Has 2000s America done a bad job at inspiring youth to go into science and engineering? (principal, highest)
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I am not impressed by foreign language classes. At my middle school we offered 2 years of French, Spanish, and sometimes Latin. And I don't know of a single student who ever used that language in their career.
The truth is that nobody feels motivated to learn a foreign language if it doesn't help them earn more money over the course of their lifetime.
And English is the king of all languages right now.
The truth is that nobody feels motivated to learn a foreign language if it doesn't help them earn more money over the course of their lifetime.
And English is the king of all languages right now.
Personally, I think learning a foreign language in today's world is better left to situations where, for one's profession a foreign language is needed, and then it's not likely to be one of the foreign languages most often taught in public schools.
At my daughter's middle school it was so bad that languages were considered an elective and you could either take music (band/choir) or language but not both. You had to choose one or the other.
The rest of the world has long ago passed us by in languages. Embarrassingly so.
Maybe because English has become the world's lingua franca, and in almost every country is a semi-official second language. The only other language which comes close, in my area especially, is Spanish. Learning Chinese or other languages as a second language is just about useless from any pragmatic point of view. Other countries are so far ahead because English is a useful language in the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Israel and most European and Asian countries. I would like to maximize our domination, not diminish it.
Or make life easier in their environment. I heartily advise any Texan to learn a bit of Spanish.
You beat me to it. The proliferation of Spanish in the US is increasing.
I can probably converse at a 3rd grade level but I can understand it at a higher level.
Yes, I lived in Texas and so hearing/speaking Spanish happened on a daily basis with people.
Maybe because English has become the world's lingua franca, and in almost every country is a semi-official second language. The only other language which comes close, in my area especially, is Spanish. Learning Chinese or other languages as a second language is just about useless from any pragmatic point of view. Other countries are so far ahead because English is a useful language in the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Israel and most European and Asian countries. I would like to maximize our domination, not diminish it.
I frequently use Spanish in my job and my Spanish-language skills are partly what gave me an advantage over other candidates for the same job. The exact same thing is true of my wife. She gets a pay bonus for being fluent in Spanish.
In any event, I would suggest that for the vast majority of students, language skills are more valuable than say "learning to code." A tiny number of students who take a computer coding class ever do it for a living. Worse still is the nonsense of teaching middle-aged coal miners or loggers how to code.
And don't be too sure that English will always be the lingua franca so to speak. That is only a recent development and can change. English usage in the EU is on the decline, for example, after Brexit. If we go through a similar round of isolationism and disengagement under a second Trump Administration the rest of the world might well start to move on.
Take the California Mathematics Curriculum Framework promoted by progressive woke ideologues and adopted several months ago. Among other bad things, it:
Promotes fringe teaching methods such as “trauma-informed pedagogy.” [ch. 2, p. 16]
Distracts from actual mathematics by having teachers insert “environmental and social justice” into the math curriculum. [ch. 1, p. 35]
Distracts from actual mathematics by having teachers develop students’ “sociopolitical consciousness.” [ch. 2, p. 39]
Distracts from actual mathematics by assigning students—as schoolwork—tasks it says will solve “problems that result in social inequalities.” [ch. 7, p. 29]
Urges teachers to take a “justice-oriented perspective at any grade level, K–12” and explicitly rejects the idea that mathematics itself is a “neutral discipline.” [ch. 2, p. 29]
Encourages focusing on “contributions that historically marginalized people have made to mathematics” rather than on those contributions themselves which have been essential to the academic discipline of mathematics. [ch. 2, p. 31]
“Reject[s] ideas of natural gifts and talents” and discourages accelerating talented mathematics students. [ch. 1, p. 8]
Encourages keeping all students together in the same math program until the 11th grade and argues that offering differentiated programs causes student “fragility” and racial animosity. [ch.1, p. 15]
Rejects the longstanding goal of preparing students to take Algebra I in eighth grade, on par with high-performing foreign countries whose inhabitants will be future competitors of America's children—a goal explicitly part of the 1999 and 2006 Math Frameworks. [ch. 9, p. 43]
Instruction of the calculation and use of percentages will include, for example, "Let's say Jamar earns the California minimum wage of $15.50 per hour, works 30 hours per week, and his rent is $1200 per month. Ignoring taxes, what percentage of his pay goes to rent? What percentage of his paycheck is fair to pay for rent? What if the minimum wage goes up to $20 per hour - what percentage of his pay then goes to rent?"
Ask yourself, what is the likely impact of the implementation of the new California Mathematics Curriculum Framework on the number of students who pursue science and engineering once they set foot on a college campus?
It's called CRE..culturally responsive education.
You can find it on a number of school district websites.
It's not limited to California. It's across all schools in all states.
I had always thought Math and Science wouldn't be dragged into this but sadly they were.
NYS overall CRE framework: https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/...-framework.pdf Inclusive curriculum and assessment
elevate historically marginalized voices.
It includes opportunities to learn about
power and privilege in the context of
various communities and empowers
learners to be agents of positive social
change. It provides the opportunity to
learn about perspectives beyond one’s own
scope. It works toward dismantling systems
of biases and inequities, and decentering
dominant ideologies in education.
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