wer r da lulz??

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Dumbing it down for the dumb

There's going to be a revised curriculum for elementary school, I think mainly the primary grades. Not only are students complaining about the "unreasonably high" load of homework given to them, but parents and teachers are also filing complaints. The whiners are also saying that the material is becoming too difficult for the students' brains, which have not developed the mental capacity needed to grasp the learning content yet. Hence, the curriculum is sent to the gallows for some quick cuts, and the provincial standard for math is lowered (math is just one of the main subjects that are being chopped crudely, but other subjects are also under fire).

Of course, the Asian parents (pardon the stereotype) and also some Caucasian ones are against this new curriculum. One Asian parent commented that right now, her daughter is in grade 8 and doing the same level of math as a third grader is doing in China. That's pretty embarrassing. Some Caucasian parents don't see anything wrong with the old curriculum, and inquire for the core reason of changing it. They've handled the math and their teachers taught them well, and there was nothing wrong then. The only thing that is different between now and then is possible human evolution, but certainly our children can't be moving backwards on the evolution chain.

It's ridiculous that they have to change the curriculum. It is completely untrue that the children cannot grasp such mathematical (or otherwise) concepts. I have lived through my primary grades and came out perfectly intact: no emotional turmoil, no psychological scarring, no physical harm. Then again, I was enrolled in a Saturday school program in which the subjects taught at said centre were half a year in advance compared to ordinary school because even the slowest (aka me) would take only half a year to absorb the content. By the time we need to use it in normal school, we would have already understood the topic in and out.

We have to keep in mind that there are people who have survived said harsh primary grades without any outside help, so really there is no good reason to revise the curriculum.

Assuming that the future generation is not evolving backwardly, and that their brains should be even more advanced than ours, the core of the problem is not that the material is too hard. If it seems so, then have the teachers do their job properly: teach the students until they learn it. I'm aiming to be a teacher myself, and I believe that one of the foundations of being a teacher is to make sure your student understands the material. Teachers who complain that the material is too hard for their students are only looking for an easy way out. Parents should not be complaining at all; if they think it is too difficult, then most likely their own education has eroded.

Canada is only the 5th top country for best-ranked education. Kudos to us for being in the top 5, but we shouldn't stop there. If we water down our curriculum, the kids are going to be even less prepared to enter high school, and the stress will carry them throughout high school until senior year, and into university. First year university/college drop out rates and high school drop out rates are still unfavourably high, and toning down the curriculum will not make it better. Additional consequences include a drop in our ranking. Less visa students, and our global reputation is slowly destroyed. I'm not an Econ major, but our economy could deteriorate.

The solution is to have schools or school districts to hold remedial programs, peer tutor programs, or have teachers offer extra help outside of their school time. Teachers' job hours aren't the regular 9-3. Being a teacher requires you to bring out your compassionate side to connect with the students.

In conclusion, dumbing it down for the dumb will not work. This can (and probably will) ruin our global reputation, take away the appeal from our country as an educated developed country and render our future generations incapable of being able to work in international settings.

Next post: Africentric schools

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