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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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posted by Nylorac on November 4th, 2007 at 9:10AM
Although I firmly agree that the system errs, I think there isn't enough emphasis on the role of parents within the public educational system. Bad study habits can't entirely be the system's fault, can they?
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Touché. by dennisn on November 5th, 2007 at 10:25AM.
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posted by rick on November 4th, 2007 at 1:54AM
Or teachers don't get paid very much, so the good ones go to research and other professions. (From what I've heard from people who know teachers.)
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asf by dsk on November 4th, 2007 at 9:49AM.
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