site banner
PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   3222 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 10, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Does school suck now? Why does it suck? Has it always sucked? Is it like this everywhere?

In 4th grade in the '80's at a public school in Sacramento, CA we had a divided start, homework 4 days a week, tilt top desks with integrated swivel chairs in rows. Good posture was encouraged by being mandatory. In classroom work was handwritten, questions were copied from the book. Math was half the problems in class half at home, any incorrect answers were expected to be corrected and resubmitted. In class there were many opportunities for reading aloud. We're were expected to have memorized multiplication tables to 12 x 12. We read 'Brighty of the Grand Canyon', I had reading in the afternoon, I don't know what the kids in the morning read. Lynne Reid Banks came to the school for Author Day, there was an assembly in the MP room.

I had poor penmenship and failed to apply myself, but there seemed to be more rigor. I wouldn't have guessed 4th grade was so different now. 4th grade was also the year you could work in the cafeteria, I liked working milk sales.

I've found with my children I have to demand they supply more effort and often apply considerable pressure to see improvement in the production of their work, especially in a non-preferred subject. Many of the traditional pressures of written corrections, writing lines, poor grades, deficiency notices, summer school, repeating the year have been eschewed in favor of what? The expected standard seems low, the quality of work produced by my recent 4th grader is below the quality of 4th grade @AvocadoPanic, but the school isn't really demanding excellence.

I've 5th, 3rd, 1st and pre-k. Our district is in the top 10% in Massachusetts.

Are there any old teachers here, did you complain in the 80's about children in the 40's having better penmenship?

Schools do not appear to suck, relative to the 1980s

there are a considerable number of variables that need to be accounted for

Which is why I said, "do not appear" to suck, relative to the 1980s.

Are you sure the standards by which math and reading ability were judged remained constant over these decades?

Well, it is the same, very well known, test, the NAEP. it is easy enough to do some research on its history. Feel free to do so.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats