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Comment by farmerstan | Hacker News Reader

This is the video by the daughter of the founder of the Russian School of Math. We sent our son there over the summer, he enjoyed it and all the kids were pretty advanced in the class. California seems to want to hold everyone back in the name of equity. But that will force more people into the private school system, which is exactly what we did. I don’t trust the California government to have my children’s best interest at heart, I think they want to hamstring them in the name of equity.

https://www.ted.com/talks/masha_gershman_how_math_can_prepar...

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Essentially large part of education falls onto the shoulder of parents, which is natural. I'm even preparing to sharpen up my Math/Physics/Electronics skills for the future. Time to re-learn those things that I mostly forgot!

> Essentially large part of education falls onto the shoulder of parents, which is natural.

Have to disagree. A parent can't be simultaneously up to speed on Math, English, a 2nd language, Biology, Science, History or any of the other subjects that a child will learn in school

School is meant to teach, parents are meant to socialise. Unfortunately that seems to have been swapped around somewhere along the line.

In the UK, by law (Education Act), parents are responsible for educating their children - this has slipped considerably, I wish it were still a central ideal : under such a regime schools should be a service that parents can use to educate their children. I'd like to, for example, use school for some things, other groups for others, and home schooling for other things (essentially Flexischooling). This is in theory an option in the UK, but it's left to individual headteachers to dictate their ideals to parents (regardless of the Edu.Act) so you have to be lucky to get a headteacher who supports your chosen pedagogy.

They absolutely can. Most adults should be able to immediately recall the learnings from elementary to high school. This is not rocket science or highly specialized knowledge.

The fact that an arbitrary american adult educated in this country cannot easily differentiate and name some works of shakespeare and provide some quotes, etc, should be o source of national shame.

You're assuming your child will take the same subjects that you did. How do you recall a subject you've never taken?

There are few elective courses in high school that couldn't be replaced by a book.

I mean it's impossible to master everything but to find something that motivates the kid and keep him focused is largely parent's work. It's really difficult to ask too much from the public education system nowadays :(

You need to be up on them to the level of a grade school student. That isn't a high level.

They typical standard for a teacher to be certified in a subject at a given grade level, in the US, is to be proficient at least one level higher than that grade level. That ensures you really know the level you're teaching very well, and also have a good understanding of where things are going, so you can offer enrichment to students who need it, and explain motivation behind or direction of certain topics, when asked.

Oregon governor Kate Brown has signed a law that allows students to graduate without proving they can read, write or do math. The law had overwhelming Democrat support & is justified on the basis that it will benefit non-white students.

https://thepostmillennial.com/oregon-governor-signs-new-law-...

The Post Millennial story on this is quite light on details.

Here’s another article with more: https://katu.com/news/local/oregon-legislature-passes-bill-t...

And here’s the text of the bill (PDF): https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Downloads/Meas...

And here’s the Department of Education’s page on the Essential Skills Graduation Requirement: https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/essentialskill...

Key points from my quick read:

This is about suspending mandatory testing prior to graduation. They did that last year due to virtual learning, and are extending the suspension longer while things get back to normal, and while they assess whether the approach to testing they have is suitable (and in line with what other states are doing). It is not (yet) gone forever, just for a couple years. And you still have to pass courses in all of those subject orders in order to graduate.

How is your interpretation any better than the editorialized 'brown drops education requirements'. The pandemic is no excuse to lower standards. It short changes these kids. If anything, public schooling should be extended as an option for those above 18 to freely learn what they missed. This is an immense loss for these children. The last two years of High school are extremelyy important.

Not sure how exactly the lack of these skills could benefit anyone.

I understand that the lack of a school diploma is a huge drag in life and that can primarily affect people from disadvantaged backgrounds, but shouldn't they focus on improving the way they teach kids instead?

> Not sure how exactly the lack of these skills could benefit anyone.

Lower the standards across all levels -- high school graduation, college admissions, job placements. Eventually we end up with surgeons and lawyers that are illiterate. But at least it is equitable!

As Sir Humphrey said, education policies are not for children and parents, but for teachers.

That would require skilled politicians that knew what they were doing.

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