Comments on: The local school system does it again

By: One Man’s Focus » POTD 9/21/08

One Man’s Focus » POTD 9/21/08 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:13:37 +0000

[…] is a veritable cornucopia of geometric shapes, don’t you think? (I hope my daughter’s math teacher doesn’t realize that! […]

By: selif

selif — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:16:24 +0000

Yeah, kites are a geometric shape but in the schools I went to lessons like that wouldn’t have happened at all, never mind waste two and three days of class time on it.

And then there’s the “thumb wars”. That’s absolute crap. It’s nothing more than teachers taking a lazy way out and calling it class participation or some such nonsense instead of just plain cracking books.

Is it any wonder that this country is falling behind in so many things? We’re not teaching kids how to do anything but waste time learning how to take a benchmark test, build kites and comprehend the science of “thumb wars”. All being SUCH important tasks that the learning of higher maths and hard science must be set aside to accomplish them.

By: Tilly

Tilly — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:12:03 +0000

I used to wonder how other countries could get ahead of ours. If these sorts of things are going on all over the country, it is no wonder. It also explains all of the poor grammar and spelling I’ve seen in other blogs, not yours Thank God.

By: Thriell

Thriell — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:25:19 +0000

Yes, kites are a geometric shape. So are picture frames, basketballs, baseballs, math books, sheets of paper, and hair curlers. Many other things are made of combinations of geometric shapes, like chairs, tables, pencils, flashlights, and ANYTHING ELSE ON THE PLANET THAT ISN’T A SIMPLE GEOMETRIC SHAPE.

I’m willing to go so far as to say that, yes, kite building can be used to teach geometry in a way that kids will find entertaining. My point is, however, that it wasn’t. It was used simply as something to do to keep the kids busy. There was no attempted teaching going on.

I notice you completely avoided the other example… letting the kids play “thumb wars” for three days is NOT research. It’s babysitting… poor babysitting.

By: D Abbey

D Abbey — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:24:38 +0000

Working with kites (which are actually a geometric shape, by the way) can be a great way to teach with triangles and teach some measurement. Students are always begging for things that are not “boring” and it sounds like the teachers are trying to find a way to keep things interesting.

Yes, I am a teacher as well.