The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
What the heck are children doing in middle school?
The Danish curriculum looked something like this when I went to school:
Primary: 1st: Addition 2nd: Subtraction 3rd: Multiplication 4th: Simple division and ratios 5th: Long division, percentages, classical trig. 6th: Algebra, more classical trig. 7th: Moar algebra 8th: Functions of one variable and general catchup for those who didn't get the 1st-7th curriculum the first time around. 9th: Moar catchup.
Secondary: 10th-12th (in no standardized order): Calculus in univariate functions, vectors, analytical geometry.
In my opinion, everything above 5th on this progression should be optional
Everything from 5th down needs to be mandatory, because it requires the sort of drilling you can really only do to a captive audience: Nobody in the history of ever has voluntarily done four to five thousand simple arithmetic problems over a span of four to five years. But that's roughly what it takes for a person of average aptitude to become functionally numerate from a cold start.
Additionally, in my dream world, 6th and 7th would displace 8th and 9th, and the 6th and 7th years should be used for (mandatory) basic statistical literacy, with a focus on how to (spot people who) lie with numbers - mean vs. median in skewed distributions; fun with time series; build-your-own histogram; units, axes, scaling. With modern computer assistance you don't really need algebra to understand statistics at a "citizen level." People who go into Serious Math will, of course, need to take formal statistics, but not everyone will do that.
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
by Frank Schnittger - Feb 7
by Oui - Feb 4 33 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Feb 2 8 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 26 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 31 3 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 22 3 comments
by Cat - Jan 25 63 comments
by Oui - Jan 9 21 comments
by Oui - Feb 7
by Oui - Feb 433 comments
by Oui - Feb 314 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Feb 28 comments
by Oui - Feb 2109 comments
by Oui - Feb 16 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 313 comments
by gmoke - Jan 29
by Oui - Jan 2735 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 263 comments
by Cat - Jan 2563 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 223 comments
by Oui - Jan 2110 comments
by Oui - Jan 21
by Oui - Jan 20
by gmoke - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 1841 comments
by Oui - Jan 1591 comments
by Oui - Jan 145 comments