Uni students lazier and dumber than ever?

[Horus]

Well, I used to love math, ever since kindergarten. but i lost my interest in math in grade 9. this is what happened:
in grade 9, homework worth 25% of the marks. but the stupid thing is, teacher doesn't always collect homework, she only collected homework once in the entire first term. And for that one homework, I'm the only one in the entire class who didn't do. why? well here's the homework: an entire sheet of paper is filled with questions like 2x+3x=? which a grade 1 could do. all you have to do is tell the grade 1 to ignore the "X" and add an "X" at the end of your answer.
The homework can easily be finished in 2 minutes by the average grade 9. but I felt that it's just pointless to waste that 2 min doing grade 1 questions so I didn't do it instead i searched for harder contest type questions on the textbook and find easier ways to solve many questions. In the end I got 68% for the first term because of 0/25 on hwk. (the other 7% is lost from test/quiz for solving questions in an easier way from the way we are taught to do so) I managed to pull my marks up to 85% in the final for grade 9.
After that, I learned my lesson: You don't have to be smart or hardworking to get high marks just waste a few minutes to do those useless hwk or assignment that the teacher gives you. Also during test, always do the question in the way that the teacher teaches you, no matter how stupid that way is.
And that's what i've been doing from gr 10 to gr 12. and I've been getting higher mark compared to grade 9 where i loved math and tried so hard. It's becoming a habit for me to be lazy and not thinking of better ways to solve questions.
And i can tell i'm getting dumber now. In grade 9 i wrote the pascal contest, I didn't prepare for it or anything, in the end i scored 138/150 a score high enough for my name to be listed on the CEMC website. But later on i never do that well on contests. I've even prepared for the euclid contest by doing past contests and the online euclid workshop. but now that i finished the contest although the results isn't out yet, i know my score isn't high enough to be listed.

[saltpro15]

Horus, I know exactly what you're talking about. All that is required for a 95+% in gr9 or 10 math is doing some homework and writing tests exactly the way the teacher tells you to >.>

Quote:

And i can tell i'm getting dumber now.

I wouldn't say so, I'd just say your conforming more to what the curriculum wants you to be, and the curriculum doesn't prepare students for math contests and such, the curriculum basically prepares students for a job at McDonald's. I hate this system where "everyone should graduate". No, not everyone should graduate, only the best should graduate, the rest are just going into the workforce anyway, why the hell waste teacher's time and taxpayer money on them anyway?

my 2 cents,

Drew

[Sniper4Life]

ya alot of teachers arent allowed to hand out late marks
...so what CAN u do?

saltpro
if its too slow for you STUDY ON YOUR OWN
co-operate with the system but be independant...thats what im learning to do

and i dont agree with you....only the best should graduate?
theres a reason there are different degrees and colleges and universities
some graduates (ones who worked harder) will get into better universities and get better degrees and earn more money(well money could suk )...
and if only the best can graduate we are basically neglecting the education of the general population....

[saltpro15]

what I mean is, a lot of time gets wasted on idiots in the high school systems, even though everyone knows these kids are just going straight into the workforce. of course I study on my own, if I just stuck with the course curriculum I wouldn't even know how to use arrays. I almost wish that, if you have the ability to teach yourself, you should be allowed to do so, making formal schooling optional. My idea is you would recieve the same instructional books the teachers get, along with a package of homework/questions/assignments to be completed, and you work on your own time. Unfortunately, this will never happen

[Sniper4Life]

saltpro ok that...i agree with you COMPLETELY

work on your own time
i dont know what highschool is like...but in middle school...when you do the work altogether....IT SUCKS
soo slow
let me give you an example

in my 7th grade geography class
my class read everything extremely slowly and discussed in a way that doesnt you give you any information directly related to the content in the book
so what did i do?
i read the book on my own and by the time they were through the first 3 sections or so i had read the whole book twice
guess what my first term geography mark was....a 95....(which is the highest possible mark in middle school ,danm midpoints...><)...

this is partially due to the fact that all of the questions were extremely easy but that....was because i read the book at MY SPEED...and read learned it MY wayy

now in 8th grade
i read along with the class...and do the teacher's way....(only cus she picks random students to read it ...and i cant be 50 pages ahead of the class )
now...my geography marks...are in the 80s...(or 70s?)...and im learning LESS
because it is so slow paced...
if students were to do work on their own all of the time all of the students who work hard could learn MORE about the subject instead of learning it slowly

THIS IS MIDDLE SCHOOL
i have no idea what high school would be like
since my imagination of a highschool class is exactly the same as a university class
lone lecturer and a semi-cirlce filled with students all listening to him
but im guessing thats not what a highschool class would look like?

[saltpro15]

Quote:

have no idea what high school would be like
since my imagination of a highschool class is exactly the same as a university class
lone lecturer and a semi-cirlce filled with students all listening to him Very Happy
but im guessing thats not what a highschool class would look like?

excuse me for a moment,
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

now that that's out of my system, sniper4life, try picturing 40 kids, half asleep, half doodling, 2 or 3 serious students actually doing WORK, and a teacher muttering some half-assed lesson for 20 minutes before talking about the hockey game last night >.> even the math and science classes are a joke, although the teachers are more involved usually.

[Analysis Mode]

Wow, I didn't think there'd be this many people who agree with me. Yes, I agree with whoever said that idiots in high school go straight into the workforce and that we shouldn't be paying money to "help them". Like I said, they need professional help, not billion of dollars being tossed into the ocean. Oh, and workforce in this case is defined as "MacDonalds, Wendy's, NoFrills, cashiers, floor cleaners at malls, etc."

Someone (i don't quite remember who) once said," Don't let school control your education" or something like that. If you don't like what school teaches you, go out, get a book and sit down and read and enrich yourself. The school system here is dumbed down. The Ministry of Education pretty much controls universities, because if they choose to dumb down the curriculum, then the universities have ot dumb down their courses.

Oh and btw, I'm totally against the Afrocentric school being set up in the TDSB (for those who are aware of it, if not, google it).

1) It's segregation.
2) African kids aren't failing because of ethnicity, they're failing because they don't live in neighbourhoods conducive towards studying.

[saltpro15]

edit : sorry to crap on your fantasy, but that has been my high-school experience so far, with the exception of 2 awesome teachers, my science teacher Mrs. Robinson, and my CS teacher, Mr Hughes.

edit edit: Analysis Mode, you're thinking of "I never let schooling interfere with my education"

[Analysis Mode]

Classes just aren't strenous anymore. We get assignments that really have nothing to do with learning material at all. AT least in math and physics, our marks are based entirely on tests (and labs). However, in chemistry and biology, it isn't. And I know that next year, the only subject where my mark is based only on tests is math. Unforuntately for other students, I know that even math has asssignments in whcih you get marks based on non-mathematical aspects.

I hate annoying assignments that just take up my time. If I were to learn the material that I actually learned from the assignment, it'd take me 10% of the time. And in univesrity, I don't think such assignments wil lbe handed out. Courses will be calcluated based on tests, exams and assignemtns that are actually worth doing and worth the time.

[Sniper4Life]

saltpro...i didnt write VERY HAPPY

that was a smiley
it didnt have anything to do with the actual test...just my emotion towards it?

and like COME ON
schooling isnt that bad..like seriously...u need to go to some CRAP school for the teaching to be THAT bad...a class is 90 minutes long..

90-20=70

70 minutes of talking about the hockey game?
i doubt that...
with the student part tho...i can imagine...but a teacher doing that? i doubt it...

[saltpro15]

your classes are 90 minutes? 75 here and sorry, compsci glitches like that sometimes. The hockey game was just an example, but yes, usually there's about half the class time spent talking about unrelated topics. It's not a crap school (we have a pretty good CS team ) just an uninvolved one I think

[Sniper4Life]

really 75?
how many classes do you have each day? O.O?

[Analysis Mode]

I'm not saying school is bad. I'm just not learning anything which I would really find useful in life. I mean, I don't think any of the assignemtns i get in school really prepare me for university (Except maybe english). as for learning the material, anyone motivated enoguh can do it on their own.

[saltpro15]

4 classes sniper4life, maybe there 85, idk, they feel like forever

[Analysis Mode]

My teachers are all pretty good, some better than others, but in general, they are all competent.

Howeve,r the Ministry of Education knows nothing about improving student learning, they only care about student remediation. And until the Grade 12 curriculum is nothing more than 1+1=2 and the graduation rate having three digits, they aren't going to stop cutting stuff out of the curriculum.