Journal perfessor multigeek's Journal: Our Kids Can Tell Us 16
That this is part of what's still wrong with our educational system. Math especially. I periodically get the chance to look at textbooks and I never cease to be appalled at how consistently they contain more jargon then a high end stereo magazine crossed with a DoD* internal briefing.
The first thought that comes to mind is, "so, all the more reason to support home schooling and alternative educational materials"
Which, in my case, leads to the happy second thought: "cool, I'm gonna make money".
I'm going for a new edition of the poster by June 1 and a new timeline by august. More immediately, I'm hoping to have my for-sale biodiesel guide ready by Earth Day.
Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.
* DoD = Department of Defense, i.e. the USian vast complex of military departments and those that just pretend to be military.
Rustin
The first thought that comes to mind is, "so, all the more reason to support home schooling and alternative educational materials"
Which, in my case, leads to the happy second thought: "cool, I'm gonna make money".
I'm going for a new edition of the poster by June 1 and a new timeline by august. More immediately, I'm hoping to have my for-sale biodiesel guide ready by Earth Day.
Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.
* DoD = Department of Defense, i.e. the USian vast complex of military departments and those that just pretend to be military.
Rustin
Experience (Score:2, Insightful)
And then there's the whole "girls can't do math" line of baloney. Pissed me off no end. My mother graduated summa with a major in
It's an American thing (Score:2)
I think this is a mostly american phenomenon. Whenever the subject of mathematics comes up I have a blank look on my face as my (American) wife uses math jargon to describe the problem. When she uses english I have no problem fo
It's an American thing? (Score:2)
I truly don't mean to be facetious, but why do you think that is? As an outsider, what
Re:It's an American thing? (Score:2)
Good question. I can only compare Sweden here as I haven't seen as much of other European nations cultures in this area.
Even if it's not an answer I'll extend the observation, compare your commercials to ours. American car commercials for instance are packed full of TLAs and trademarks which are used as if they were real adjectives, verbs or nouns. It's got a Hemi, it's Jeep Trail Rated, it has the latest this or that proprietary technology. Rarely if ever will they use a generic term or explain the conce
Re:It's an American thing (Score:2)
Re:It's an American thing (Score:2)
To continue the analogy. Knowing what is the Start Button, what is the Task Tray, what the Minimize and Maximize buttons are, will not help you in learning what they actually do.
However, if you know that there is some place where all programs are gathered, but you don't know where it is or what it's called, you should still be able to find it fairly easily. Likewise if you know that there are buttons that can shrink and enlarge windows, a quick trial and error will teach you where they are and what they do
biodiesel book? (Score:1)
Converting a diesel to veggie. We get:
Mathematics, including fractions, if your vehicle uses SAE fasteners. Possibly some geometry if you've gotta design new tanks.
Chemistry and biology. Do I really need to elaborate on these?
Some recycling (not just the fat, but the car and inherent steel, rubber, etc. This latter is one of my big concerns with new, green cars. Let's say I'm driving a 1990 Volvo. Fairly safe, n
Re:biodiesel book? (Score:2)
Ideally, our entire pocket guide product line should end up being under THREE dollars per at retail and each both be available as an ebook and be an extension of a copylefted PDF flyer.
On this one the first edition o
Re:biodiesel book? (Score:1)
And it goes without saying that I'd be interested in the pdf. Fo
Oh boo hoo (Score:1)
The fact is that Math needs to have an exact vocabulary, because it is dealing with an exact topic. Doublespeak, political correctness, and all those other facets of modern English cannot be allowed to come into play.
Indeed, many mathematicians are quite irritated over the word "imaginary" being used for "imaginary numbers", precisely because this term was historically chosen as a sla
You're in it too... (Score:2)
There are indeed, I think, ways of teaching math that are less jargon-dependent. While I understand that eventually acquiring a full specialized vocabulary of math-related terms is important, I don't believe it's necessary to confuse a reluctant (o
Re:You're in it too... (Score:2)
Beyond that, yes, much American writing has become that predictable product of officious first generation members of the white collar classes run through a shoddy educational system. People act on the faulty assumption that bigger words and longer phrases must be somehow classier, resulting in a pompous clodhopping style I'ld call Runyonesque if that weren't an insult to Damon Runyon. Haigesque?
Personally, every time I hear some uniformed dimwit say something like
You're doing it *again*! ;) (Score:2)
A humourous example of the problems of discourse suddenly springs to mind: The late Max Ferguson, formerly of
Re:You're doing it *again*! ;) (Score:4, Informative)
DAMMIT! I HATE when that happens. I have the most maddening time trying to guess what is or is not common knowledge.
Damon Runyon was a midcentury author of stories and various performance pieces including, most famously, Guys and Dolls. he wrote about "small-time con artists, racetrack touts, Broadway characters, and guys who are "just around."" (from an Amazon review) but the key point here is that many of his characters, for all their tough guy behavior, were trying desperately hard to be upwardly mobile and spoke in a sort of odd, awkward, mock-respectable cant. I have long believed that the ability of an actress to deliver a convincing "A pois-son could develop a cold" song is one of the best tests of her light touch and respect for those who are NOT smart, ethical, or particularly successful.
Runyon's characters, while their speech may have been an exaggeration, were still based on a deeply sincere and very common stiltedness in spoken language that shows the insecurities in play of the sorts I'ld described earlier. They want *so hard* to be "classy", to be "swank", but they simply don't know how, so they just haphazardly replace their "me"s with "I"s, "use" with "utilize" and all those saxon-to-latinate switches you mentioned earlier.
In terms of musicals, a happier interpretation of this is the "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" song in Kiss Me Kate.
Haig spoke in a nightmarish, utterly impersonal, hardcore bureaucratspeak that I don't feel confident to even imitate. Carlin, Trudeau, and just about every other political satirist worth reading would quote exact bits from transcripts and be accused of belittling exaggeration.
A quick googling of "Al Haigspeak" found this cite (italics mine) from Lew Rockwell.com [lewrockwell.com]
I'm sorry. I can never tell what "everybody knows" and what is obscure. If you of all people know neither of these references then, yep, I've screwed the pooch again.
Well, I guess that that is what editors are for.
Rustin
Silly Rustin, Editrix are for Kids! (Score:2)
Socialization (Score:3, Interesting)
Education should take place in the home, as much as possible. This is why many people choose to homeschool. However, this deprives kids of the social benefits of school.
I've come to the conclusion that parents ought to send their kids to school, and educate them at home. Teach them to read and write, don't wait for the school to do it. Show them how to do math, and how to research, help them to broaden their knowledge about any subject that interests them. Don't let the school dictate your child's progress.
If you're doing your job at home, the purpose of school is for your kids to make friends and learn how to get along well with others.