gls@odyssey.ATT.COM (g.l.sicherman) (01/20/89)
In article <14.UUL1.3#913@acw.UUCP>, scott@acw.UUCP (Scott Guthery) writes: > ... This > is first and foremost a result of being subjected to a public > education system that is run solely for the benefit of the unions > that control it. American children are hounded by mindless educrats > pushing "self-esteem" and "skills acquisition" and precious little > else from the time they're 4 until they're 24. ... This is diverging from the original incident. All that happened was that two math teachers told their students that there is no such thing as a negative number! There is some truth in that statement, as one of the teachers showed. As a whole, the statement is meaningless at best. The problem, as I found it as a boy, is that elementary-school teachers just aren't smart or learned enough to handle subtleties. Being accustomed to speak as authorities, they often take sound concepts and garble them till they're unintelligible. No such thing as negative numbers? I couldn't tell you how many similar pronouncements I heard in school. Math, history, politics, cultural issues, you name it! (I think the geography teachers were the most scrupulous.) So I doubt that improving the "system" will improve teaching. Today's teachers are specialists in teaching. By and large, they are fairly well skilled at teaching the knowledge they're assigned to teach. The math teachers are skilled at teaching math--but they're not skilled at math. Those third-grade teachers in the anecdotes couldn't learn algebra if they wanted to, and they don't want to. As a pupil, all you can do is learn what you can from them and be prepared for your fourth-grade teacher to contradict what your third-grade teacher told you. And be thankful you're in a school instead of working long hours in an unheated galvanizing factory. -:- Nan-in, a Japanese master, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!" "Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full--of opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?" -- Col. G. L. Sicherman gls@odyssey.att.COM