But honestly, this latest curriculum overhaul has definitely trimmed down some of those endless, mind-numbing lists of facts that textbooks used to cram into your head just for you to forget them by next Tuesday.
I remember back in the day—it feels like an absolute eternity ago—when my daughter would hunt for geography quizzes online to test herself. She’d get all worked up because she couldn't find a specific answer in her textbook, only for us to realize that information was actually part of the old curriculum. Looking at the publication dates, we realized she was actually quite lucky that some of that outdated clutter had been cleared out already.🙏
Hydraulics in 7th grade? Honestly, I went through my entire high school physics textbook and didn't see a single mention of that.
In my experience, they had a few different physics projects. None of them were just making some PowerPoint presentation; instead, they’d pick a specific topic from the curriculum and design an actual experiment to test it out and present their findings. That first one was a bit of a hurdle—she actually got it sent back for revisions—but once she cleared that hump, they were pretty much working independently.
What I mean is, that initial project was quite the jump... definitely a "level up" from the year before and fairly massive in scope. But it turned out they could handle it; after that first shock to the system, the learning curve really started to steepen. 😁
That’s hardly a life lesson. Instead, what I see over the last few pages here is everyone insisting there isn't enough of it—claiming that if you don't have these facts memorized, you won't be able to think critically in the real world.
Sure, a fact is a fact. The year a company was founded is a fact. But honestly, if you don't happen to know that off the top of your head, it's not like you're going to be unable to just look it up on Google 😂
Honestly, it’s getting a bit tedious. It feels like every time you write a long post here, you get hit with the exact same set of complaints from certain people: - Students are just lazy, dim-witted, or completely illiterate—it's just getting worse by the day. - Parents and school inspectors are teaming up to bully innocent teachers for no reason at all. - We aren't being paid nearly enough. - Everything is somehow the fault of Divjak, Nikola Jokić, or the latest reform.
It always circles back to this same old mantra. Teachers are never actually at fault; if they happen to be even slightly responsible, well, it’s "not their fault" because the blame belongs to everything listed above. QED.
There is zero critical thinking happening outside of this bubble...
I have to respectfully disagree with everything here. In the past, you’d frequently run into professors who just couldn't explain things clearly. That meant parents ended up doing the teaching themselves, shelling out money for private tutors, or simply telling their kids to deal with bad grades—or worse, just not caring at all. Nowadays, though, there are recorded lectures from the FBI available for almost every subject. If a professor misses the mark, I can just jump online and watch a clear explanation for free. Actually, I think that with all the modern oversight and the fact that parents aren't just acting like "obedient servants" anymore, we've seen an increase in teachers who actually do their jobs. You don't see as many of those old-school types acting like little gods, throwing keys at students' heads or strictly limiting them to a passing grade of 60%.
As for the idea that explaining things to others helps you learn—personally, I found it totally useless and incredibly frustrating. The only thing I ever walked away with was the realization that X was just being difficult, and that was it. I stepped away from that method as soon as I possibly could.
Regarding group projects, they rarely work the way they're intended to. Most teachers just don't have the time or the inclination to properly supervise groups, and besides, I've never really seen core curriculum covered through group work—it's usually just extra fluff. However, I do think individual research projects, like presentations or deep-dive assignments, are wonderful. They allow students to actually build useful skills rather than just memorizing and regurgitating facts.
Looking at how professors handle extra credit nowadays—where they actually hold you to a standard—compared to my school days where teachers would just have us students explain the material to our classmates during makeup exams, I’d say we’re definitely moving in the right direction.
I honestly don't see the connection between the current curriculum reforms and the shortage of math teachers. The only thing that really links them is the lack of actual reform, such as offering better salaries, optimizing class sizes, and stopping this push to force people through five-year degree programs just so they can teach basic fractions to ten-year-olds. Back in the day, thirty years ago, having ten years of experience was more than enough qualification for some ☕
And what happened back when they were all stuck using those old mimeograph machines, layering sheet after sheet of stencil paper just to copy stuff into notebooks? Was that somehow considered better or more efficient by everyone? At the end of the day, a bad teacher is a bad teacher, regardless of which curriculum or teaching method they’re following.
If you ask me, the recent educational reforms have actually managed to weed out some of the nonsense people used to push, though I definitely think there's still plenty of room for improvement.
Now, my daughter hasn't really had any issues—she doesn't complain about anything—but we did deal with a bit of chaos regarding her math teacher swaps once or twice. Luckily, I was able to smooth things over without much trouble. That said, at her age, she really ought to be putting in five times the effort I am! Besides, I know plenty of other parents who vent constantly about teachers I’ve never even heard of. So... I suppose it all depends on your perspective.
Wait, is there actually a theory floating around now that the modern education system—the one currently shaping our kids—is fundamentally flawed because it focuses on cramming piles of facts that most students just dump out of their brains three days after the final exam?
It looks like they've decided to overhaul the curriculum to focus exclusively on the Phanerozoic eons. It’s a shame, really—those poor little girls are being deprived of learning about the Proterozoic, Archaean, and Khadija eras. Any sensible woman on this forum knows those periods inside and out; honestly, we know them better than our own multiplication tables!
Nathan Thomas12 said:According to the official data of the US government, US oil and gas revenues in July fell by 22%, while everything else dropped by about 29%. The biggest hit was domestic sales tax—down nearly 41%—which pretty much screams that American spending power is cratering. On top of that, budget revenue from income taxes (down 32%) and import duties (down 44%) has basically just collapsed.
Income tax down 32% Domestic VAT down 41% It seems like Americans aren't feeling the weight of these sanctions at all... Or, at the very least, they aren't feeling it any more than a German dealing with those fountain maintenance issues during the night shifts...
I think I have a pretty good idea of who usually comes out on top in these kinds of athletic competitions. For instance, my local high school has this really impressive swim team. Given that the campus is situated just about half a mile from the municipal aquatic center, and so many students are competitively swimming, I’m sure it’s nothing more than a complete coincidence 😁
I suppose sports are generally viewed as being universally beneficial, though I suspect that "value" really just depends on which school of thought you follow. Just my two cents. Most things seem to follow whatever set of rules happen to be in place at the time... if anyone online actually cares about that sort of thing. Anyway, I'm planning to dive into some reading on the subject next year. 😁
Susan James said:The 9th is over in Brooklyn and the 12th is out in Queens.
That classic school everyone seems to be talking about lately also had a cutoff under 74. Both the freshman and junior tracks. Actually, I heard the junior track was accepting students with scores as low as 60, or maybe that’s just a typo in the records? 🤔
Is the IX group the one over in Dobbins? As for the one in Dubuque, I don't even know where that is; I don't really venture into that part of town unless I have some business to take care of with my car.😵
But yeah, it’s quite interesting how the classic curriculum (the non-advanced version, since the advanced ones and the German/French bilingual programs are unique cases) has somehow stayed at the bottom of the interest list while remaining one of the easiest paths to get into. It hasn't been "trendy" for quite a while. Still, it's a solid option for anyone who is just a few points short of meeting the requirements for the more "competitive" subjects.🙄
With these general credit updates coming soon, they might push those students into admissions too... assuming the state doesn't implement some sweeping changes before then. You can tell which schools are trending just by looking at the admission scores for different high school types: STEM / Prep General Language Classic
P.S.—I have a relative in my immediate family who finished the classic track, and surprisingly, Greek and Latin weren't even remotely the hardest subjects for her, nor was studying them a struggle at all. She ended up moving on to study the sciences, though.😁 I bet people give her funny looks when she reads Latin with a proper classical accent!
In NYC, there were really only two public high schools that had an entry cutoff below 74 last year—the Ninth and the Twelfth (honestly, I can't even remember where they're located!) plus those specialized dual-language programs in French and German, though you have to pass a language proficiency exam to get into those. Every other school had a cutoff higher than 74 points.
At the end of the day, whether you're looking at the flaws in the school system itself or just the crushing pressure parents put on their kids, it doesn't really matter who's holding the smoking gun. When you look at the current mess with grading standards and college admissions, the bottom line is that the situation has become completely unmanageable, and honestly, it feels like this cycle is just going to keep spinning indefinitely...
Larry Walker24 said:Basically, if you've got a 74, you're pretty much screwed and won't get into any decent school.🤦
Maybe someone could draft an entrance exam worth 10 points... though I have to admit, that sounds incredibly difficult. It’s a bit tough to really break this down without seeing the full breakdown—you know, like the minimums, the maximums, how many points each grade actually carries, and which specific credits fall under extra credit versus what's strictly part of the entrance exam itself.
For example, let's say the score was x. The minimum requirement for enrollment sat at 78.83, while the average according to the table was 79.76—meaning there’s only about a one-point gap between the baseline and the average. I'd imagine that for those specialized prep schools with entrance exams, you see a much wider range of scores like that...
You’re absolutely right, that’s just the average. It’s actually quite interesting—I was under the impression that knowing the lowest score that still qualifies would be much more critical information for us to have. Looking at the table they published, you can't actually see the individual grades, though I highly doubt they were all perfect 4.0s.