[geeks] Education

[William Enestvedt]

Lionel asked,
>
> What I want to know is what happened to Lunch, Study Hall,
> and Recess? My son gets 20 minutes for lunch (3rd grader) -
> and PE is like once a week (wasn;t it every day twenty/thirty
> years ago?).
>
   As one data point, there's so many kids at my daughter's elementary
school that they had to cut lunch down to twenty minutes in order to
stack up enough "sessions" within a reasonable proximity to noon. And
the local high school is in the midle of a $40 million upgrade because
they've got IIRC four lunches that are so crowded some kids have to
stand up while they eat! [Note to self: go vote YES on school bonds
tonight in Cumberland!]
   As for PhysEd, well, I have no idea. My kids aren't fat, but I sure
do wish they got some more Running Around Time -- but I also don't want
them to miss whatever they need to learn to pass the st00pid annual
tests, either.
   I think we took standardized tests annually since maybe as far back
as first grade: the IOWA Test of Basic Skills (a week of half days!),
the SRA (also a week?), an additional battery of tests at a magnet
school I went to, the PSAT, the SAT, some AP exams...none of us ever had
to worry about getting flunked, and there was still stress. Will
American schools start to resemble the British University model, with a
couple months of frantic review befre First Year and Third Year exams?
:7) Then again, maybe sorting some people out via a mechanism like
A-Levels and O-Levels might be useful...
   Well, the November "Atlantic" magazine will arrive any time with
their annual issue on the state of American colleges. I can't wait to
read it!
-wde
--
Will Enestvedt
UNIX System Administrator
Johnson & Wales University -- Providence, RI