Virginia to eliminate advanced math courses because not enough minorities qualify

Real Obvi wrote:

Has this site changed its name to ARC - Alt-Right dot Com?

Bizarre how obsessed so many on here are with stupid things in a particular direction.

Helpful Hint: There's all kinds of stupid stuff going on all over the place. Always has been. Always will be. But if you consistently pick up on and rant about stupid stuff in a certain direction then you are part of the problem.

No. If you refuse to acknowledge "stupid stuff in a certain direction then you are part of the problem." The answer to legitimate critique coming from the other side isn't to point out some other problem that the other side refuses to acknowledge. How are you ever going to get them to acknowledge your legitimate concerns if your position is that their admittedly valid concerns don't deserve consideration until yours are addressed?

800 dude wrote:

Real Obvi wrote:

Has this site changed its name to ARC - Alt-Right dot Com?

Bizarre how obsessed so many on here are with stupid things in a particular direction.

Helpful Hint: There's all kinds of stupid stuff going on all over the place. Always has been. Always will be. But if you consistently pick up on and rant about stupid stuff in a certain direction then you are part of the problem.

No. If you refuse to acknowledge "stupid stuff in a certain direction then you are part of the problem." The answer to legitimate critique coming from the other side isn't to point out some other problem that the other side refuses to acknowledge. How are you ever going to get them to acknowledge your legitimate concerns if your position is that their admittedly valid concerns don't deserve consideration until yours are addressed?

What are you if you refuse to read or understand the material in question before drawing a conclusion and spouting off like an idiot?

Martinis wrote:

swingsandmisses wrote:

Right wingers around here LOVE false thread titles. It’s like they are allergic to the truth.

SDSU Aztec.

The retard probably created 10 different handles in this thread alone as usual.

Who? Does he make up false thread titles constantly like right wingers here?

Engineer Man wrote:

I have a graduate certificate in Gifted and Talented Education, and I can tell you with certainty that this is how you get gifted kids to drop out of school and/or misbehave and find other, unproductive ways to get stimulation. Dumbing down the curriculum helps no one, dramatically hurts the high achieving students, and indirectly hurts us all as kids who should be destined to be doctors, engineers, inventors, etc are artificially held back. Any responsible and sensible adult knows that you're supposed to help kids go as far as they can (within reason), not hold them back. Dear god.

This is pathological to a degree that is almost unbelievable.

It's frustrating when people say that we are "dumbing down" education when deleveling occurs.

In the Honors/Standard structure, I was dumbing down topics to an absurd degree for standard students. The idea is that we make it as easy as possible for them to get things in and pass.

Now, EVERY student of mine gets access to a higher degree of rigor and expectations. If they fail, then the challenge is finding ways for them to get it. It's the exact opposite of dumbing down.

I will admit that it is a slight pendulum swing back to "one size fits all" education, but for middle and early high school, it's increasingly important that everyone has a similar set of fundamentals. Current teachers are well prepared to teach groups with varied ability levels in a single classroom.

It is very similar to a coach who has runners who are 16:00-30:00 5K runners. They know how to differentiate training for them. It's not rocket science.

I'm sorry, but you are just simply wrong. Education works best when everyone in the class is of similar ability level. That's why grade levels exist. That's why you can't take Calc III until you've taken Calc I and II. That's why you don't just award every degree at a college to every student. The research on this is very clear. If you don't know that, you are simply ignorant.

Besides that, I've personally taught in classrooms where I had the entire spectrum of abilities as well as just Honors kids. The difference in quality of education you're able to provide the students is of night and day. When everyone is in one classroom together, you're constantly having to go back and forth between trying to stimulate the high ability kids and trying to teach the low ability kids something they can actually understand. This seems like such common sense I don't know how anyone has any trouble understanding it.

We don't like it, but the most efficient means of education is to separate kids into strata as early as possible and allow kids to go up or down strata based on merit. This is very well understood by anyone who cares to look at things dispassionately. The military understands this and has been doing it for nearly 100 years.

Engineer Man wrote:

[quote]Lenny Leonard wrote:

[quote]Engineer Man wrote:

I have a graduate certificate in Gifted and Talented Education, as.

Well, Mr. Certificate, that's all well and good but in college, when we teach, everyone is pretty much in the same class for basic STEM type requirements. And every year kids "you" send us, who had reasonably good credentials on paper, can't (or won't) do sh!t and they fail and repeat and change majors and drop out.

How dare VA try to change that?!?!

Also, I didn't take Calculus until I was in college. Doesn't seem to have hindered me. Maybe those "slow" classes helped me.

VA LOCAL MAN wrote:

Engineer Man wrote:

[quote]Lenny Leonard wrote:

[quote]Engineer Man wrote:

I have a graduate certificate in Gifted and Talented Education, as.

Well, Mr. Certificate, that's all well and good but in college, when we teach, everyone is pretty much in the same class for basic STEM type requirements. And every year kids "you" send us, who had reasonably good credentials on paper, can't (or won't) do sh!t and they fail and repeat and change majors and drop out.

How dare VA try to change that?!?!

Also, I didn't take Calculus until I was in college. Doesn't seem to have hindered me. Maybe those "slow" classes helped me.

My high school offered "accelerated" and then AP and college level classes for juniors and seniors. As a result, I got a great education in high school, developed a strong work ethic, and entered college with 28 credits already done. Given tuition is tens of thousands of dollars per year many places now, that means I saved over $20,000 just by going to a school that taught to my ability level. Not to mention it set me up for success since I was in classes that challenged me rather than sitting around bored in a class that didn't challenge me (which is what happens when high ability students are put in classes with the rest of the ability level students).

Also, I have 3 degrees in STEM and am currently in an Applied Math PhD program. I just got the graduate certificate in GATE because I am passionate about education.