[Squeakland] the non universals

[Kim Rose]

Hi, Brad -

I think it's a common finding (at least in the U.S.) that schools are 
trying to prepare students "for the workplace" and thus today's 
education is largely vocational.  Therefore, the belief holds that 
teaching word processing will ultimately be more valuable to students 
than calculus.  My experience is that parents' attitudes perpetuate 
this phenomenon.  Another reason may be that more teachers understand 
word processing and are more comfortable *teaching*  "MS Office" than 
calculus.

   --  Kim


At 11:34 AM -0700 8/15/07, Brad Fuller wrote:
>On Wed August 15 2007 4:18 am, David Corking wrote:
>>  If Logo, Etoys and OLPC can teach calculus to 10-year-olds, and
>>  calculus is essential to every engineering craft, and teachers love
>>  encouraging students' creativity, why are so many schools teaching
>>  pupils to use word processors instead?
>>
>>  Puzzled, David
>
>This is a question I ask often of teachers. Here I am, probably in an area
>that is one of the most financially rich with highly educated people on the
>planet (Silicon Valley, CA) and I have never been given a satisfactory
>answer. It's not that the teachers don't want help nor more tricks in their
>bag. The vast majority of teachers I've met are very dedicated to their
>students. But, the local highschool's "Computer" class is how to run MS
>Office. Their advance "Computer" class is more MS Office. I don't get it.
>
>brad
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