Gradients

But the pensioners of today were taught in the days BEFORE standards declined.

I was recently in email contact with my former maths tutor (now an emeritus prof) who said that compared to the intake of 1969, that modern students needed the extra 4th year to bring them up to the standard of maths that we 1969ers had.

One of the big problems is the number of classifications we now have. So many parents want to a label to excuse their childs behaviour and lack of basic parenting.

MBQ

=============================================== There are those cases, but that doesnt detract from my earlier comment in any way. It can however be used as an excuse/justification by a headteacher.

Cheers, Simon

I think not. Actually 72mm is closer to 3" than to 2-1/2". Perhaps your eyes have worn out.

That's the UK, not US (which actually varies enormously from State to State, so anyone who talks about "here in the US of A" should specify the State.) Too bad the head can dodge around the expectations so easily. Shouldn't be allowed. Would also help the "right sort" of kids to learn something about how the less fortunate cope.

Here in Ontario, the school funding formula takes account of the student demographics, geography (very important, our current school district is over 600km end to end by road), language(s), local taxation base, and so on. "Special Ed" is not as well funded as it should be, but no worse than other aspects. When I hear about how it is mishandled or ignored in other parts of the English-speaking world, I can only shake my head in puzzlement. If we can afford to pay for multi-billion dollar entertainments, we can afford to pay for a properly staffed and run school system.

Wolf K.

There was always a "lack of basic parenting", what's changed is that a much higher percentage of the victims stay in school longer than they did 100 or even 50 years ago. What has changed is the middle class's sense of entitlement.

Another deomographic chnage is that the number of jobs requiring secondary or posrt secndary training/education has increased, while the number of jobs that could be done with a primary school education has dropped to almost zero (and that's why you have to pump your own gas, BTW.) The girls that used to be doctors' receptionists are now doctors themselves. The boys that used to shop clerks are now engineers and accountants.

Wolf K.

You like picking nits, I guess. Be my guest.

Wolf K.

Probably because the "middle-aged female staff" is entrusted with the job of bagging up the takings at the end of the day so tries to make sure that there are as few coins in the till as possible as it nears closing time.

Alan

You're guessing too much, Wolf.

Did you deliberately ignore the sentence that followed the above quote. I repeat it here "And they often teach to the lowest standard because of that." That is the problem.

I think that universal education is a good thing, IFF students are separated according to their ability to learn so that none are held back. A simple segregation into separate classes for those of below average, average, and above average learning capabilities would go a long way towards keeping teaching standards appropriate for each of those groups.

Don't many of the worlds school systems have entrance exams at various points along the way?

In which case, why can't they count?

Anyway, they were not taught before the decline. I've seen magazine articles moaning about the low standard of army recruits, and how the decline of the education system in recent years is making it much more difficult to fight the Boers. One article said British education was now so bad that a railway in a pink bit of the map was even contemplating recruiting natives for some technical posts.

Well he would say that to you, wouldn't he? But guess what his own tutors would have said about him - and their tutors about them?

Although my old boys' newsletters (written by current rather than emeritus staff) tend to disagree - students now have different skills, not better or worse. It was always so.

In My Day some lecturers were amazed we'd done /any/ information theory at school. Plenty of old biddies at my local station seem to have no understanding of queue theory...

That's why storekeepers prefer debit cards and offer cash-back, so there's fewer takings to bank. The banks actually charge fees to deposit cash to a commercial account.

Back in the 60s/70s/80s/90s, when "our grads can't read, write or do math" was on everybody's stereotype radar, Southam Press and others ran regular literacy tests. The results were always the same:

Mid-twenties people (recent grads, IOW) had the highest scores, with a steady decline to the 60s and up, which were the lowest scoring group. At first, it was thought this was the result of lower average amount of schooling for older people, until a couple of people did a study for the US Dept of Labor, and found that peoples' reading skills decline after graduation. It seems people do less reading for pleasure after they graduate, perhaps because jobs need more reading and writing than ever before. In any case, the good professors thought that it would be a Good Thing to encourage people to maintain their literacy skills, but didn't have any ideas on how to do that.

On a related subject: US Dept of Labor did a study in the late 70s in which they examined 400 of the 4,000+ job descriptions on file, and estimated the amount of reading and writing required. They concluded that for 75% of the jobs, at least two hours per shift were spent reading and/or writing.

Finally: over half the jobs in the latest USDL (ca 2005) job database did not exist 10 years prior to that date.

It's amazing that schooling has any relevance at all, really.

Wolf K.

They charge for any and all kinds of deposit. And they charge a "service" fee for credit card service even before they take their cut.

Wolf K. .

Maybe, but if so, wouldn't every one do that, and do people at 08:00 really worry about what will happen by closing time?

Apologies, you are correct :-)

Here the biggest problem is those children that have learning difficulties that are not classed as sufficiently bad to warrant special funding. However, they have always suffered. In the old days when there were no stats recorded they were ignored or allowed to bunk off, now all are counted and considered in the stats so they either make the school appear bad or other methods are used to remove them from the accounts - of course some head teachers are more concerned with pupils welfare and progress than the schools image but then they tend to have a good image anyway.

Cheers, Simon

SNIP ....

SNIP

Must admit removal of streaming has always been a mystery to me, seems it would be better for children, better for teachers, improve standards and cheaper too. However that opinion is based on common sense rather than educational theory.

Cheers, Simon

Sounds unreasonable enough for most women to worry about :-)

Cheers, Simon

Are you sure? I model German railways where gradients are (were) stated as 1 : x on trackside boards. That certainly held true into the 1970s.

Regards, Greg.P.

In Collingwood (S.I. New Zealand) the streets are all laid out on a rectangular grid pattern. There's a steep cliff 2/3rds of the way along and the streets restart at the bottom on the same alignment. Gradient would be steeper than 1:1 if the roads were actually joined.

Greg.P. NZ