I sincerely hope that the readers of the Record-Bee took time to read the November column by C. R. Smith dealing with California”s Common Core Standards (education). He notes a Common Core Standard (mathematics) problem for Grade 5.
To me it is a scary “what” problem that I suspect less than 10 percent of Lake County”s high school graduates will understand, let alone solve, in a reasonable time!
I say “what”, because I have no idea as to what a teacher may have offered to students as to the “why”? the value and/or use they might have for the answer, and why would a student want to know it. It seems to me that this is the key to education.
I guess my concern is that this is a 5th Grade question.
Contrary to some, I was not hatched, I grew up in west Los Angeles and had a wonderful growing up. But I surely did not have this advanced stuff in the fifth grade.
We were kids, for goodness sakes, and things like moving averages/lineal regression were left for later.
We had “arithmetic” and were good at it, and we all knew why we were doing arithmetic. But we were “kids” in the later 1930s, and, frankly, there were a lot of subjects felt more valuable to students growing up at that time.
I suspect we knew more about our national history, the English language, geography and the general goings-on in our community than do kids nowadays.
Organized juvenile athletics and the rabid competition we see now were not even thought of. We had pick-up games, but it was we kids who organized things.
What we had was observation, imagination, ingenuity, and the fact that all the things we could make were not already offered in stores at prices we could afford.
I suspect that grade school kids today are no smarter than in my day, but they are being asked to do far more. And, possibly less was expected of us if only because there was less total “knowledge” 75 years ago.
With Junior High School, we advanced to mathematics, biology, social studies that included civics, politics, and the mechanics of government, all tied to the background we had gotten in grade school. We took craft classes that taught us how to do things ourselves, and if we had the desire, we even got to try Latin and algebra in the ninth grade.
High school was a continuation of this sort of educational philosophy. And we had motivation.
The only thing worse than a visit to the principal”s office was having to explain to our parents ? who cared and let us know it!
I feel we are trying to push our kids much too fast and that they may end up more “educated” but far less “socially knowledgeable” than my bunch!
I have no doubt that my classmates would do well today, but they probably would not have had nearly as much fun as students, nor be as adjusted to facing the world. And I think that is an important part of the whole process!
Guthrie “Guff” Worth
Lakeport
