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The Forum > Article Comments > Wadderloader! Maths and science teaching in Australia > Comments

Wadderloader! Maths and science teaching in Australia : Comments

By John Ridd, published 25/1/2005

John Ridd argues that the quality of teaching in mathematics and science in schools inadequate.

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From what I personally have seen within the primary and secondary school system, then they don't want male teachers or boys.
Posted by Timkins, Thursday, 27 January 2005 12:13:22 PM
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Good article John. Well said. It never ceases to amaze me that teachers' unions seem to want to force every kid into the lowest common denominator by non-assessing, non-judgmental utterly useless "assessments".

I am amazed that there are not more responses yet. Maybe the lefties know that they don't dare face the facts - so they just ignore them and hope they will go away.

Similarly atheists and sexual libertines don't seem able to come up with facts and logic to respond to truth and logic to a couple of my recent comment posts. They just don't seem to have the answers.

Huxley said it best - "vincible ignorance" they just want to remain ignorant in their own mess.

So yes, when it comes to rigorous maths and Hard Science they just can't cope - they can only waffle about their opinions and can't even back them up with facts and logic.
Posted by Percy, Thursday, 27 January 2005 9:53:47 PM
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It is a sham in need of exposure.
Posted by Seeker, Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:21:39 PM
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It may be that we cannot even look to other countries for solutions to this mess, as a similar situation seems to be occurring in most other English speaking countries at least. In the UK recently, students were awarded a B grade for achieving 17% in a major maths test, while an A grading was awarded to students who achieved 45% or higher. See
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/16/nmath16.xml

The situation in US universities has reached the stage of ludicrous. The largest growth area in those universities is in the area of feminist courses, and in recent years over 30,000 feminist courses have been introduced into universities, along with 50 major feminist institutes. Many universities make it compulsory for every student to undertake at least one feminist courses while attending the university.

The contents of one of these courses is described in an article at
http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/People/Sommers/SISTER1.html

"Forty percent of the student's grade is to come from (1) performing some "outrageous" and "liberating" act outside of class and then sharing feelings and reactions with the class; (2)Keeping a journal of "narratives of personal experience, expressions of emotion, dream accounts, poetry, doodles, etc."; and (3) Forming small in- class consciousness-raising groups."

The article also describes an annual national conference held on these courses:-

"At past conferences oppressed women accused other women of oppressing them. Participants met in groups defined by their grievances and healing needs: Jewish Women, Jewish Lesbians, Asian American Women, African American Women, Old Women, Disabled Women, Fat Women, Women Whose Sexuality Is in Transition. None of the groups proved stable: the fat group polarized into gay and straight factions, and the Jewish women discovered that they were deeply divided: some accepted being Jewish, others were seeking to recover from it. This year concern extended to "marginalized" allergy groups. Participants were sent advance notice not to bring perfumes, dry-cleaned clothing, hair spray, or other dangerous irritants to the conference out of concern for allergic sisters. Hyperconcern is now the norm: at the first National Lesbian Convention in Atlanta flash cameras were outlawed they might bring on epileptic fits."
Posted by Timkins, Thursday, 27 January 2005 11:27:51 PM
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John, You have identified some very serious problems in the teaching of Science and Maths, but wait! there's more! Our postmodern society has an aversion to absolutes, and that makes Maths and Science hard to deal with (and teaching Maths and Science becomes an exercise in semantics). Not only that, but the Postmodern classroom is a place of shared ideas, where opinions are as valid as facts. Vague, wordy syllabus statements are also a reflection of the difficulty that the current generation of education professionals (your Establishment) has in dealing with subjects that by their nature make claims to be dealing with absolutes.
Posted by des, Saturday, 5 February 2005 11:28:48 PM
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