| 1. | 3/14/2008 8:01:00 AM | I think the elementary math program and science program are weak. The text books weigh about 10 pounds each with their garish pictures overwhelming the science and math. Try walking home with the science and math books in your backpack! I think both series waste materials with their oversized text and lack of content-per-page.
I think we teach way too many math concepts too early, as opposed to giving time for laying a foundation of the basics of the four operations,(+-x and division) telling time, counting money, reading thermometers, building with blocks and Legos. Instead, we are introducing algebra down into the elementary schools! Variables, area, volume, nets, metric conversions, Cartesian geometry -- all thrown at 10 year-olds. WHY?? These things are so easily understood when life experiences necessitate your knowing them, and they are so easily forgotten as useless gobbledygook when they are presented before you have any time or use for them. Same with science. Too much information, too little experiences to make sense of it all.
What is lost under this scheme: Childhood joys, enthusiasm and love of learning, teacher enthusiasm and love for teaching, a calm pace in the classroom, children's sense of competency.
What is gained: nothing? test scores rise giving an artificial sense of progress? |