Comments on: Why Kids Hate School (Pt. 1) http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/04/17/why-kids-hate-school/ The Official Blog of MathMojo.com - helping public school, homeschooling, unschooling students, parents, teachers and adults learn math with easy and effective methods. Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:03:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: penny http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/04/17/why-kids-hate-school/#comment-56717 penny Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:19:25 +0000 http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/04/17/why-kids-hate-school/#comment-56717 To give you an idea how far the mighty have fallen, I grew up in the East South Bronx in NYC. We used to CARE about education in America--now we care about image, politics, and measurement of the mediocre. <em>Professor Homunculus sez: </em> Amen, sister! To give you an idea how far the mighty have fallen, I grew up in the East South Bronx in NYC.

We used to CARE about education in America–now we care about image, politics, and measurement of the mediocre.

Professor Homunculus sez:

Amen, sister!

]]> By: penny http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/04/17/why-kids-hate-school/#comment-56714 penny Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:13:45 +0000 http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/04/17/why-kids-hate-school/#comment-56714 Gee, I went to public schools. We had excellent math and physics courses in H.S. This included a physics course where we derived the Bohr Atom, and PV=nrt from the hypothesis of statistical chaos. I had an excellent electronics course. Also first rate English and History courses. We read Chaucer in Middle English, and Beowulf in translation. In French Class, we read Zola and Victor Hugo. In elementary school, my fifth grade classroom had books by H.G. Wells, Poe, and Milton. My fourth grade class had excellent science--I learned there to build and design electric motors and generators, and to use an oil immersion microscope. Such was life in the 1960's in the NYC public schools. Many of my high school teachers were bona fide radicals--one lost his job for a protest against saluting the flag, and others had marched in the civil rights demonstrations. Many were card carrying socialists--red diaper babies--who actually believed that it was a socialist goal to teach their middle class and lower class kids to think and read and question authority. Today, elementary school is about job training--not about education ( which comes from the same root as "educe"--to bring out.) AMERICA HAS DESTROYED ITS PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM--ONCE THE BEST IN THE WORLD. Gee, I went to public schools. We had excellent math and physics courses in H.S. This included
a physics course where we derived the Bohr Atom, and PV=nrt from the hypothesis of statistical
chaos. I had an excellent electronics course. Also first rate English and History courses.
We read Chaucer in Middle English, and Beowulf in translation. In French Class, we read Zola
and Victor Hugo.
In elementary school, my fifth grade classroom had books by H.G. Wells, Poe, and Milton.
My fourth grade class had excellent science–I learned there to build and design electric motors and generators, and to use an oil immersion microscope.
Such was life in the 1960’s in the NYC public schools.

Many of my high school teachers were bona fide radicals–one lost his job for a protest against saluting the flag, and others had marched in the civil rights demonstrations. Many were card carrying socialists–red diaper babies–who actually believed that it was a socialist goal to teach their middle class and lower class kids to think and read and question authority.

Today, elementary school is about job training–not about education ( which comes from the same root as “educe”–to bring out.)

AMERICA HAS DESTROYED ITS PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM–ONCE THE BEST IN THE WORLD.

]]> By: Alane Tentoni http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/04/17/why-kids-hate-school/#comment-55843 Alane Tentoni Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:16:25 +0000 http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/2008/04/17/why-kids-hate-school/#comment-55843 What I hate is the whole age-grouping thing. Ideally, they should dig deep, master skills, and use them in later lessons, but many kids don't master anything. They just drift from C to D to C, not really retaining anything and not caring, because there's no incentive to excel. No easy answer to it, I guess. And you're right - the furniture is institutional because institutional is cheap -- it's all about the bucks! What I hate is the whole age-grouping thing. Ideally, they should dig deep, master skills, and use them in later lessons, but many kids don’t master anything. They just drift from C to D to C, not really retaining anything and not caring, because there’s no incentive to excel. No easy answer to it, I guess. And you’re right - the furniture is institutional because institutional is cheap — it’s all about the bucks!

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