Text 1708, 84 rader
Skriven 2006-07-15 23:52:00 av BOB KLAHN (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av BOB ACKLEY
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 BA> Note that colleges and universities are now providing
 BA> education equivalent to that of community colleges decades
 BA> ago, community colleges are functioning as high schools
 BA> did, etc. etc.

 I found and posted this years ago. Let's see how it holds up.

 **************************************************************************
 The following is from the current issue of the magazine, "American
 Heritage".

  American Heritage is published by Forbes, as in Malcom Forbes. So, we all
 know it is absolutely true, honest and accurate, don't we. After all, a
 good conservative like Malcom Forbes wouldn't let his magazine publish
 things that aren't true would he?

 The portions in quotation marks are from the magazine article. If there
 are any typos, I copied their text, and the errors may have come from
 either. Sorry bout that, never claimed to be a great typist.

  There is a lot more in the article, but I thought this might contribute
 to the discussion on modern education.

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  The Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies was a commission
 consisting of 5 college presidents and 5 other educational professionals.
 It's function was to examine American Education.

  From their report:

  "As things are now the high school teacher finds in the pupils fresh from
 grammar schools no foundation of elementary mathematical conceptions
 outside of arithmetic...When college professors endeavor to teach
 chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, meteorology, or geology to persons of
 eighteen or twenty years of age, they discover that in most instances new
 habits of observing, reflecting, and recording have to be painfully
 acquired - habits which they should have acquired in early childhood. The
 college teacher of history finds, in like manner, that has never taken
 serious hold."

  The New York Times, with the History department of Columbia University,
 tested college freshmen on their knowledge of American History and
 Geology.

  "A large majority of the students showed that they had virtually no
 knowledge of elementary aspects of American history. They could not
 identify such names as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson,
 or Theodore Roosevelt...Most of our students do not have the faintest
 notion of what this country looks like....Hundreds of students listed Walt
 Whitman as being an orchestra leader."
  ...
 As the study was conducted on college freshman the magazine says, "Thus
 the survey had uncovered not just ignoramuses, but an elite of
 ignoramuses."

  From Arthur Bester, a professor of history at the University of Illinois,
 in his book, "Educational Wastelands: The Retreat From Learning in Our
 Public Schools."

  "Fifty years ago, half of all students in public schools were studying
 Latin; today less than a quarter...are enrolled in courses in all foreign
 languages put together."

  Author Sloan Wilson, in an essay, "It's Time to Close Out Our Carnival.":

  "The facts of the school crisis are all out and in plain sight and pretty
 dreadful to look at. A surprisingly small percentage of high school
 students is (sic) studying what used to be considered basic
 subjects...People are complaining that the diploma has been devaluated to
 the point of meaninglessness...It is hard to deny that America's schools,
 which were supposed to reflect one of history's noblest dreams, and to
 cultivate the nation's youthful minds, have degenerated into a system for
 coddling and entertaining the mediocre."
 *************************************************************************


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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