Swingman wrote in
:

On 2/13/2012 11:50 AM, Han wrote:
wrote in
:

I'm guessing they don't teach basic chemistry in middle school (what
we called Jr. High) any longer?

I recall, Mr Becker spent a good deal of time on condensation and
vaporization in ninth grade chemistry, and in High School we
actually learned to calculate the enthalpy of the reactions ...
remember that?

Then again, things have changed since a ninth grade in 1957.



Thermo was college work in Holland. First year '63-64. I don't
remember the equivalent of 9th grade high school anymore, thankfully.

I clearly remember that the "State of Matter" was one unit that took
up an entire six week grade period in middle school Chemistry.

Thinking back on it, and in contrast to what "education" encompasses
today, I now realize what an excellent education we received in those
days. Based on the perspective, it was safe to say the education in
this country had sunken to such a low point when my youngest graduated
in 2002, that it was relatively unrecognizable as such.

In my time, we had at least 3 foreign languages in high school. 15 years
later, when my yougest sister in law graduated, she didn't even have
English. (She is a very nice person anyway).

I'm pretty well convinced that two factors that were in greater supply
in those days are largely responsible for the current decline ...
discipline, and the quality of the teachers.

Discipline is the parents' responsibility, and the baby boom wore out a
lot of teachers, I think.

The trend downward started in the early seventies around here, and all
it took was one complete 12 year cycle to insure that from that point
forward, educational mediocrity is the only guaranteed result for the
population as a whole.

I think a renaissance of sorts is happening now. And, again, when my
daughter graduated from high school 22 or so years ago, at a relatively
common high school on Long Island, at least 3 out of 200 were admitted to
the ivy league college of their choice. If you get a group of kids and
parents together who challenge (and help) the kids, miracles will
happen.

--
Best regards
Han
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