🚀 go-pugleaf

In an earlier posting I mentioned that my two children were in high school
and that they were involved in sports and music. I pointed out that is
was probably not worthwhile for them to drop these activities in order
to spend more time on traditional academic subjects.

Herman Rubin writes;

     "FORGET THE GRADES. Unless the school is very unusual, they are 
      getting a garbage education. Even somewhat bright children are 
      being totally shortchanged by the imbecilic curriculum now being 
      taught.

      But do they have any idea of the intellectual content they are 
      missing? A reasonably good student is capable of learning many 
      times what is now being taught in the schools without working 
      very hard. Especially the basic conceptual material, which is 
      even more submerged under memorization than in the past."

My children attend a public high school in a suburb of Toronto. They are
getting an excellent education - I am very impressed. Both of them are
being challenged in school by teachers who have expanded on the basic
curriculum for bright students. In addition their learning is not confined
to school - they have intellectual interests that they pursue outside of
the class room. 

Herman Rubin continues,

     "But they are being deprived of the pleasure of learning! Has it 
      already gone to the point where they are no longer capable of the 
      mental processes which they could do easily as small children? This
      is not facetious; the ability to think in terms of structure, 
      almost totally absent in the current excuse for an educational 
      system, and only recently "objectively" demonstrated as being 
      present in the very young, IS beyond the capability of the great 
      bulk of present school teachers."

Your experience is obviously very different from mine. My children's teachers
have been excellent. They are well paid professionals who take their jobs
seriously. While I can't claim that they are perfect, they are at least as
good as any other group of professionals that I have been in contact with.
This includes University teachers, such as myself, and business types in the 
private sector. 

Herman, I know that you have a very low opinion of the educational system
in the United States but I am aware of many excellent public school systems
scattered across the country. It is not fair to criticize all teachers on the
basis of your own experience and prejudices against publically funded
institutions.

Larry Moran