Posted by Wayne on October 09, 2002 at 10:13:33:
In Reply to: "What words should be in use?" posted by NightDiver on October 09, 2002 at 08:55:04:
I think it is a shame when a teaching moment is lost, and the change to 'Santa Ana' by the press has cost us many such teaching moments. People erroneously think it is a location name and lose the color of the language that resides in the devil wind version of the name.
As for public education, I think that if given the right kind of raw materials, the public schools do a great job. The problem is what we parents give them. In the elementary and secondary public schools where my four attend (or attended in the case of the older ones) I saw good things. But we forced our kids to do their homework before television and we kept track of their progress. My youngest had a learning disability caused by dyslexia. It prevented her from reading and doing arithmatic at grade level for the firsst couple of years of school. But the public school systems have programs to work with kids who have additional needs. She is now in the 6th grade, loves to read, and on the progress report I signed last night, she had one "B". All the rest were "A"s. Having trained professionals work with her and support her in techniques not needed by most other kids saved her achedemic career.
But I do think there is dumbing down going on. There are more facts to learn and they seem to concentrate on the facts and not the analytical skills that I think I developed. But I have to admit that it might all be misunderstanding. Since they do not always come to the same conclusion as I do, I assume their reasoning skills are not up to par. After all I must be right; I am their father.
Wayne