Teaching Values

[SuperHornet]

Thanks for noting that. I'm not putting blame on teachers. They're dealing with the hand they are dealt. Teacher unions on the other hand are a pox on society.

I know you're not (putting blame on teachers).

The teachers union where I taught was actually pretty good. They looked out for the teachers' best interests but they also considered what was in the best interests of the students. But that was a unified district (unusual in Illinois) with over 7,000 students, so union leaders were full-time teachers. I was a sub so I didn't need to belong but they would ask for my opinion and invite me to their events. The Chicago Teachers Union on the other hand ...

Individual teachers are often not to blame for what's taught. I still remember my cousin (a now-retired HS teacher at our cross-town rivals) bitterly disappointed that the district wouldn't let her teach Latin, which would have been a great benefit for students in the vocabulary portion of the SAT....

[houndawg]

this mucho, but keep the algebra, that shit is important

That's why I said incorporate real-world uses. Everyone I know says "why do I need to learn about adding letters together????" Use personal finance and other real-world financial examples and incorporate teaching of algebra that way....and newsflash, most folks are never going to have to use algebra to expand (4x2 + 8x + 4), but if you applied it correctly they would understand what its uses really are.

Most folks will never need more than simple arithmetic, but the smart kids need to understand math at a level deeper than routine computation