Quote:
Originally posted by Colin@Feb 6 2004, 08:07 AM
Do you feel that it is more important to make sure that those in unfortunate social circumstances receive equal education or that those who show great promise get the best education?
What benefits the world most? Poor people getting fair educations or smart people getting extraordinary educations? Why not just focus on the cognitive elite and let the dummies work at McDonald's?
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But the problem is, who decides.
Standardized tests aren't good enough to make these decisions, because kids learn differently. Some are auditory learners, some soak up everything they read in a book, some learn by 'experiencing' and really diving into a subject.
Heck just look at the "4 Dummies" line of books that has catapulted so many subjects forward in "dumb" people. It's not that the people are dumb, it's that they're visual learners. The 4Dummies doesn't present material that's any easier than in other books, it just presents the material in a visual fashion. Lots of colors to separate subjects, little light bulbs to highlight things, colored bulleted lists, etc... folks that find a normal HTML book too "heavy" in the material dep't can pick up that same material quickly when presented by a 4Dummies book.
Like Peaches noted, the schools where you end up having the same teacher year after year would really be best for the kids, as those teachers know 'their' kids and how they learn. They can teach to the child the way the child needs to learn; rather than just trying a blanket solution for everyone and those who don't get it - too bad.
One size does not fit all, and what the public schools are attempting to do at this point is force it to fit.
(God it's hard to type when your o key is sticking.)