I think Finland has probably been doing interesting things, and I think
considering what other countries have been doing successfully is
probably not a terrible thing. But I'm hesitant to state my views on the
United States because it's not the point of my book. But I actually
think the United States--I'm a bigger believer in the U.S. education
system than many people are. And I tend to think that the United States
has a social problem, not an education problem. So, my meaning, I think
the way we've structured the other sentence in our schooling system, I
think in the typical American affluent suburb, parents are getting
exactly the schooling they want for their children. I don't think
there's that much problem in the American schooling system.
And I think it's very hard to make the case that in a country in which, you know, the typical child spends between 26 and 40 hours a week on electronic medium, that the problem with our low educational system is our schools. We just haven't created a situation in which parents are really willing to make the tradeoff between school time and student effort and higher learning. We can debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but my wife actually taught in the Bedford school system for 5 years. Bedford, MA, a suburb just outside of the Beltway here. And I think the parents in Bedford got out of their school system exactly what they wanted out of it. And they wanted football teams. And my wife teachers choir, and they wanted choir. And they wanted the school to put on a musical; and they wanted the school to provide their children with a range of athletic and artistic experiences. And engagement in a variety of other activities; and that's what the school system delivered. Because it was quite carefully and closely controlled, both formally and informally by the parents. And that produces kind of not world-beating math scores. I don't think that's what the parents of Bedford thought was the totality of their educational system. So, I'm a very big fan of the local control by parents of educational systems. And if that doesn't produce scores of 600, I am actually pretty happy with that. Because I've seen what it takes in Korea to produce scores of 600, and no American parent is willing to put their kid through that. Nor should they be, in my opinion.
My book isn't about American education; I'm not an expert on American education. But I am broadly sympathetic. We have a social problem that manifests itself in educational terms, but we need to come to grips with that it's a social problem. And in the affluent suburbs, the parents really do control the schools--in part because whatever bureaucratic systems there are in American schools, they grew out, organically, of very tight local-control roots, which are still present, when the parents can exercise that control and accountability. And in the inner-city schools we have a social problem that is manifesting itself in educational and other ways. And there we need--you know, I'm very sympathetic to a need for a much more radical action. Complacency about that is completely unacceptable. But we have to acknowledge that it's a social problem that has deep social and economic roots that interact with the education system. I just don't know how to solve that.
- Lant Pritchett author of The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain't Learning interview on EconTalk
What an insight !! Please don't get me started on that's self-evident....
In the mean time non-profit Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, formulated a set of recommendations for progressive action in the field and drafted an essay to explain their ideas on The future of high school math education:
Comprehensive and Integrated Curriculum. The traditional American high school mathematics curriculum consists of two year-long courses in algebra and a one-year course in geometry. The CCSS for mathematics retain essential elements of those topics, but they also prescribe significant attention to important concepts and skills in statistics, probability, and discrete mathematics that are now fundamental in computer, management, and social sciences. The Common Core guidelines describe an attractive integrated curriculum option—suggested by the common practice in other countries of addressing each mathematical content strand in each school year. That international curriculum design helps students learn and use the productive connections between algebra, geometry, probability, statistics, and discrete mathematics.
Excellent video on why everyone should learn (programming) what school's don't teach:
And I think it's very hard to make the case that in a country in which, you know, the typical child spends between 26 and 40 hours a week on electronic medium, that the problem with our low educational system is our schools. We just haven't created a situation in which parents are really willing to make the tradeoff between school time and student effort and higher learning. We can debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but my wife actually taught in the Bedford school system for 5 years. Bedford, MA, a suburb just outside of the Beltway here. And I think the parents in Bedford got out of their school system exactly what they wanted out of it. And they wanted football teams. And my wife teachers choir, and they wanted choir. And they wanted the school to put on a musical; and they wanted the school to provide their children with a range of athletic and artistic experiences. And engagement in a variety of other activities; and that's what the school system delivered. Because it was quite carefully and closely controlled, both formally and informally by the parents. And that produces kind of not world-beating math scores. I don't think that's what the parents of Bedford thought was the totality of their educational system. So, I'm a very big fan of the local control by parents of educational systems. And if that doesn't produce scores of 600, I am actually pretty happy with that. Because I've seen what it takes in Korea to produce scores of 600, and no American parent is willing to put their kid through that. Nor should they be, in my opinion.
My book isn't about American education; I'm not an expert on American education. But I am broadly sympathetic. We have a social problem that manifests itself in educational terms, but we need to come to grips with that it's a social problem. And in the affluent suburbs, the parents really do control the schools--in part because whatever bureaucratic systems there are in American schools, they grew out, organically, of very tight local-control roots, which are still present, when the parents can exercise that control and accountability. And in the inner-city schools we have a social problem that is manifesting itself in educational and other ways. And there we need--you know, I'm very sympathetic to a need for a much more radical action. Complacency about that is completely unacceptable. But we have to acknowledge that it's a social problem that has deep social and economic roots that interact with the education system. I just don't know how to solve that.
- Lant Pritchett author of The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain't Learning interview on EconTalk
What an insight !! Please don't get me started on that's self-evident....
In the mean time non-profit Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, formulated a set of recommendations for progressive action in the field and drafted an essay to explain their ideas on The future of high school math education:
Comprehensive and Integrated Curriculum. The traditional American high school mathematics curriculum consists of two year-long courses in algebra and a one-year course in geometry. The CCSS for mathematics retain essential elements of those topics, but they also prescribe significant attention to important concepts and skills in statistics, probability, and discrete mathematics that are now fundamental in computer, management, and social sciences. The Common Core guidelines describe an attractive integrated curriculum option—suggested by the common practice in other countries of addressing each mathematical content strand in each school year. That international curriculum design helps students learn and use the productive connections between algebra, geometry, probability, statistics, and discrete mathematics.
Excellent video on why everyone should learn (programming) what school's don't teach:
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