Then you had better textbooks than we did - we learned how light, going over longer and longer distances, would 'redshift' as the wavelength changed (as in, greater time between peaks /\/\/\/\ to /-\_/-\_/-\ which was caused by the distance it traveled, which was then described as 'going slower' because it would take longer between peaks.) It could be that other areas just aren't as idiotic as America, which is certainly held up by our rankings.
"Why would the majority of students miss the things that are actually taught in school?" The subtle magic of 'tracking' based on ability. Oftentimes the final explanation is only in the highest level course, which works fine unless the majority of students never get that far. My first high school had this cute little system where the course subjects were part of the tracking system, so honors students took Biology as freshmen, regular students took it as sophomores, and 'special' kids took it as juniors. Only the honors kids even could make it to physics, and even then, the school only required three years of science and accepted electives for credit. And this is assuming that they were paying attention at the point it was explained, which people often weren't, and that the teachers actually know the final answer, which, disturbingly enough, they sometimes don't.
College just worsens things, because people are even more likely to concentrate on their particular interest. The minimum requirements are pathetic.
::shrugs:: In theory, more time in school would help, but basically, if we're already tuning out most of class, it'd be easier to address that.
Gym doesn't teach exercise so much as force it. Let's just say that it's ridiculously expensive and that if they really cared about our health, they wouldn't have had a wall of vending machines and a small store selling cookies and junk food on the way in and out.
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Date: 2006-10-22 06:38 pm (UTC)"Why would the majority of students miss the things that are actually taught in school?"
The subtle magic of 'tracking' based on ability. Oftentimes the final explanation is only in the highest level course, which works fine unless the majority of students never get that far. My first high school had this cute little system where the course subjects were part of the tracking system, so honors students took Biology as freshmen, regular students took it as sophomores, and 'special' kids took it as juniors. Only the honors kids even could make it to physics, and even then, the school only required three years of science and accepted electives for credit. And this is assuming that they were paying attention at the point it was explained, which people often weren't, and that the teachers actually know the final answer, which, disturbingly enough, they sometimes don't.
College just worsens things, because people are even more likely to concentrate on their particular interest. The minimum requirements are pathetic.
::shrugs:: In theory, more time in school would help, but basically, if we're already tuning out most of class, it'd be easier to address that.
Gym doesn't teach exercise so much as force it. Let's just say that it's ridiculously expensive and that if they really cared about our health, they wouldn't have had a wall of vending machines and a small store selling cookies and junk food on the way in and out.