[Squeakland] the non universals

[Blake]

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:25:34 -0700, Bill Kerr <billkerr at gmail.com> wrote:

> As long ago as 1994 two Australian academics - rather than describing  
> them as academics I should say two of the most notable educational maths
> researchers in Australia - wrote a book ('The National Curriculum  
> Debacle' by Nerida Ellerton and Ken Clements) complaining bitterly that  
> the leading maths educational research group in Australia had not been  
> listened to in
> the development of the then national profiles. This book is really a  
> blow by blow description of the farcical process as well as a critique  
> of outcomes based education

For more school board wackiness (along with a lot of other related  
material on science and perception) "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman"  
cannot be recommended too highly.

> My understanding is that this trend is world wide:
> http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/06/physics-teacher-begs-for-his-subject.html
> "Wellington Grey, a physics teachers in the UK, has written an open
> letter<http://www.wellingtongrey.net/articles/archive/2007-06-07--open-letter-aqa.html>about
> the conversion of physics in his country from a science of precise
> measurement and calculation into "... something else, something nebulous  
> and ill defined"

It is characteristic of all government organizations except (apparently)  
the military to avoid actually producing anything. It is also in their  
nature to obscure the fact that they aren't producing anything.

Obviously, teaching anything that can be measured in hard terms goes  
against the grain. I think also that's the reason the IQ tests were  
eliminated, and there's a constant shuffling of competency tests.