Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Spheres and Calculus
From: jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (James Walden)
Date: 26 Dec 92 00:49:15 -0500
Organization: Dept. of Physics

In article <1992Dec23.193836.8586@data-io.com>, li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus) writes:
> In article <1992Dec19.234517.5334@ucc.su.OZ.AU> DM writes:
>>
>>DM is surprised. "Don't you folks in the US learn calculus in high
>>school? 
> 
> Liralen is a little surprised at all the answers that other people have
> given.  Not a lot, though.  Her first high school offered advanced courses,
> including AP (Advanced Placement) calculus and physics courses which were
> geared to be good enough to get out of most college's first year courses.

James hasn't been around to see most of the answers so can't be surprised or
unsurprised about them, but every high school that he knows of offers a year
of calculus though he wouldn't expect that all high schools would, especially
smaller rural schools.  His high school was a bit of a mixed bag, offering
really good programs in computer science, biological science, and chemistry
and relatively good programs in most other subjects compared to American
schools at least though ironically, their worst advanced subject seemed to be
physics...
 
> The difference, it seems, is that both the high schools that Liralen went
> to were high schools in rich areas with parents who had already achieved so
> much that on the whole, they couldn't stand to see their kids held back.
> With all the parents being 'gifted' to being with, their kids were, in very
> unaverage numbers, intellectually gifted as well.  So there were classes of
> 30-40 in every advanced subject.  She had never been made to feel as if she
> were somehow terribly different than anyone else.  There had always been
> enough people at her level to learn with.  Plus, some *really* wealthy
> parents had always given grants to the schools for advanced work.

My high school wasn't that type of school - there was one public school for a
city of 60-70,000 so there was a lot of variation in the students.  There were
around 20-30 people in each AP class and there were always a few students who
would pick up classes at nearby universities, but were they gifted?  Depends
on your definition...
 
> Though, like /*, she *had* been bored in her classes at times; but the
> teachers at all her schools, on the most part, didn't mind if she brought
> another book into the class as long as she did well on the material.

Most of my classes were like that.  Comp sci was especially nice because after
two of us learned Pascal over the first weekend of class, we were exempted from
the remainder of the year and could go as fast as we wanted, choosing our own
subjects.  It would be nice to see more classes like that because while it
seems to me that there's a lot of care and money put into the lower end of the
bell curve, those who are beyond the 99.9% or even the 99% line are expected
to go it on their own when their needs are as different as those on the other
end of the scale.  Sure, most of them will succeed reasonably well, but
certainly not to the degree that they could have, and some will be bored and
get lost in the general crowd.

--
 James Walden			    "Silent talking in the system,
 jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu      ringing to this beautiful world." - Yes