From: justin@nx30.mik.uky.edu (justin sullivan)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.asian.america,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.african.american,misc.education
Subject: Re: Education (was: Re: DOES AMERICA SAY YES TO JAPAN?)
Date: 13 Dec 92 05:11:40 GMT
    <00724038179@elgamy.jpunix.com> <Bz64Aw.FHv@news.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
X-Path: nx30.mik.uky.edu!justin

In <Bz64Aw.FHv@news.cso.uiuc.edu> irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine) writes:

>In article <00724038179@elgamy.jpunix.com> elg@elgamy.jpunix.com (Eric Lee Green) writes:

>Yea verily!  In fifth grade, I had a teacher, Mrs. Kovasic, who was a real
>hard a**, (I didn't like her very much) who made us turn in one book
>report every week.  The book had to be approved by her (there were a few
>LONG books, like _Gone_With_The_Wind_-long that she would give 2 weeks),
>and was usually 100-200 pages long.  I got bitten by the reading bug,
>and read all kinds of 'adult books' - Science Fiction, Westerns, 
>Mysteries - it wasd there that I really got the 'hang' of reading - 
>since then i was able to pore through novels of almost any length and
>at least write a few coherent sentances about them.  I think about that
>age, that kind of program should be adopted, it really cured me (and
>we even had an Atari to compete with! :) :) ).

>By the way, I still can't diagram sentances! :)
>(In my opinion, one of the LEAST useful skills I ever was forced to try
>to learn!)

Interesting you should bring up grammar.. Most people write the most
horrible papers. I would almost be forced to call most of  America 

'semi-literate'.. By today's standards, at least. They don't know how to
write original work in the true sense of the word.. Just dry, spineless
papers that follow the 'form' of the essay. Blech. They can't spell..
They can't read a map.. My father is a history professor and gave a test
with maps on it.. Maps that were in the textbook, and they all failed.
I think they quit teaching spelling in second grade, and so most  
Americans can't spell..

>I think Math and scince are two subjects that need a national adjenda:
>	My Elementary education in both was highly confused and
>	fragmented - the science we learned was just a blur, and not
>	much good - no labs, just reading (bleh!), Math was regemeted,
>	but fragmented, it took until my first Calculus class in college
>	to get all that math straightened out (it was *not* a fun first
>	semester when i was a Freshman).  I still, in grad school, feel
>	the deficit between what i know and what my peers who were educated
>	elsewhere know and can do.  So much time was wasted!

>I think that a national cirriculum is important - and I would like to
>see aptitude tests at the beginning of the year to let the teacher at
>the new level know what needs to be emphasized more.  But a list like:

I think I would prefer a better focus, rather then more of this 'liberal
arts' nonsense.. Being in a technical field (computer science), I would have
been MUCH better off going to a technical university (like MIT), bot because
of the name, but because four years of concentration on my field of choice
would undoubtedly result in a much better scientist.. I'm wasting all this
time fulfilling 'University Requirements' like Basket Weaving and 
Communications. Well-rounded? I don't think so.. All it results in are
graduates that are weak in all areas, including their major.

I have French friends that envy my 'liberal arts' education.. I would put
any of their high school graduates up against any US college graduate..
I know a Japanese professor here who (as it turns out) was not kidding when
he called his class stupid, saying that any high school student could do
the work these college seniors were.. What he meant was that any JAPANESE
high school student could do the work the college seniors were!

You want more aptitude tests? Why? So colleges can raise their standards
and deny even more people a higher education? The price of a college education
alone automatically puts it out of the reach of tens of millions of Americans..
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan