If I was creating a High School Class it would be:

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Logic, problem solving, and thinking for those that don’t want to take calculus</p>

<p>The claim is calculas teaches a student how to think, well, after one year of it, my D would rather shave her head…so we were talking and we both thought a class that taught game strategies, chess, logic puzzles, mensa type questions, etc, now THAT could teach some different kind of thinking and expand the mind, throw in some physics, string theory ideas, philosphy and you could create some great thinkers</p>

<p>jsut a thought</p>

2

<p>As an alternative to calculus, local HS seniors who have completed Algebra II can take “Mathematical Problem Solving through Puzzles and Games” (semester course): “this course approaches mathematics through solving puzzles and playing games. The topics to be covered may include geometric ideas such as tiling, dissection, symmetry and proof, and algebraic ideas such as notation, equation solving and modeling, combinatorics and logic.”</p>

3

<p>I’d offer an Introduction to Finance class. Topics could include compound interest from both a saver and borrower perspective, how stocks and bonds work, things to consider when budgeting, some introductory cost-benefit problems, use and misuse of credit, etc.</p>

4

<p>one semester of each would be great</p>

5

<p>I would offer a womens studies class.
both World history based and american. Your pick/
I would also require everyone to take at least one music class- whether theory or application and an art class.
They are offered but not always required to graduate.</p>

6

<p>citygirlsmom -
My son’s HS has a great class called Honors Logic, taught by the same teacher who teaches philsophy. She actually does use some MENSA-type questions and logic puzzles. S is going to take it next year - he can’t wait! Here’s the class description from the curriculum guide:</p>

<p>Honors Logic: Critical Thinking - semester - 11 - 12
Prerequisite: A 3.5 or better grade point average (GPA).
This course will give students explicit training in those skills that are required for high scores on the ACT Assessment and for later success in college. The course will teach students the fundamentals of logical thought and reasoning, including linear and lateral thinking, use of analogy, techniques of analysis and synthesis, Boolean algebra, and formal logic.</p>

7

<p>The irony here is if you’re able to handle the Logic class as described and you’ve had Algebra II, you could probably handle Calculus anyway.</p>

<p>The Logic class would a great benefit to all students. I wouldn’t think of it as a substitiute for Calculus, but as a complement.</p>

<p>I see that the class requires a 3.50 gpa, but something like this would benefit a broader group of students.</p>

8

<p>What benefit in life BESIDES thinking does calculas teach, that can’t be taught through puzzles, games, logic, etc</p>

<p>My D got more “thinking” from physics than from calculas, which has no real purpose in the world, and teaches how to think in just one way, with a set of formulas, etc, while the other classes can teach you how to analze, approach things in a different way, etc</p>

<p>My D was an an academic decatholon team, and while other parts of the test had to do with memorizing facts, formulas, history, this section tested real thinking</p>

9

<p>I would create a course about grammar. Only grammar, all the time.</p>

<p>I think only I would find it fun.</p>

<p>Does this make me a big nerd?</p>

10

<p>When I was in high school (1974) we were required to take “Daily Living” for a semester. At the time I thought it was crazy. Today I wish every student took it. I had to teach my D (and my best friend’s kids) myself.</p>

<p>It included creating a budget, writing a check and balancing a checkbook, grocery comparison shopping (did you know the price cards at the grocery store also show you the cost per ounce or per each or whatever the breakdown is? Many folks don’t know that), negotiating at a car dealership, changing the car oil, changing a tire, reading a city map, decipering insurance policies, filling out insurance claim papers, easy form tax filing (nothing too complex), general paper filing of important documents, and a bunch of other stuff. Each week was a theme.</p>

<p>All things I excel at today.</p>

<p>My D says if she had to teach a HS class it would be college application completion.</p>

11

<p>cgm,</p>

<p>While I agree with you a lot on the politicial and cultural threads, I couldn’t disagree more on the value of calculus in the real world. It forms the foundation for engineeriing and most of the sciences. The AP Physics taught in HS glosses over this and works around it, but anyone looking to advance in the subject must “get” Calculus. Calculus also forms the fondation for Probability and Statistics, which of course is used across many fields. </p>

<p>It may not mean to your D now, but it may mean a great deal later on.</p>

12

<p>Problem Solving
Methods of approaching social, mathematical, literary, logical, etc. problems.</p>

13

<p>Pondering the question you posed is my favorite “education” daydream. Here’s my wish list:</p>

<p>I would like three classes to be mandatory for every student to pass in order to earn a HS diploma.</p>

<p>Logical fallacies:
To lessen the risk of falling prey to unscrupulous marketers, unethical politicians, and other vermin of the underworld. Call it a class in everyday survival skills.</p>

<p>Civics:
To prepare educated lifelong voters about our shared cultural and philosophical history. Side benefit: learning to become a discerning and discriminating reader.</p>

<p>Basic Economics:
Again, to prepare enlightened and competent lifelong voters. Side benefit: practical application of fundamental math skills.</p>

<p>Now, I just need someone to die and appoint me goddess… :)</p>

14

<p>kitkattail -</p>

<p>I never really saw the fun in grammars until I got into computer science and we started talking about formal grammars. There was a system we used - yacc (yet another compiler compiler) - which took LALR(1) grammar specifications and easily created compilers for new computer languages. When I got involved with Artificial Intelligence Research (Speech Understanding), suddenly transformational grammar became a lot more interesting. Transformational grammar says that a sentence conveys not only surface structure (syntax), but a deep structure as well (semantics). Fascinating stuff. Nerdish? Only to those who think of grammar as rules to learn in an English class.</p>

15

<p>Adding to the list: Understanding numbers in newspapers. Which is to say, if you’re reading the paper and the article says, “reduces risk of cancer by 25%”, what does that really mean? And what numbers are left out, like rate of getting that particular cancer? Etc.</p>

<p>Understanding bias. If someone is writing a persuasive commentary about, oh, energy policy, what is their agenda? Who pays their salary? An energy company? A company that makes hybrid cars?</p>

16

<p>Yes calculus is great for science and engineering degrees, but for lawyers, nurses, physicians, teachers…for more than half the population wanting to study other subjects, calculas is really useless, while other ways of learning to think would be so much more useful- anaylzing statistics, following trends, reading about tipping points, putting pieces together- </p>

<p>So, while its great for people interested in certain fields to take calculas, for many- artists, musicians, police officers, pre-school teachers, people studying business, to have a different base- logic, problem solving, puzzles, and all the other classes described here, it would be better for society</p>

<p>I did calculus in college, it was a waste of my time, I would have been much better off doing a finance, economics, statistics class</p>

<p>It is the colleges that insist on this one class as some sort of barometor of intelligence, while, I have to tell you, doing mensa type quizzes, having to REALLY think, instead of memorize stuff, is much more a sign of intellgence than knowing any calculus formula</p>

<p>At our house we do puzzle and logic stuff all the time- it is more brain expanding than any calculus class</p>

<p>We know a girl at Berkely studying archetecture, she said calculus was a total waste of her time, and she did well, that it didn’t really give her any skills for her degree, that she didn’t get elsewhere</p>

<p>I did statistics in HS as a senior- it was a tough class, it really forced you to think, the math was hard, but in the real world, it is valuable…when surveys are done, io ask questions, when a report is made about polution- parts per million, etc, I look at it with different eye, when they talk about something like birdflu, and the stats behind that, I say, well, lets look at the “scary” numbers again</p>

<p>If more people were taught about that, we would be bettter off, if more people were taught how to solve problems, to see other sides of things, to not make assumptions, but to learn to figure things out, we would be better off, but to sit and memorize formulas to prove how smart someone is, it actually just proves some people are good at memorizing and thinking in a very narrow way, in a very narrow class, but to go out- to think about all kinds of puzzles and issues, well, that should be given as much weight as a subject that focuses on a the sciences only…</p>

<p>My Ds are readers, they love animals, they want to go into law, photgraphy, social justice…learning about the distribution of food worldwide, the costs of that, the reason the world trade center collasped, the 'reason" gas is so high, the cost of packaging, the timeless puzzles, how to play chess, how to do crossword puzzles, and wordgames, and math games</p>

<p>Okay, rant over ;)</p>

17

<p>I understand that in some contexts, calculus is not useful but you seemed to imply early that there was, in general, very little use for it. Well, that’s not right. Hopefully, that is not what you meant.</p>

<p>If the girl studying architecture (sp?) didn’t see the relevance of calculus in her field, then here’s hoping I never have to set foot in a building she designs.</p>

18

<p>I think a course on Greek and Latin roots, prefixes & suffixes, etc. would be a great thing. Sometimes this is touched on in elementary level spelling classes (if the book is any good) but there is much more that could be taught.</p>

19

<p>I agree about the greek and latin roots, for my D, it would have been better than a 4th year of spanish…</p>

<p>As for the architecture girl, she is in a master program already, and yeah, she says in all her studies, calc as she got in HS was a waste of her time…sorry if that scares you, but what she learned was not at all relevant to what she learned at Berkely, and yes, FOR HER, it was a good base, but for many it is a true waste of time, because there are so many inovative classes out there, was we have seen here, that really do teach thinking beyond some formulas</p>

<p>I feel strongly about this because I hear “well, you have to take two year of Calc in high school cause colleges want to see it” while so many other classes are more valuable for the majority of students and can benefit them so much more, and can create a more rounded, more curious, and more analytic person, and a person more worldy, than someone who does math</p>

<p>its like, i would prefer a life skills class- because as we can see from all the posts on desasters in college-drinking, suicide, cheating, credit card debt, rape, racism, etc., knowing some math stuff seems kind of irrlevant…and if someone wants to study engineering, etc., I would pray to God that the college they went to would teach it at the level required and that HS Calc wouldn’t be enough</p>

20

<p>Why should kids learn about poetry? Or foreign languages? Lots of things you learn in high school don’t have apparent value in the real world, but are nonetheless valuable. Our culture has too much math and science phobia, which isn’t a good thing. My calculus classes in high school were among the richest and most valuable I have ever had.</p>