Article

2005-03-21 Britain

Pupils make more progress in 3Rs 'without aid of computers'

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Posted by tipper 2005-03-21 9:44:10 AM|| || Front Page|| [11137 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 And students dropping pianos on their feet proved to be an ineffective way for them to learn to play the piano. Bill Gates is right. Our schools are taught using 19th century methods, and need to be completely redesigned. Just incorporating computers into the existing model is ridiculous. The biggest problem is that 90% of student time is wasted. A curriculum based on "the three R's" is insane: students should be taught five times as many subjects as they are now. Mastery of "the three R's" should be complete by the 3rd grade. Students should be provided an individually designed education that continually evaluates their performance, reviews skill retention, and lets them have "knowledge surges" based on their interests, as far as they want to go. Only computers can do this. Computers can follow the individual's ebb and flow of learning, so students are not held back by their slowest peer. Multi-lingual education coexists with whatever else a student is learning, as does continual vocabulary and grammer enhancement. Memory and reading skills are also integral. Another advantage is that such a computer controlled education would be transferrable to any school, a tremendous boon to transient students of which there are millions. And all of this would be in a *typical* school with an average budget. Not, as has been done in past, in a new school with unlimited funds, top teachers and motivated parents.

Posted by Anonymoose 2005-03-21 10:13:14 AM|| 2005-03-21 10:13:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 BigEric, age 4 does Dogz-5, and Sim-City on the computer.
My wife does reading, and I do adding and subtracting one-on-one. No computer as teacher. It is the best way, and you can see the progress. Very rewarding.

Computers can be used to write reports, etc, but you learn better with the human interaction, especially at a young age...

Posted by BigEd 2005-03-21 11:47:38 AM|| 2005-03-21 11:47:38 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Argue all day, guys. There is no "right" answer because every child is different. That is why schools should be different and students and parents should have a choice. It's the marketplace that has been proven to evaluate products and services best whenever it has been tried. Competition, give it a chance.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-03-21 12:02:08 PM|| 2005-03-21 12:02:08 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Turns out that kids who use computers at home are also more likely to have books, a live-in father and be read to. Hummmmm..... maybe it's not computers that make the difference. Don't quote me tho... kidz and computers are me meal ticket.

Posted by Shipman 2005-03-21 12:30:54 PM|| 2005-03-21 12:30:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Biged, www.math.com is a terrific site for teaching math.

Posted by phil_b 2005-03-21 12:32:01 PM|| 2005-03-21 12:32:01 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 With all due respect, Anonymoose, nothing beats a good book for teaching reading, and nothing beats pencil, paper, a few manipulatives, and lots of hands-on practice for teaching math. Double and treble and quadruple recipes for fraction drill. Makes math taste good. Warning to parents: let the kids share the goodies with the neighbors or you'll be carrying your math assignments on your hips for 30 years.

For spelling, see Rudginski's "How to Teach Spelling." It explains the six basic syllable patterns, which go a long way toward organizing English phonics. English is 83% regular, so despite its spelling oddities a student has better than a 4/5 chance of getting a word right if he knows the rules. I've used it to teach English to a Colombian and two Argentines, as well as my kids and a few other people's kids.

Computer programs are OK for drill; the Quarter Mile Math program gives my youngest daughter a fun way to practice multiplication tables--beats flash cards. The Anonymoose Model works ONCE STUDENTS HAVE THE BASICS NAILED DOWN.

Unfortunately the schools have this one-size fits all approach. So a little wiggly boy, who may not be mentally ready to read until he's 9, gets jammed like a square peg into a round hole situation. Kids who don't get the basics immediately get pushed into situations beyond their skill level and are made to feel like they're the ones at fault.

I have home schooled our three daughters for at least five years of their school careers. The TV is in the basement--crummy reception except for one channel, and no cable--and we use videos to great benefit. Our eldest daughter got into UW Madison on the basis of her ACT scores, the science classes she took at the high school, and my reading list, which was quite formidable. During her sophomore year, and #2 daughter's 7th grade year, we studied Europe. We mapped all the countries, kept news files, used lots of films, read classic plays, and researched NATO among other things. We spent 6 weeks and 7 films on the Balkans alone.

#2 daughter spent a very intense semester in 8th grade studying the middle east, and is entering UW this fall to major in international relations. When she entered high school in the fall of 2001, she was the only student in the 1700 member student body on Sept 11 who had any idea what was happening, from where, and why.

Parental time trumps all the gadgetry.

Posted by mom 2005-03-21 10:35:45 PM|| 2005-03-21 10:35:45 PM|| Front Page Top

23:05 Sobiesky
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10:09 Cyber Sarge
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00:06 ed
23:30 Barbara Skolaut
23:21 DMFD
23:17 Bobby
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23:13 .com
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23:11 AzCat
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23:03 Frank G
23:00 Sobiesky
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22:53 Phil Fraering
22:52 Bobby
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22:41 phil_b
22:35 mom