How to fix our crisis

[Anonymous]

The people pushing calculus for non-STEM majors no doubt have zero ability to hold a conversation about politics, art, or literature - among other things. No one is sitting around discussing calculus (or using it, for that matter), unless it's part of their career.

[Anonymous]

DCUM is delusional. Humanities departments are on life support at this point. Many students want to go into STEM careers and likely could if they just had better high school preparation. We only have a 40% long term retention rate in stem programs, that is terrible. And even with these rigorous STEM programs, it’s been expressed time and time again that university grads are under skilled. We clearly have an issue, but people are worried about jimmy learning Korean for a semester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people pushing calculus for non-STEM majors no doubt have zero ability to hold a conversation about politics, art, or literature - among other things. No one is sitting around discussing calculus (or using it, for that matter), unless it's part of their career.

Another issue, the assumption that a person can only be good at humanities or stem. We need to make that an AND, and people like you are making this worse. You don’t need a formal education in any of those fields to talk about them. We talk about them all the time- the world is literally political.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As much as we talk about the difficulty of college admissions, American high school students are not learning enough content to compete in a global market. The SAT is not rigorous and barely tests at a pre-calculus level. Our students are dropping out of STEM programs like flies, and students aren’t graduating with the skills needed to compete in the entry level market. What reforms should we make?

Ok OP (cough cough Elonia) what you suggest we think about this?

[Anonymous]

Seems like a lot of people want hands on activities for learning and don't have the attention span for book reading anymore. Is it possible to have more stem classes as labs to teach kids? Also add some AP stem classes to the high schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is delusional. Humanities departments are on life support at this point. Many students want to go into STEM careers and likely could if they just had better high school preparation. We only have a 40% long term retention rate in stem programs, that is terrible. And even with these rigorous STEM programs, it’s been expressed time and time again that university grads are under skilled. We clearly have an issue, but people are worried about jimmy learning Korean for a semester.

You're very odd. Humanities departments are not on life support. You have a very narrow view of careers. Many students have absolutely NO desire to go into STEM. Just because you're pushing it doesn't mean others have to be interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is delusional. Humanities departments are on life support at this point. Many students want to go into STEM careers and likely could if they just had better high school preparation. We only have a 40% long term retention rate in stem programs, that is terrible. And even with these rigorous STEM programs, it’s been expressed time and time again that university grads are under skilled. We clearly have an issue, but people are worried about jimmy learning Korean for a semester.

You're very odd. Humanities departments are not on life support. You have a very narrow view of careers. Many students have absolutely NO desire to go into STEM. Just because you're pushing it doesn't mean others have to be interested.

So you’re delusional. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people pushing calculus for non-STEM majors no doubt have zero ability to hold a conversation about politics, art, or literature - among other things. No one is sitting around discussing calculus (or using it, for that matter), unless it's part of their career.

Another issue, the assumption that a person can only be good at humanities or stem. We need to make that an AND, and people like you are making this worse. You don’t need a formal education in any of those fields to talk about them. We talk about them all the time- the world is literally political.

No one is having conversations about calculus unless it's part of their job. Sorry to break it to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is delusional. Humanities departments are on life support at this point. Many students want to go into STEM careers and likely could if they just had better high school preparation. We only have a 40% long term retention rate in stem programs, that is terrible. And even with these rigorous STEM programs, it’s been expressed time and time again that university grads are under skilled. We clearly have an issue, but people are worried about jimmy learning Korean for a semester.

You're very odd. Humanities departments are not on life support. You have a very narrow view of careers. Many students have absolutely NO desire to go into STEM. Just because you're pushing it doesn't mean others have to be interested.

So you’re delusional. Thanks.

And thank you for proving my point.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think parents know how behind their students are globally. The suggestion of required calc and not making graduation guaranteed is accepted by most teachers these days as the ideal. Very few teachers think the standards are high at all and are disheartened by how behind their students are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM is delusional. Humanities departments are on life support at this point. Many students want to go into STEM careers and likely could if they just had better high school preparation. We only have a 40% long term retention rate in stem programs, that is terrible. And even with these rigorous STEM programs, it’s been expressed time and time again that university grads are under skilled. We clearly have an issue, but people are worried about jimmy learning Korean for a semester.

You're very odd. Humanities departments are not on life support. You have a very narrow view of careers. Many students have absolutely NO desire to go into STEM. Just because you're pushing it doesn't mean others have to be interested.

So you’re delusional. Thanks.

And thank you for proving my point.

Your point was that people don’t want to do stem. For someone advocating so ravenously for the humanities, you really should work on your logic.

[Anonymous]

I’ve made millions as a finance professional. I did take AP Calc my senior year but blew it off before heading off to HYP. I got a 3. I can confidently say it made no difference in my life. The idea that it should be mandated is ridiculous. So basically 5 pct of the population will graduate from high school.

AI is about to do everything anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making calculus a graduation requirement and not guaranteeing a high school diploma would fix a ton of our issues

How ridiculous. Unless one is going into a STEM field, calculus is completely unnecessary - and useless.

Not only that, but calculus is taken at much higher rates now than 20 years ago, yet according to OP, US education is in decline in that time. Meanwhile, colleges are reporting that many students are arriving on campus with an unwillingness to read long, complex texts and an inability to write at a college level.

Whatever is ailing the US education system, it cannot be fixed with universal calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve made millions as a finance professional. I did take AP Calc my senior year but blew it off before heading off to HYP. I got a 3. I can confidently say it made no difference in my life. The idea that it should be mandated is ridiculous. So basically 5 pct of the population will graduate from high school.

AI is about to do everything anyway.

Yeah, and people shouldn’t go to college because Zuckerberg dropped out and is a billionaire! Let’s listen to rich people, that’s always the solution!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making calculus a graduation requirement and not guaranteeing a high school diploma would fix a ton of our issues

How ridiculous. Unless one is going into a STEM field, calculus is completely unnecessary - and useless.

Not only that, but calculus is taken at much higher rates now than 20 years ago, yet according to OP, US education is in decline in that time. Meanwhile, colleges are reporting that many students are arriving on campus with an unwillingness to read long, complex texts and an inability to write at a college level.

Whatever is ailing the US education system, it cannot be fixed with universal calculus.

Why tell half the story? Both students can’t read and their stem skills are bad. More people taking calculus doesn’t mean they’re any good at it. We do have attrition issues in stem programs.