You heard the boss-man, move along..nothing to be seen here....(shakes can of mace)

quote:

Originally posted by STCardGeek:
OK, who do I blame for hyjacking my thread :P

Probably me. Sorry. But I'll just add a couple of things before I duck out the door (I have to defend education - maybe not all schools or circumstances).

Spelling and grammar IS important. However I also think we need to look at other things IN ADDITION TO. Children should be learning to think and solve problems. With those skills, they can apply them to the spelling, the grammar and everything else.

Dan, I agree with most all of your points, particularly about national testing. I'm not from the US, but our provincial testing carries tremendous pressure from all sides - all of which is pointless. Neighborhoods in cities that score well see their housing prices rise. There's funding things involved as well. And to prove what? I don't know.

Music is based a lot on math though, so it could actually be helping in other ways.

Should a project riddled with spelling errors be given an A? Probably not but that doesn't mean that it should get a failing grade either if there's thought shown. Also, one might question the teacher as to what the focus of the project was? The spelling and punctuation may be taken care of in language arts.

I just want to point out that there's a bigger picture to education than small skills (no matter how important). My philosophy is essientially that all students should at the very least be able to do basic math, read and write at a functional level and be able to think, the most important of which is to think. Because if you've got that, the reading, writing and math will fall into place.

I think all users who run a contest should send their rules to a Moderator or to Harris. This is my see-through attempt to get this thread back on track. See, I'm being good. Very good.

Maybe I should run a contest. Maybe I will run a contest when I get back from Philly with all the leftover, err... stuff I have

Ryan

Contests: Can I run a contest where the winner has to send ME stuff?
Just a thought.....