this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
188 points (98.0% liked)

News

30771 readers
2439 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Teenagers' mathematics and reading skills are in an unprecedented decline across dozens of countries and COVID school closures are only partly to be blamed, the OECD said on Tuesday in its latest survey of global learning standards.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] thedevisinthedetails@programming.dev 116 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Wow whole bunch of old man takes about computers and not a single one about public schools being systematically defunded, dismantled, and squeezed in every way possible.

[–] Hyperreality@kbin.social 44 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I worked as a teacher for a while until quite recently.

99% of public discourse on education, is based on the (traumatic or positive) individual experiences of people who went to school years if not decades ago, not people who actually know much about what they're talking about.

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 years ago

But what about the LGBT agenda that's replacing math and reading education where children learn how to vote Democrat instead of learning how to read or multiply? /S

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Sounds about right. I really do make an effort but when I am helping my kids with the New Math I am mentally screaming "why did they change this!?". I do like the sightword system however. So yeah if I am getting a bit annoyed there are probably parents who are getting less annoyed and other parents getting very annoyed. Bell Curve.

[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 years ago

when I am helping my kids with the New Math I am mentally screaming “why did they change this!?”.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but if you're anything like many of the parents I've heard complain about modern math curriculums, you were probably taught that there's a correct way to do every math problem and if you aren't doing it that way then you're doing it wrong. What modern curriculums do is teach children that there are multiple ways to get to the correct answer, so they can choose the methodology that is easiest for them to understand. Because not everyone's brain works in the same way, and the old style of teaching sets up barriers for some students.

I got poor math grades when I was a teen because I didn't always do the problems the way the teacher wanted us to do them, even though I got the right answers. I had come up with my own process. I scored almost perfect on the math SAT and ended up in computer science. Now, when my kids ask for help with their math homework, I see that they're learning a bunch of different ways to do the problems. Not all of them are intuitive to me, but some of them are basically what I figured out on my own. I think it's great.

[–] interceder270@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

“why did they change this!?”

It's funny, as a child learning 'old math', I always thought "is this the only way to do it? Why are we doing it this way?"

Glad people are finding alternatives instead of just getting tunnel-visioned into doing what we've always done.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] interceder270@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

In what world do you think children have fewer resources at their disposal now than they did decades ago?

[–] vonbaronhans@midwest.social 5 points 2 years ago

Because teachers are picking up the slack at the expense of their own financial and mental health.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] DagonPie@lemmy.world 38 points 2 years ago

Its them dang tiktaks

[–] doublejay1999@lemmy.world 34 points 2 years ago (2 children)

1 out of 4 were low performers in maths, reading and science

So the bottom 25% were all in the bottom 25%?

[–] Fandangalo@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Let’s say “low performing” means you scored 20% or lower on the test. We’d write that as “25% scored 20% or lower.” But you could move the measure of “low” to whatever.

It’s not “the bottom 25% were in the bottom 25%.” It’s “25% met the criteria for low.” Those are different things.

…unless this is a /s that I’m too tired or socially inept to process. i’m trying to be helpful.

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Kind of, but if you take a bunch of maths PhD students, the bottom 25% will still get decent scores. I guess this just meant the bottom 25% was performing poorly not just compared to the top 75%, but also compared to a fixed limit.

[–] Touching_Grass@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I never trust articles with adjectives like "unprecedented" or "worrying"

Its political season folks, gird your loins

[–] FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

This is a good point. Thank you for pointing it out

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I feel like kids (hell, I would also) have been smarter if they used platforms like Reddit/Lemmy etc to learn and discourse constantly. I learn way more in these environments than I ever learned in school. I write (not quite essays but still extended body of writing) just by willingly engaging here. You would have had to pull teeth most of the time to get anything out of me in any comparable sense back then. YMMV

[–] rbesfe@lemmy.ca 26 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Part of that may be just that you're older and more mature now than when you were a high schooler. Encouraging kids to go on Lemmy and Reddit would just lead to most of them screwing around and looking at memes, not learning.

[–] PugJesus@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago (3 children)

While some of that is true, as a kid I got involved in online forums and the exposure to ideas there, I think, did help broaden my horizons and spark interest in topics that school would not necessarily have cultivated in me in the same way.

[–] Carnelian@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

As a kid I got super into runescape. Screwing around? Certainly. But also talking with people, studying guides, learning routes for xp farming and I guess even basic economics while saving for a party hat lol. Spent time on the forums as well.

I wonder if engaging with all that text based content made me more inclined to stick around forum style sites such as lemmy, or if even all the way back then that type of experience just appealed to me because of the type of person I am.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I learned to type playing Everquest. I could barely manage 15 WPM when I got the game, and in a year or two of playing, with no other real typing going on, I could do 100+ WPM. Schools in my area hadn't really adopted computers in classrooms; there was a computer lab but no real computer related classes, and there were computers in the library for research, but I didn't have any real exposure... until Everquest.

[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Typing of the Dead definitely upped my speed back in the day.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Nah, it was lack of awareness of it (like nobody ever "showed" it to me so I didn't know to look for it) and lack of a good 3rd party app to make it palatable. Apollo was revolutionary to me when I discovered it in that regard.

[–] Uranium3006@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

I did a decent amount of learning as a teen. I'd have done more if not for the depression

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] DieguiTux8623@feddit.it 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Hard not to think that's intentional. Ruling elites don't need educated masses which are harder to condition and control. Populisms don't need people to have critical capacity.

[–] PugJesus@kbin.social 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

"The equivalent of losing three quarters of a year of learning"

"COVID probably played some role but I would not overrate it"

:thonk:

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

Cognitive decline appeared in article writing as those illiterate, illogical people found work.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Controversial take: go back to pencil and paper and less screen time.

Before anyone thinks I hate computers, I’ve a BSCpE and am an active sr developer.

[–] Froyn@kbin.social 34 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Controversial take: Pay people what they're worth so only 1 adult in the house needs to work 1 job for 40 hours to provide for the family. This will free up that parent (in a single parent household) or free up 1 parent (in a dual parent household); to help with schooling.

[–] Maeve@kbin.social 20 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Controversial take: keep the populace ignorant so they don’t get ideas.

[–] Haus@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

And position dumbasses as role models... the willfully ignorant and screechingly loud kind.

[–] Ragdoll_X@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Controversial take: unga bunga, bunga unga

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

A lot of people don't think it bungas like it ungas, bungas ungas.

[–] Ragdoll_X@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It is absolutely true that increasing income can improve parenting and by extension the outcomes of kids, but there is also evidence that using computers too much can be detrimental for their education.

Really it's no different than how these things affect us adults: We all know that social media is trying to monopolize our attention, and that it's affecting our attention spans and mental health. Although arguably for kids it's even worse since their brains are still in development.

[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I was thinking of this (how computer use affects the brain) recently and wondered if there is any evidence on how driving affects the brain. Like, humans have only been able to go faster than a horse for like the last ten minutes of our existence; is the brain even wired to make sense of such accessible travel without piquing our subconscious fight or fight response? Like do we get a dose of adrenaline and cortisol every time we get on the highway? Maybe that's all farvagnugen is.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] firewyre@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago

The future Republicans want.

load more comments
view more: next ›