Drop algebra to improve graduation rate

[Steeltime]

Yep... My courses of study were more Latin than Islamic, but the point is the same. We're phasing out Latin (or Classical) education as well. GRBkid #1 took Latin this year for one semester (7th grade) and his English scores have gone from A- to A+...all because of root words and associations. Studying Western Civ helps with Civics and Political Science, etc, etc...

I went to a Jesuit high school and took my required two years of Latin. You are 100% correct that I became much more proficient in sentence structure, cases, subject/object recognition, and grammar due to taking Latin, and foreign language in general. I also learned quite a bit about English by reading great literature - Shakespeare, Dickens, Melville, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Miller, etc.

Kudos to you on having your child take Latin.

 

[ark steel]

**** those latin ************* trying to cross our border and take American jobs!!

 

[Steelin]

I went to a Jesuit high school and took my required two years of Latin. You are 100% correct that I became much more proficient in sentence structure, cases, subject/object recognition, and grammar due to taking Latin, and foreign language in general. I also learned quite a bit about English by reading great literature - Shakespeare, Dickens, Melville, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Miller, etc.

Kudos to you on having your child take Latin.

My daughter had an AP Lang class that had "Word within a Word" tests weekly. Learning the the word roots, prefixes and suffixes was worth all of the studying.

 

[ark steel]

My daughter had an AP Lang class that had "Word within a Word" tests weekly. Learning the the word roots, prefixes and suffixes was worth all of the studying.

you mean in your white privilege schools?

 

[south dakota STEEL]

That would be clearly a racist policy these days.

it may be. But the reason is everyone has to be treated equal on everything, if they can't pass it, we dumb it down so everyone can...amazing ****. Doesn't matter race or color, just make sure everyone can add 1+1....That is how the rich get richer....

 

[Yinzerlyn]

My Freshman and Sophomore English teacher had us diagram sentences. She wouldn't pick simple ones, either. BUT....I learned so much about grammar and sentence structure doing that. Sometimes, it's best to stick with the old fashioned way.

 

[Steelin]

you mean in your white privilege schools?

Here anyone can take AP classes. I think they're great because they are pretty challenging.

 

[Stewey]

In the CA system you can't take Statistics until you pass Algebra 2. That's how they get you: with prerequisites. And it sucks too, because I think quite a few people drop out of college here because they can't handle higher math. Which, again, they're NEVER GOING TO USE EVER IN LIFE EXCEPT TO PASS THAT CLASS.

You are missing the point of going to college. Then go to a tech school where you just learn your craft. A lot of **** you have to take in college you will never use in life. The History of Western Civilization? College is supposed to build a well rounded individual. Your college degree sets you apart from those with a technical school diploma.

 

[Yinzerlyn]

Here anyone can take AP classes. I think they're great because they are pretty challenging.

At Kat's school, some of the AP classes were actually college courses= we paid for the college class and it was taught in the HS. You had to get a B or better in the class to get the college credit, but you still got the HS credit if you at least passed the class.

 

[GRBman]

My Freshman and Sophomore English teacher had us diagram sentences. She wouldn't pick simple ones, either. BUT....I learned so much about grammar and sentence structure doing that. Sometimes, it's best to stick with the old fashioned way.

I had this in 8th grade... well, I kind of failed my way into it.

In 7th grade, I nearly flunked English because I read slowly. I was placed in an "advanced" English class due to my standardized test scores (off-the-chart for "verbal"). After one semester, the teacher said I couldn't do the work so they moved me to a "regular" class that I nearly flunked as well, again...because they expected us to read entire books in a week AND write a report on them... AND because I wasn't a good student either.

Enter 8th grade...they put my stupid *** in BASIC English. You know...that class. We spent the entire year diagramming sentences and doing grammar. We had one...one book report all year, had to write one poem and that's is. Aced that bad boy. The pay-off...they put me back into "honors" English in 9th grade, but this time I did better. There was more writing than reading...and I never made one grammar mistake all year. Not one. I'm convinced that our kids need to take a grammar course either in 8th or 9th grade...just grammar...

 

[oneforthebus]

Last week my 4th grader had a ***** of a spelling list. They were the hardest words I've seen her bring home all year. We went over them each night after dinner. I had her write the ones that got wrong three times. The test was Thursday. Only two people in the class passed. My daughter knows that she was one of them. Some kids claimed that they never got the list. The teacher handed out the lists again and said they would be re-tested the next day, including the two that passed. Her reason? She didn't want the kids who failed to feel bad. That ***** wasted an opportunity to make an example out of the two kids who studied and succeeded. Makes me sick.

Well you can thank the screaming parents for that. In my daughters' classes if anyone gets below a B on anything you know the teacher is going to hear about it from the parents. They actually have a class where they can redo the exam questions and turn them in to bump up their test score by 10 points. They have their lowest quiz scores dropped. There is all kinds of extra credit and easy homework to drive up their grades.. Everyone here thinks their kid is going to Harvard...at least until they get their SAT scores.

 

[IndySteel]

Well you can thank the screaming parents for that. In my daughters' classes if anyone gets below a B on anything you know the teacher is going to hear about it from the parents. They actually have a class where they can redo the exam questions and turn them in to bump up their test score by 10 points. They have their lowest quiz scores dropped. There is all kinds of extra credit and easy homework to drive up their grades.. Everyone here thinks their kid is going to Harvard...at least until they get their SAT scores.

That makes me want to be a teacher for a day just so I can tell those parents that their kids are dumb.

 

[Rod Farva]

A better question is: why do you need it? WTF does an pre-law major need with trigonometry? It's a waste of time to learn something you'll never use again, and won't retain anyway.

Higher math is useless to the majority of people and the majority of professions. We have computers for that. This is not the "dumbing down" of education, it's the streamlining of education. As I stated earlier in the thread, much more useful things like civics and critical thinking are being overlooked in favor of useless rote memorization of disciplines that serve no day to day function for the vast majority of Americans.

Correct. There are NO lawyers in the banking industry, or on Wall Street. And they are NEVER involved in any cases where damages, distances, weights and measures, time or averages must be calculated.

I went to a Jesuit high school and took my required two years of Latin. You are 100% correct that I became much more proficient in sentence structure, cases, subject/object recognition, and grammar due to taking Latin, and foreign language in general. I also learned quite a bit about English by reading great literature - Shakespeare, Dickens, Melville, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Miller, etc.

Kudos to you on having your child take Latin.

Shakespeare and Dickens make my head hurt.

That makes me want to be a teacher for a day just so I can tell those parents that their kids are dumb.

And a day is exactly how long I'd last.

 

[Steelin]

At Kat's school, some of the AP classes were actually college courses= we paid for the college class and it was taught in the HS. You had to get a B or better in the class to get the college credit, but you still got the HS credit if you at least passed the class.

We have the same options. I think that they have to get 70% on the final to get the college credit. My junior is taking the AP Lang final this year.

 

[Steeltime]

Shakespeare and Dickens make my head hurt.

Shakespeare can be a challenge in some respects, but the Penguin editions have extremely good footnotes to assist with terms such as "Absey book" (a child's primer), "backfriend" (a false friend, one who gives a pat on the back while scheming against you), "hade land" (unplowed strip of land in a field), "quotidian" (a type of fever), and "zounds" (God's wounds - a type of exclamation).

Okay, Shakespeare can be tough at times, but once you get into the flow of his text, his work is easy to read. Further, his plays are generally 140 pages or less and therefore can be read in short order.

Macbeth is one of the greatest works of fiction ever crafted. You can get Shakespeare's plays via Kindle for free on the "public use" doctrine. I recommend you give Shakespeare another try.

As for Dickens - he is the greatest author ever to publish works in the English language. "Great Expectations" is the easiest read available. It is so brilliantly written that I find it incredibly easy to read. I re-read "Great Expectations" every 2 years or so, and find something brilliant every time.

 

[Steeltime]

An aside regarding Shakespeare - he is reported to have coined 1700 words now used in the English language.

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html

I employed one such term above - "coined." Shakespeare turned nouns into verbs, such as the word "coin" into the verb "coined."

 

[hamster]

Playboy has some pretty good articles too.

 

[Stewey]

Shakespeare and Dickens make my head hurt.

.

Even Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol ?

 

[ark steel]

. I re-read "Great Expectations" every 2 years or so, and find something brilliant every time.

Sounds like my posts.

 

[Yinzerlyn]

I had this in 8th grade... well, I kind of failed my way into it.

In 7th grade, I nearly flunked English because I read slowly. I was placed in an "advanced" English class due to my standardized test scores (off-the-chart for "verbal"). After one semester, the teacher said I couldn't do the work so they moved me to a "regular" class that I nearly flunked as well, again...because they expected us to read entire books in a week AND write a report on them... AND because I wasn't a good student either.

Enter 8th grade...they put my stupid *** in BASIC English. You know...that class. We spent the entire year diagramming sentences and doing grammar. We had one...one book report all year, had to write one poem and that's is. Aced that bad boy. The pay-off...they put me back into "honors" English in 9th grade, but this time I did better. There was more writing than reading...and I never made one grammar mistake all year. Not one. I'm convinced that our kids need to take a grammar course either in 8th or 9th grade...just grammar...

They split up the year into one semester of just English (grammar) with the required novel readings. The second semester was Literature, but since I was in Gifted/AP, we continued the grammar lessons. It really helped me. I STILL hear my teacher from those two years yelling things like "YOU CANNOT HAVE ONE WORD APPOSITIVES' or "NEVER EVER EVER START A SENTENCE WITH THERE" or "NO PASSIVE VOICE EVER!!"