Should Maths be taught in School ????

[mrspunkysmom]

My daughter in law teaches 2nd grade & has to deal with behavior problems more then anything. They have teachers meetings dealing with children's behavior. They have some really disturbed messed up children to deal with.

Learning basic math is a must. Accounting classes & learning to balance a check book make more sense then finding the square root of whatever?

That could get me started.

Later!

[Asiel]

I'll take that video as a joke. I can't believe any student would actually give the answers they did - except for Miss Vermont. Can you imagine students not learning math in schools...how do they expect to survive sanely, just about everything today is based on math. Wonder if they want to get rid of Physics and Biology also....they don't want to learn about evolution , because they don't believe in it ?? You don't have to believe in something to learn it....wonder what happened to the three R's? Most graduates can't read or write today so now they won't know how to count...this is progress??? Unbelievable

[wombat2u2004]

The Japs have the best solution. The students don't go home until they have learnt the daily lessons.

[mrspunkysmom]

The Japs have the best solution. The students don't go home until they have learnt the daily lessons.

And they take the same test or quiz repeatedly until they get 100%. Calculations are done by hand for basic skills, elementary level math.

If we tried that here, we would hear it from the teachers and the parents.

[Lady's Human]

The Japs have the best solution. The students don't go home until they have learnt the daily lessons.

In which case I'd be doing home schooling. Having a child frustrated and taking the same test over and over again accomplishes nothing but irritating the child and making them hate school. It's school, not boot camp.

[wombat2u2004]

In which case I'd be doing home schooling. Having a child frustrated and taking the same test over and over again accomplishes nothing but irritating the child and making them hate school. It's school, not boot camp.

But consider peer pressure.
"Hah !!! You have to stay back. I can go home and play with my playstation."

It's a good system the Japs have. It's gives the children the incentive to learn whilst they are in class, and it makes them proficient.

Your country is the same as mine, there is no incentive to learn, and we are churning out thousands upon thousands of uneducated kids.
Homeschooling is not the answer, because as usually is the case, the parents are a product of the same system, and don't have the knowledge themselves.
And then you have the parents that just don't care, you have the parents who both work and don't have the time.
My youngest daughter had math tutors, twice a week, but at $80 an hour most people can't afford that. I tried tutoring her, but even with my mathematical background, her work was beyond me.

I have a friend by the name of Sayoko, she is a music teacher, and was educated as a child in her own home country of Japan, and regularly tells me stories about "Night School". She treats both of her daughters the same as she was treated when she was a girl. She takes over after school, and "tops off" their daily lessons. Both of her girls top their school every year.

We have to do something that is better than what we are doing now. Our kids are falling behind the rest of the world in education, and we are creating a generation who rely on the "Fat of the Land". And that's not going to last forever.

[Lady's Human]

The Japanese also have a suicide rate that is horrendous.

There is plenty of incentive to learn. It's called proper parenting. The schools cannot be expected to serve all the ancillary functions that they have been saddled with AND educate in the time allotted.

My kids get additional lessons after school, however, it's not anything formal, I just toss in a few additional math problems, spelling questions, etc, while we're going to wherever we're going or doing chores.

Too much about school has become checking the box and making things look good for a college app rather than real coursework.

[wombat2u2004]

The Japanese also have a suicide rate that is horrendous.

There is plenty of incentive to learn. It's called proper parenting. The schools cannot be expected to serve all the ancillary functions that they have been saddled with AND educate in the time allotted.

My kids get additional lessons after school, however, it's not anything formal, I just toss in a few additional math problems, spelling questions, etc, while we're going to wherever we're going or doing chores.

Too much about school has become checking the box and making things look good for a college app rather than real coursework.

Well, it's our loss mate. If the "powers who be" believe the current educational system is sufficient to meet the country's needs, then so be it.
If we are to rely on proper parenting, then I can see the majority of kids going down the plughole real quick, because as I stated before, proper parenting in regard to their kids education is not something that is practiced by most people, for lots of reasons.
Sure, perhaps the remedy is to get people off their butts and instill in them the importance of their childrens education. But I think most people wouldn't care, or even if they did, they are probably not educated enough themselves to handle such a task, as they are probably a product of exactly the same system.

Which brings us back to square 1.
We need a better system, and I believe that the system the Japanese have in place is much better than what we have in place.

As for suicide.....well.....in Japan, suicide does run rampant I know, but can you attribute that solely to education ???? Or is it cultural problem ????