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From: cdshaw@alberta.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: education
Message-ID: <247@pembina.alberta.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Mar-87 16:18:44 EST
Article-I.D.: pembina.247
Posted: Tue Mar  3 16:18:44 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Mar-87 02:42:28 EST
References: <213@fornax.uucp> <179@arcsun.UUCP> <217@fornax.uucp> <181@arcsun.UUCP>
Reply-To: cdshaw@pembina.UUCP (Chris Shaw)
Distribution: can
Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Lines: 31

In article <181@arcsun.UUCP> rob@arcsun.UUCP (Rob Aitken) writes:
>In article <217@fornax.uucp>, chapman@fornax.uucp (John Chapman) writes:
>> <many deleted things>

>> 2. [our] school system is the wrong answer to the problem, or
>> ...Personally I believe 2 is the most correct....
>This may be true, but most efforts to change the system are met with the
>"Get back to basics! My kid is in grade 2 and doesn't know the capital of
>Lower Slobbovia yet!" breed of comment. Many people want school to be
>difficult. It was hard for them, so it should be hard for their children.

Well.... There was a significant amount of experimentation with education in 
the 60's. Basically educators had been saying the above for years before, and
finally got what they wanted. The consensus is that it didn't work. The
back to basics movement is in reaction to the 60's experiments. Which isn't
to say it's the 30's all over again in schools, just that the topic matter is
that same, because that's what the people need. Literacy is valuable, so you 
must teach it.

It is an unfortunate reality that class sizes are too large. Let's do 
something about it. Complacency is probably half the problem. The literacy 
rate in this country is too low. Other countries have much higher because 
their people think that literacy is important. Japan comes to mind in this 
respect.

>Rob Aitken

-- 
Chris Shaw    cdshaw@alberta
University of Alberta
CatchPhrase: Bogus as HELL !