Easy math– Yes, if you also believe in free lunch, free money, . . .
Making Math Lessons as Easy as 1, Pause, 2, Pause …
The reporter failed to inform the reader what this SingaporeMath is all about, except that they go slow, focusing on one number at a time. The study of math is all about understanding the concepts; mostly math is taught in a “mechanical” way: Teaching a kid to get the correct answer, as in standardized tests. It is akin to a Pavlovian response- you fling the “frisbee”, and the dog “catches” it, without fail each time. I wonder if the dog understands what is involved. As a grad student, I took advanced differential equations more than 30 years ago. I felt like that dog: I aced my tests, but often did not understand or relate to the steps I took to get to the so called “correct” answer.
Education and Obama
Stop torturing our children with more schooling
For educational reform to succeed, we need the rigor of the discipline that standardized tests brings to the class room, but let us also give them- our kids- a chance to dream and be creative.
I know something about education having been been professor at several universities for more than 3 decades. Let us first look at it from a common sense perspective: What cannot be achieved in 9 months will not be magically achieved in 10 months.
Educational reform will work only when these 3 key things are in place: a good curriculum, good teachers and good support at home. The reform does not address this last issue, which President Obama correctly points out is important. My suggestion is that schools provide after hours “tutoring” to students whose home environments are not conducive to learning.
And please, do not make standardized test scores the holy grail of educational reform. These tests scores comprise only one aspect of learning. It does not measure creativity. Indian K-12 education, which I know from personal experience, is evaluated solely on standard test scores. There is little creativity.
Docs don’t study much about drugs either when in med school
Teaching Doctors About Nutrition and Diet
Physicians are almost always consulted by the media about drug related issues. It is well known among “pharmacy” circles that the medical curriculum has been de-emphasizing subjects such as pharmacology and therapeutics – topics that deal with the safe and effective use of drugs -over the last several last decades. Imagine – they are the ones that get to write the prescriptions!