Proper education does test for understanding and comprehension, not just regurgitation, though allot or programs focus on the latter as it is easier, plus teaching to the test is a thing in to many schools.
American public schools. No Child Left Behind was bad enough, but Race to the Top replaced it and made teaching to the test the norm. Btw, RttT is NCLB on crack and meth.
Politicians should be barred from meddling with education.
Almost any technical or scientific field will require algebra at the minimum. I work in a diagnostic lab and do at least some algebraic calculations every day.
I even use algebra when calculating budgets and future investment strategies.
Calculus, I’ll grant, I’ve rarely needed in the twenty years since leaving high-school. But algebra? That’s pretty fundamental to daily life… the ability to apply reasoning to numbers. Even if you don’t make a living out of that kind of thing, the skills apply to stuff like managing a household budget…
This is a widespread, erroneous, and therefore insidious mistake as regards “needing” to know calculus. Almost everybody solves at least one calculus problem a day without even thinking about it. Slowing down a fast-moving car to stop at a stop sign? You’re solving a calculus problem. Catching a thrown ball? You’re solving a calculus problem. And so on.
Calculus is something we do intuitively. Algebra is not. IMO calculus should be taught much earlier, and more generally, than it is, because it *is* something we do — all the time — in our daily lives.
just about any function you do in a spredsheet short of basic addition multiplication is done algebraically.
if $value of $Cell dervived from information in $othercell is between x and Y do $action
I just had to do all today for someone who was making a spredsheet to calculate a users ability to make up her religious oriented time off ( she has 10 weeks to make it up after taking the time off) she was doing it in 15 minute increments
the whole spread sheet was more or less Is value of hours worked per day 8+.15 yes no. If value of week x is greater than (8+.15)*$payweek days= yes Add total of all weeks=yes Is value of total= time off at the end of term…
all of it every single bit has to be done in an LOGICAL fashion algebra IS logic.
sorry I disagree greybeard you are not doing the math to catch a ball or slowing a car. the MATH is describing the action. infact your brain is more or less approximating motion into the future as any fielding position knows your first placement is only an approximation of what you expect can happen. (bad hops happen) and sometimes you get lucky with an unassisted triple play.
After 40-some years of living;
I’ve discovered that SOLVING equations is actually pretty easy (once you have enough multiplication stuff memorized), as long as you remember/keep_track _of what the symbols are telling you to do with the numbers.
FIGURING OUT an equation that will give you the information you’re LOOKING FOR, on the other hand, is where math starts getting difficult.
There are certain things that flat out need to be memorized. Your basic arithmetic facts, for example. Spelling words. Even homophones (don’t get me started on that one). I have seen people decry rote memorization yet wonder why kids can’t do basic math without a calculator or misspell every third or fourth word.
You need to have the basics, your foundation, down COLD. Then we can move on to using to comprehension, amalgamation, and synthesis.
Agreed. You need to grok the basics, and you need to know how to apply them.
Unfortunately, it seems that most schools oscillate between the two: eras of rote memorization, where students seem to be confused by how to apply what they’ve memorized; then eras of applied courses, where the issues you mentioned popped up.
my god do I agree. holy crap. ALL of it is memorization even algebra is memorization at least the various rules to apply to the problem. So is Trig and geometry for that matter. the answer is the application of those rules. misapplication of rules allows 2=1 in algebra (normally to get that answer you need a divide by zero)
Actually it is from being conceived and born in the Akashic record field of the library. Digit is the end product of several generations of spiders born in the Library itself. It has also given her a longer lifespan than an ordinary jumping spider. I seem to recal that according to Paul she is over 16 Earth years old.
That’s like asking “how do I as a high school teacher, teach someone with a bachelor’s degree?” Which is comparing apples to zucchini. Really Digit should likely study (if needed) for and take a High School Equivalency certificate, the GED or the like. It seems like Gryphon High considers her to almost have an honorary bachelors in Library/Information science.
Digit’s education at this point isn’t “factoid” memorization, but working with her to figure out how strong her academic skills are. While she may have theoretically knowledge of things like “time management”, putting those skills into practice is quite different.
In one of the recent strips, it was stated explicitly that Digit has (at least) the equivalent of university-tier knowledge. She’s being placed by the para-community (MIB) in Gryphon specifically to develop her socialization skills.
As per today’s installment, the teaching faculty at Gryphon have clearly recognized her advanced academic skills and are taking appropriate measures to develop them. Her real tests in upcoming life are going to be interacting with the rest of her class peers.
Of course I want to see her connect with Atsali … as friends, the two of them could be especially good for each other in this area. Atsali’s genius will also find Digits intellect challenging in Very Good Ways.
I completed my Bachelor’s degree the same year I started highschool. I still attended High School all four years in order to develop my social skills. I’d skipped so many grades (4th-8th) that my parents felt it was important to go back to school. I hated it… but I appreciate it now.
The current artwork available on ebay is completely adorable … but it made me wistful to see Digit diving into the pool with four arms. Just seems that if she gets the coordination down, she could be a demon-tier swimmer. Swimming was one of my main sports for many years, even competed at the state level on my high school teams, so I have a particular nostalgia for that.
The mechanics of such a complex double-shoulder structure, though, would give any anatomist &/or artist fits working that out. Not a task to be envied. I’ve seen a number of takes & attempts on it over the years, some far more successful than others.
You think a double-shoulder structure is tough, try triple, and each arm is semi-autonomous (with one hand being extremely grabby, so much so it will grope her owners’ own bewb in the tub)
I understand the octopus has more neural tissue in its arms than in its brain, and _it_ is the largest in the non-vertebrate world. I presume this is because all those arms are at least semi-autonomous.
Actually she did when she was crying on Shelly. I would think that would be her first autonomous usage of her facial muscles. She can build off of that in time.
Just like home schooling for Digit.
She blew their minds I guessing…
Proper education does test for understanding and comprehension, not just regurgitation, though allot or programs focus on the latter as it is easier, plus teaching to the test is a thing in to many schools.
American public schools. No Child Left Behind was bad enough, but Race to the Top replaced it and made teaching to the test the norm. Btw, RttT is NCLB on crack and meth.
Politicians should be barred from meddling with education.
“A students work for the B students, B students work for the C students, and the C student run the world” as the saying goes.
We have the C students dictating education policy.
Politicians should be barred, period.
heh, algebra and calculus may not be needed unless you want to go into physics, or teach it…
BUT it does ‘stretch the mind’, and see if you are able to do that kind of stuff…
Almost any technical or scientific field will require algebra at the minimum. I work in a diagnostic lab and do at least some algebraic calculations every day.
I even use algebra when calculating budgets and future investment strategies.
Calculus, I’ll grant, I’ve rarely needed in the twenty years since leaving high-school. But algebra? That’s pretty fundamental to daily life… the ability to apply reasoning to numbers. Even if you don’t make a living out of that kind of thing, the skills apply to stuff like managing a household budget…
This is a widespread, erroneous, and therefore insidious mistake as regards “needing” to know calculus. Almost everybody solves at least one calculus problem a day without even thinking about it. Slowing down a fast-moving car to stop at a stop sign? You’re solving a calculus problem. Catching a thrown ball? You’re solving a calculus problem. And so on.
Calculus is something we do intuitively. Algebra is not. IMO calculus should be taught much earlier, and more generally, than it is, because it *is* something we do — all the time — in our daily lives.
I’m a blacksmith and welder as a hobby and use calculus almost every day. So much for being ‘just a craftsman’!
just about any function you do in a spredsheet short of basic addition multiplication is done algebraically.
if $value of $Cell dervived from information in $othercell is between x and Y do $action
I just had to do all today for someone who was making a spredsheet to calculate a users ability to make up her religious oriented time off ( she has 10 weeks to make it up after taking the time off) she was doing it in 15 minute increments
the whole spread sheet was more or less Is value of hours worked per day 8+.15 yes no. If value of week x is greater than (8+.15)*$payweek days= yes Add total of all weeks=yes Is value of total= time off at the end of term…
all of it every single bit has to be done in an LOGICAL fashion algebra IS logic.
sorry I disagree greybeard you are not doing the math to catch a ball or slowing a car. the MATH is describing the action. infact your brain is more or less approximating motion into the future as any fielding position knows your first placement is only an approximation of what you expect can happen. (bad hops happen) and sometimes you get lucky with an unassisted triple play.
After 40-some years of living;
I’ve discovered that SOLVING equations is actually pretty easy (once you have enough multiplication stuff memorized), as long as you remember/keep_track _of what the symbols are telling you to do with the numbers.
FIGURING OUT an equation that will give you the information you’re LOOKING FOR, on the other hand, is where math starts getting difficult.
There are certain things that flat out need to be memorized. Your basic arithmetic facts, for example. Spelling words. Even homophones (don’t get me started on that one). I have seen people decry rote memorization yet wonder why kids can’t do basic math without a calculator or misspell every third or fourth word.
You need to have the basics, your foundation, down COLD. Then we can move on to using to comprehension, amalgamation, and synthesis.
Agreed. You need to grok the basics, and you need to know how to apply them.
Unfortunately, it seems that most schools oscillate between the two: eras of rote memorization, where students seem to be confused by how to apply what they’ve memorized; then eras of applied courses, where the issues you mentioned popped up.
my god do I agree. holy crap. ALL of it is memorization even algebra is memorization at least the various rules to apply to the problem. So is Trig and geometry for that matter. the answer is the application of those rules. misapplication of rules allows 2=1 in algebra (normally to get that answer you need a divide by zero)
I’ll never forget watching a kid pull out a calculator to multiply something by 100. A big kid.
Young body, old soul?
And, Atsali is mistaken. It’s the inability to do [i]calculus[/i] which will bring on the zombie apocalypse.
Don’t you hate it when you think the board uses BBCode and it actually wants HTML?
Calculus is something my dentist scrapes off my teeth…. XD
No, The lack of common sense will cause the zombie apocalypse.
Maybe… just maaaybeee…
ZOMBIES will cause the zombie ‘pocalips?
Osmotic Effect from living at the Capital-L Library?
Actually it is from being conceived and born in the Akashic record field of the library. Digit is the end product of several generations of spiders born in the Library itself. It has also given her a longer lifespan than an ordinary jumping spider. I seem to recal that according to Paul she is over 16 Earth years old.
Think of it like on Doctor Who. River Song was conceived in the Tardis while it was in the Time Vortex and so she became a Time Lady.
I believe he said twenty, but developmentally equivalent to a seixteen-year-old
Digit is going to be a problem student. As in, “how do we teach someone so damned intelligent?” problem.
That’s like asking “how do I as a high school teacher, teach someone with a bachelor’s degree?” Which is comparing apples to zucchini. Really Digit should likely study (if needed) for and take a High School Equivalency certificate, the GED or the like. It seems like Gryphon High considers her to almost have an honorary bachelors in Library/Information science.
Digit’s education at this point isn’t “factoid” memorization, but working with her to figure out how strong her academic skills are. While she may have theoretically knowledge of things like “time management”, putting those skills into practice is quite different.
In one of the recent strips, it was stated explicitly that Digit has (at least) the equivalent of university-tier knowledge. She’s being placed by the para-community (MIB) in Gryphon specifically to develop her socialization skills.
As per today’s installment, the teaching faculty at Gryphon have clearly recognized her advanced academic skills and are taking appropriate measures to develop them. Her real tests in upcoming life are going to be interacting with the rest of her class peers.
Of course I want to see her connect with Atsali … as friends, the two of them could be especially good for each other in this area. Atsali’s genius will also find Digits intellect challenging in Very Good Ways.
Digit is in high school to learn how to (appear) to be human.
I completed my Bachelor’s degree the same year I started highschool. I still attended High School all four years in order to develop my social skills. I’d skipped so many grades (4th-8th) that my parents felt it was important to go back to school. I hated it… but I appreciate it now.
The current artwork available on ebay is completely adorable … but it made me wistful to see Digit diving into the pool with four arms. Just seems that if she gets the coordination down, she could be a demon-tier swimmer. Swimming was one of my main sports for many years, even competed at the state level on my high school teams, so I have a particular nostalgia for that.
The mechanics of such a complex double-shoulder structure, though, would give any anatomist &/or artist fits working that out. Not a task to be envied. I’ve seen a number of takes & attempts on it over the years, some far more successful than others.
You think a double-shoulder structure is tough, try triple, and each arm is semi-autonomous (with one hand being extremely grabby, so much so it will grope her owners’ own bewb in the tub)
I understand the octopus has more neural tissue in its arms than in its brain, and _it_ is the largest in the non-vertebrate world. I presume this is because all those arms are at least semi-autonomous.
lol someones reading spinnerette (or is the author himself) Dang bottom lefty…
She is not Spinerette.
Shoot Joecrouse beat me to it.
Sheik: The squid runs MUCH larger
I can’t help but me greatly amused by this potential friendship. A girl who can’t read faces and a girl who can’t make faces.
Actually she did when she was crying on Shelly. I would think that would be her first autonomous usage of her facial muscles. She can build off of that in time.
You are way too advanced for your age, Digit.
She’s there to learn to (appear) to be her age.
JEEZIS CHRYST!!! Digit is NO dumb shit; Imagine what ALL spiders throughout the world must know…
Digit you rock.