[Sca-cooks] Jonathan Swift was an Optimist

[chirhart_1]

Yes please!!!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Siegfried Heydrich" <baronsig at peganet.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jonathan Swift was an Optimist


>     Actually, this was from Kansas, and had very little of the history of
> that state in the test. The rules of grammar, arithmetic, US history,
> orthography, and geography haven't changed much. I remember the year that
> education changed from academics to making us 'well rounded people'. When
I
> went from 8th to 9th grade, we went from hard subjects to warm, fuzzy
> subjects. 1968 . . . the year they stopped teaching, and became
babysitters.
> I spent 3 years trying to figure out why they were more concerned with my
> 'self image' than preparing me for college.
>     And when I went to IU (Bloomington) after I got out of the Marines, it
> felt SOOO good to be actually leaning something! Of course, by then I had
no
> fear of professors, and had an awful lot of fun arguing with them. Kept a
> 3.81 GPA in spite of being the campus reactionary.
>     I'll go ahead and post it - if anyone wants to take a crack at it,
> enjoy. But don't feel bad if you don't pass . . . blame the system!
>
>     Sieggy
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> > You know, I've seen that exam.  I must admit, while those 8th graders
> > knew an awful lot about the history of the state of Tennessee, they'd be
> > pretty hard pressed to operate a computer.  Or an automobile.  Or
> > perform basic geometric calculations to help them design a simple wood
> > project without a model or pattern.  They were taught only extremely
> > basic science - like, what you or I learned by 6th grade.  Unless they
> > were expected to go to high school and college, they were taught
> > arithmatic, not mathmatics.  They were taught to read from the Bible,
> > and Johnathon Swift would certainly never have made it into their
> > classrooms.  Additionally, while they would know plenty about the
> > history and geography that would turn them into good patriots, do you
> > really think they were taught either good world history or critical
> > thinking skills that just might have led them to ask uncomfortable
> > questions?
> >
> > Additionally, the only people who took that exam, intended to give them
> > passage to 9th grade, were the academically elite - not farmers sons or
> > the daughters of pickle vendors, both of whom needed basic reading,
> > writing and arithatic skills, period.
> >
> > That exam is completely worthless as a comparison to modern education.
> > It's like comparing German Shepards to 747s.
> >
> > Is our educational system perfect?  I wouldn't try to argue that.  In
> > fact, I plan to home-school my children.  On the other hand, is it
> > better than 100 years ago?  Betcha buttons it is.  We're hardly going to
> > hell in a handbasket just because some schools might choose to teach Ray
> > Bradbury instead of Johnathon Swift.  There's a *huge* corpora of
> > literature out there from which educators can choose.  If students stop
> > responding to Swift because it's not as socially relavant as George
> > Orwell, I see nothing wrong with revising the canon.  It's not like
> > they're reading less, or of a lower quality of literature.
> >
> > Can we get back to food now, please?
> >
> > -Magdalena
>
>
>
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