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posted by rick on November 1st, 2007 at 8:01PM

This was sent to an email list that I'm subscribed to here at work. Strangely enough, the email list is for Canucks, not for math problems. They were talking about the state of education though.
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posted by dennisn on November 1st, 2007 at 9:38PM

What do they (the mailing list?) say about it (the state of education). Me and DSK have recently been arguing about it ad nauseum :)

posted by rick on November 2nd, 2007 at 3:14AM

The email thread started with another math question:

The area of a rectangle is 36, and the length is twice the width plus 1. What are the dimensions of the rectangle?

Apparently that question was too difficult for grade 10 students, and even some teachers couldn't solve it. This started a thread on how our education level has deteriorated, compared to when they were in school in the good old days, etc.

posted by Nylorac on November 2nd, 2007 at 4:53PM

I wonder why students have grown so increasingly incapable?  
What was the scope of the survey?

posted by rick on November 4th, 2007 at 1:44AM

Don't know what was the motivation for that particular survey.

One interesting tidbit that came out of the email thread was the reluctance of teachers to fail students. There were stories of professors who belled the grades so that everyone passed, because they didn't want to discourage the students or leave any behind.

posted by dennisn on November 3rd, 2007 at 7:36PM

The problem is with "public" education -- better termed, government-forced education; more specifically, the lack of marketplace competition among teachers -- students don't get to choose the best teachers, and thus weed out the incompetent ones. Over time, just by the nature of the system, bad teachers predominate.

Although I firmly agree that t by Nylorac on November 4th, 2007 at 9:10AM.
I believe it has been statisti by dennisn on November 4th, 2007 at 10:43PM.
>I believe it has been statist by dsk on November 5th, 2007 at 9:39AM.
I sortof agree -- insofar as a by dennisn on November 5th, 2007 at 10:51AM.
Well, I meant to suggest an un by Nylorac on November 5th, 2007 at 3:09PM.
>(P.S. -- "all stats aside" is by dsk on November 5th, 2007 at 10:59AM.
Touché. by dennisn on November 5th, 2007 at 10:25AM.
All stats aside, if we were to by Nylorac on November 5th, 2007 at 10:00AM.
Yeah, that sounds familiar. I by Nylorac on November 5th, 2007 at 8:34AM.
Or teachers don't get paid ver by rick on November 4th, 2007 at 1:54AM.
asf by dsk on November 4th, 2007 at 9:49AM.