06-22-2014, 03:06 AM
Kleff wrote:
A classical education, even at university, has nearly disappeared in the U.S. It is making a bit of a comeback in a very few Catholic schools, and still can be found in a handful of colleges and universities.
I’m in support of having an archaeology department, but part of me questions the relevancy of having a classics department. My perspective is amateurs are doing a good job of advancing our horizons.
Kleff wrote:
As a college professor, and an old guy, I am often appalled at the sheer ignorance about almost everything displayed by most of contemporary youth. Not only do they not even know that Latin or Greek were spoken languages in ancient times, but they cannot read, write, add, or subtract either.
I wouldn’t be laying the blame at the feet of the youth; I would investigate the standards of the teachers. I was shown the lessons that were presented by a university to Japanese students to learn English. It was full of grammar and spelling mistakes. I believe if all Australian teachers were evaluated by an independent source, many would fail. This will never happen because they have a militant union. During the reign of the incompetent Labour party, Australia’s literacy levels declined. So much for the great Labour education revolution. According to Geoff Masters, chief executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research:
"So there are probably a number of reasons why these countries are performing better than Australia. Often there is a national curriculum but I think that in most of these high-performing countries there is clarity about what teachers are expected to teach and students are expected to learn. So there is an attempt to define standards and to set high expectations of schools."
If you want to see a comparison between left wing teaching, which is why the system is in a mess, and right wing teaching, I highly recommend the television series “Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby” There are two series and they can be downloaded on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxhIL4RqaDA
A classical education, even at university, has nearly disappeared in the U.S. It is making a bit of a comeback in a very few Catholic schools, and still can be found in a handful of colleges and universities.
I’m in support of having an archaeology department, but part of me questions the relevancy of having a classics department. My perspective is amateurs are doing a good job of advancing our horizons.
Kleff wrote:
As a college professor, and an old guy, I am often appalled at the sheer ignorance about almost everything displayed by most of contemporary youth. Not only do they not even know that Latin or Greek were spoken languages in ancient times, but they cannot read, write, add, or subtract either.
I wouldn’t be laying the blame at the feet of the youth; I would investigate the standards of the teachers. I was shown the lessons that were presented by a university to Japanese students to learn English. It was full of grammar and spelling mistakes. I believe if all Australian teachers were evaluated by an independent source, many would fail. This will never happen because they have a militant union. During the reign of the incompetent Labour party, Australia’s literacy levels declined. So much for the great Labour education revolution. According to Geoff Masters, chief executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research:
"So there are probably a number of reasons why these countries are performing better than Australia. Often there is a national curriculum but I think that in most of these high-performing countries there is clarity about what teachers are expected to teach and students are expected to learn. So there is an attempt to define standards and to set high expectations of schools."
If you want to see a comparison between left wing teaching, which is why the system is in a mess, and right wing teaching, I highly recommend the television series “Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby” There are two series and they can be downloaded on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxhIL4RqaDA
