[TheForge] [OT] Re: Public Education

[Mike Spencer]

> It used to be that they taught the whole subject, then the test was
> a shotgun blast of information to see how much the students
> remembered.  Now it seems that they start with the test and just
> teach what is going to be tested.  When I was in school...


Well, when *I* was in school -- late 50s -- in Massachusetts,
occasional encounters with high school students from NY state revealed
that our teachers taught what they wanted to teach (with
state-mandated minima) but NY teachers taught what was going to be on
th NY State Regents' Exams at the end of 12th grade.  Not on the
Regents? Not important, no time for that.

Fast forward to early 80s.  Curriculum for my kids here in Nova Scotia
was determined by combination of provincial mandate and local school
board.  After a student exchange/band trip to Ontario, my son reported
that Ontario was like NY, curriculum based calculatedly on preparing
for Ontario Provincial Exams.

I think I went through high school on or near a cusp, when the Old
Guard was still in place but the edualizers and edu-theory droids
carrying the Columbia Teachers' College infection were just getting a
toe hold.  Several of my HS teachers were over 65.  Senior year English
teacher was 80, a charming, articulate, erudite PhD miraculously able
to bond with 17-year old kids.  My school offered Latin, German,
French, Spanish and Hebrew, had offered Greek until the early 50s.
Several of my teachers had PhDs although, with the exception of one
cranky battle-axe, they discouraged us from addressing them as Doctor.

>From a completely different context, this squib turned up in my
email:

    The deer around here are completely out of control.

    I hit one with my car a while back, what a mess.

    We had one die on our front lawn and it took the country about a
    week to come pick up the carcass.  I was amazed at how many of my
    neighbors went bonkers.  One woman came up to our door demanding
    that we do something because her children were seeing a dead
    animal.

That woman, or at least many like her, are on school boards, hold
elective or appointive office or work in curriculum development in
many places.  What can you expect of the result?


ObSmithing:  

The Mark V version of the hydraulic steel toe cap expander worked.
New $200 boots now converted from throw-away or give-away to usable.
Not perfect and couldn't walk 20 miles in them but good for daily work
around the shop or the place.  Managed to widen the caps without
rupturing the leather or welt stitching.  Now I have another
bet-you-don't-know-what-that-is tool to stump newbies and tourists.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^