Should America return to the 3-R's ?

[kentuck]

Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic?

With the best colleges and universities in the world, we are still one of the least educated of the industrial nations.

Why is it important? Everything is done by computer nowadays. Who needs it?

If a person cannot read, they cannot comprehend what is happening in this complex world, in my opinion.

And writing is simply the refinement of the thought process. It sharpens the brain. It helps us to be better communicators, in my opinion.

And how can anyone survive in this world without basic math skills?

R - U - 4 - D - 3-R's?

[Motown_Johnny]

1. I would settle for three Fs

Funds

Facts

Facilities



The state of public education is so bad that even the most basic things are needed.


I would also add a 4th F. Food, as in lunch programs for the poor.

[LWolf]

2. Return to?

We are currently beaten daily by the club of test scores that are all about the 3 Rs. It doesn't help. Some of us knew that all along.

We should:

1. Ban high-stakes testing.

2. Kick corporate "reformers" out of the reform business.

3. Turn reform over to actual educators.

4. De-privatize "public" education.

5. Fully fund public education and provide all the resources necessary to reach every student.

6. Provide healthy, enriched, vibrant environments for learning.

7. Eradicate poverty, which would cost less than we are investing in wars every year and do away with the #1 reason for student failure.

8. Get rid of the factory/business model and allow learning to happen in brain-friendly ways.

9. Quit pretending that every student needs to go to a university upon leaving high school and develop an excellent system of trade schools for those not college bound.

9.5 Open doors for trade school graduates in local and national unions.

10. Provide universal FREE public education, pre-school through trade or university.


As far as the 3 Rs go...we need one more, but it's not an "R," and it's really necessary for any of the rest to matter: Reading, Writing, Math, and THINKING.

[kimbutgar]

3. Try this 1912 8th grade exam - maybe we do need to return to basics

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2013/0812/1912-eighth-grade-exam-Could-you-make-it-to-high-school-in-1912/Arithmetic

I got 66%

[Posteritatis]

6. I'll bet you'd score higher if you spent a year preparing for it

Or a day, for that matter.

Possibly an hour if you're a quick read, and if you had an eye for the sort of responses the instructor would need for any answer that wasn't just a number or equivalent.

I'd also bet most people here wouldn't do that hot in their eighth-grade exams if they saw them out of the blue with no preparation, which is exactly what's happening to anyone looking at that one.

There's a few of those things floating around net these days, wrapped in handwringing despair about how ignorant Kids These Days are, but they don't really impress me. Most are, at their heart, similar to modern day exams at that level - focused on rote memorization of often disconnected facts, with little to no room for interpretation, argument or analysis, except for a few short answer "why"-type questions that obviously had One Correct Answer on the curriculum of the time.

Another one of these floated around DU on a cloud of horrified outrage a few months ago; that one wasn't that impressive either.

[Posteritatis]

4. God, no. Education's been more complex than just those for generations. (nt)

[surrealAmerican]

5. Only if our problem is ...

... too much art, music, science, and history in our schools. Somehow, I don't think that's the problem.

[Posteritatis]

7. Yep. "Three Rs" emphasis is pretty much always code for killing most of the curriculum. (nt)

[NoOneMan]

8. I think we should teach kids how to hunt, fish, grow green and build cob houses in school

All this other shit has gotten out of hand. And I'm sure others would think so if they weren't jacked up on all the meds these brilliant kids have been churning out

[Vashta Nerada]

9. Schools need to go back to teaching children and worrying less about standardized testing.

[bhikkhu]

10. Those have always been the basics

and the call to "return to the basics" has been made and answered over and over and over again. I don't think it has anything to do with anything, really, but rather is a way to appear to be advocating for better things while simply vilifying (and justifying de-funding) our school systems, and producing no effective alternative.

Ask any experienced teacher why they don't emphasize the three r's and you're likely to get a well-earned earful.

[grilled onions]

11. Common Sense Rules

Basic subject matter would be sensible and less use of calculators,spell checkers and spelling by "sounds like" or texting word short cuts. Today education is taken more for granted than it was even 50 years ago. Money was scarce so an education beyond 8th grade meant a lot to a student wanting to become a lawyer or doctor, for example. Parents had little money and students had to really earn money for school. Many kids today who have parents of means do not fret over anything but that first keg party once they hit college. For those students who would love to go to higher learning it's becoming a more difficult task every day.
In the fifties if you failed a grade you stayed back. No amount of money,nor threats from parents would change a teachers mind. But you learned from that. If you wanted to pass you had to study.
We also did not have many fluffy courses back then. Every day we had to improve our handwriting, improve our writing skills,arithmetic(or higher),history,science,geography,spelling. Very little was ever spent on the arts. But even a student who never went much beyond 8th grade could write a resume, complete with proper spelling and grammar. They were very prepared for the world that awaited them.
Every day when I go to stores I see kids so bored,so distracted, five minutes after they started their shift it amazes me that they can even finish it without sleeping in a corner. Many cannot speak properly to customers--can't even look them in the eye. Is this the best that money can buy?