Re: NOW(-ish): Education

Ross A. Finlayson (RAF@tomco.net)
Sun, 28 Mar 1999 17:42:13 -0500

Hello,

Academia is certainly losing some of its luster in light of freely available Internet educational resources.

Calculators should not be allowed in elementary and secondary math classes. Paper, pencil, rulers, and compasses are allowed.

Baseball caps of improper size restrict blood flow to the brain, and thus should not be allowed to be worn in class.

A proper nutritional regimen should be federally mandated in all school lunch programs. This might involve vitamin supplements.

Overprescription of mood-altering drugs to children is the wrong approach for
"attention deficit disorder", a more correct approach would be giving students
something interesting. Mood-altering medication should only be prescribed for severely emotionally disturbed children.

Standardized tests, and testing in general, are important and relatively unbiased measures of scholastic aptitude and ability.

Teachers should be well versed in their subjects.

The schools should get together and make a huge emporium of educational resources for all.

I am not a "professional" educator, but I strive to be a good one.

Teaching methods used for gifted and talented accelerated track learning should be applied to all students.

The primary goal of education should be the imbuement of problem solving skills and the ability to learn and reason, rote memorization is important for spelling and medicine, among other things. Etymology should be taught on all levels.

The fundamentals of learning and knowledge are an important foundation for success.

Ross F. 

--
Ross Andrew Finlayson
202/387-8208
http://www.tomco.net/~raf/


"C is the speed of light."