Chambers noted.
- The U.S. is also lagging behind most industrialized nations in broadband adoption, Chambers said. Japanese consumers have access to broadband speeds 400 percent to 500 percent faster than in the U.S., he said. “We’ve got to move faster,” Chambers added.
David Isenberg summarizes Japan’s successful broadband approach here. He also notes that the US has fallen to thirteenth vis a vis other nation’s broadband adoption rate.
Bill Cosby to visit Milwaukee’s North High School
Georgia Pabst on Bill Cosby’s visit to Milwaukee North on October 20, 2004 (6 to 9p.m.); 1101 W. Center St.
The gathering was announced Friday by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who worked with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Alliance of Black School Educators and the Wisconsin Black Media Association to bring about the Cosby appearance.
Barrett said he hoped the discussion would deal with the importance of education and how the community can tackle and develop solutions to educational disparities and other challenges.
Cosby first raised a national storm in May during a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring an end to school segregation. He decried the lack of emphasis on education in the black community and challenged parents to greater accountability. Though he earned rebukes from some commentators, others praised him for speaking out.