Arthur C.Clarke

Dear Martin,
Here in America, secondary school standards have gone down. But, we now educate
a larger proportion of the population.
And, I keep expecting my students to have the sort of education that I had
at Bronx High School of Science in the 1960's. That is unfair, since this
school is probably the best school in the USA.
best
Penny

Still, whatever happened to spherical trig, solid geometry, and the law of
tangents in the high schools C.,?

Instituting A levels here, would be a BIG improvement. There is starting to be
some use of the international Bac., at the better schools.

It's hard to believe the people actually think standards have gone
down - they have utterly forgotten what education was really like for
half to three-quarters of the population.

Right. In America, high schools were rather good in my dad's day ( 1930's) when
2% of the population achieved a college prep degree.
They are somewhat worse now that 75% of the population achieves a college
prep degree.
Oh, Horrors, the sky is falling.

Dear j,
I hope they haven't just been delayed.
best
Penny

But be thankful Gene got his future
history wrong - we've been spared the Eugenics Wars.

Dear j,
I hope they haven't just been delayed.
best
Penny

But be thankful Gene got his future
history wrong - we've been spared the Eugenics Wars.

Dear john,
Much thanks.
Best
Penny

I know the name Wiley Ley
well, but cannot remember much. Will have a google after this.

Seeking "Willy Ley" might be more effective.

Dear john,
Much thanks.
Best
Penny

I know the name Wiley Ley
well, but cannot remember much. Will have a google after this.

Seeking "Willy Ley" might be more effective.

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 09:22:06 +0100, Jonathan Silverlight
wrote:

In message , Dr Robin
Bignall writes
On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 20:09:51 +0100, Martin Frey
wrote:

Dr Robin Bignall wrote:

I did not say that I got a bad education; merely that my school did not
take exams. In fact, the majority of my teachers were ex-service, and
vastly overqualified for teaching young erks such as me. The guy who taught
me maths was an ex-regular soldier who had been a gunnery instructor. What
he didn't know about the sort of maths I needed at 15 wasn't worth knowing.

SNIP

Forgive my presumption.

No problem. I thought the school was lousy until I grew up and found that
kids seemed to know less about the three R's than we did in 1950. Set
theory will, however, be invaluable to them when they are watching TV or
shopping.

IIRC, Robert Heinlein writes about children learning set theory in his
novel "Beyond This Horizon" (1942)
Even in his worst nightmares I doubt he expected it would actually
happen. And as for idiocies like Initial Teaching Alphabet.....

Quite!

Rant
But, I expect that the ageist world of today, where to get that elusive 15
minutes on TV one has to have a physical (and certainly mental) age of less
than a backward 16, considers anyone over 40 to be past it and an old
duffer.
/Rant

As if we give a damn!

--

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall

Quiet part of Hertfordshire
England

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/docrobin/homepage.htm

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 09:22:06 +0100, Jonathan Silverlight
wrote:

In message , Dr Robin
Bignall writes
On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 20:09:51 +0100, Martin Frey
wrote:

Dr Robin Bignall wrote:

I did not say that I got a bad education; merely that my school did not
take exams. In fact, the majority of my teachers were ex-service, and
vastly overqualified for teaching young erks such as me. The guy who taught
me maths was an ex-regular soldier who had been a gunnery instructor. What
he didn't know about the sort of maths I needed at 15 wasn't worth knowing.

SNIP

Forgive my presumption.

No problem. I thought the school was lousy until I grew up and found that
kids seemed to know less about the three R's than we did in 1950. Set
theory will, however, be invaluable to them when they are watching TV or
shopping.

IIRC, Robert Heinlein writes about children learning set theory in his
novel "Beyond This Horizon" (1942)
Even in his worst nightmares I doubt he expected it would actually
happen. And as for idiocies like Initial Teaching Alphabet.....

Quite!

Rant
But, I expect that the ageist world of today, where to get that elusive 15
minutes on TV one has to have a physical (and certainly mental) age of less
than a backward 16, considers anyone over 40 to be past it and an old
duffer.
/Rant

As if we give a damn!

--

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall

Quiet part of Hertfordshire
England

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/docrobin/homepage.htm

On 08 Jul 2003 01:54:01 GMT, (PSmith9626) wrote:

Dear Martin,
Here in America, secondary school standards have gone down. But, we now educate
a larger proportion of the population.
And, I keep expecting my students to have the sort of education that I had
at Bronx High School of Science in the 1960's. That is unfair, since this
school is probably the best school in the USA.
best
Penny

Still, whatever happened to spherical trig, solid geometry, and the law of
tangents in the high schools C.,?

Instituting A levels here, would be a BIG improvement. There is starting to be
some use of the international Bac., at the better schools.

It's hard to believe the people actually think standards have gone
down - they have utterly forgotten what education was really like for
half to three-quarters of the population.

Right. In America, high schools were rather good in my dad's day ( 1930's) when
2% of the population achieved a college prep degree.
They are somewhat worse now that 75% of the population achieves a college
prep degree.

But are those college prep degrees (whatever they are?) today of the same
standard as the one your dad took?

Oh, Horrors, the sky is falling.

It probably has fallen and nobody noticed.

--

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall

Quiet part of Hertfordshire
England

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/docrobin/homepage.htm

On 08 Jul 2003 01:54:01 GMT, (PSmith9626) wrote:

Dear Martin,
Here in America, secondary school standards have gone down. But, we now educate
a larger proportion of the population.
And, I keep expecting my students to have the sort of education that I had
at Bronx High School of Science in the 1960's. That is unfair, since this
school is probably the best school in the USA.
best
Penny

Still, whatever happened to spherical trig, solid geometry, and the law of
tangents in the high schools C.,?

Instituting A levels here, would be a BIG improvement. There is starting to be
some use of the international Bac., at the better schools.

It's hard to believe the people actually think standards have gone
down - they have utterly forgotten what education was really like for
half to three-quarters of the population.

Right. In America, high schools were rather good in my dad's day ( 1930's) when
2% of the population achieved a college prep degree.
They are somewhat worse now that 75% of the population achieves a college
prep degree.

But are those college prep degrees (whatever they are?) today of the same
standard as the one your dad took?

Oh, Horrors, the sky is falling.

It probably has fallen and nobody noticed.

--

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall

Quiet part of Hertfordshire
England

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/docrobin/homepage.htm

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 21:37:30 GMT, Ned Kelly
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 14:16:04 +0100, Dr Robin Bignall
sat down and wrote:

On 08 Jul 2003 01:56:53 GMT, (PSmith9626) wrote:

Dear Robin,
Right. I have just finished the biography of Isador Rabi. His dad was
uneducated and worked at Odd jobs, and Rabi's opinion was that he was just as
smart as his Nobel Laureate child.
best
Penny

Uneducated does not equal stupid.

The biggest problem with the secondary modern system is that it assumes
that kids have reached their full potential at 11, which is not the case
for all by any means.

What about the brilliant children who have serious emotional issues? Do they
get a second chance?

Not under the 11+ system.

They do actually, you just don't know it!

Listen sunshine, I went through the 11+ system in 1950, as an 11 year-old
late developer with emotional problems. You don't know what you are talking
about, so I suggest you just STF up.

--

wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall

Quiet part of Hertfordshire
England

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/docrobin/homepage.htm