For everyone to participate and give thier opinions.

One of the biggest problems I have seen growing well out of control here in the states is the younger generations are severely lacking in "problem solving" skills.

Unfortunately, our school systems have greatly contributed to this problem, by allowing such things as calculators into basic math classes and giving many "true/false" style questions where the student basically has a 50/50 chance to get it right..therefore a guess can get them a passing score.

My "idea" is making a mandatory class for high schools, even junior high and maybe even elementary grades to take a "problem solving" class and make it a mandatory one over several years.

The purpose would be to "make" the children use thier minds to solve problems. Use all sorts of subject matter, from math to history to even general "current event" related style scenerios. And make it an "open discussion" class so that all can hear other ideas, giving them both good ideas, or it may stimulate additional thought to refine things to a better solution than the first.

Personally I would LOVE to see such a development, because then people can answer many of thier own questions with thier own thinking, or give good solid reasoning to help others in what they may be having trouble in and it would render good things all the way down the line.

When watching many people today, they do not seem to have even the basic problem solving skills and takes forever to resolve the simplest of problems.

I think something like this would be extremely helpful to our future generations and can even help those in the workforce today as well.

I go by the old addage.."you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. You teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime".

What does everyone think of such a proposal???

I think that states and local communities should worry about education standards and curriculum.

Well they already have the responsibility...and the results are what we are seeing now. Seems to need to be changed.

As the mother of three school age kids, I agree with you completely. It seems like the funding for the schools is being cut a little at a time, leaving holes which will hinder our kids. A class that would allow to problem solve would be a much needed bonus, and in turn would encourage more parental involvment.

Seems to be working out well enough to satisfy them, or they would change it.

Ummm are you serious!!??? Have you any CLUE to the statistics these days??? Or maybe you are young? And this is all you have known??

I can clue you in on certain KNOWN factors. The United States is falling FAST behind most other industrialized countries. Our workforce has become "crap" to say the least. The "dollar" continues to fall, because confidence in the USA if falling around the world.

Or you can just go out to any shopping mall, pull the power plug on the register and watch the checkout person FREAK because they have no clue what to do!!!!

So you want to give me any stats or reasoning behind your statement that things "are ok"???

If I had patience (and money), I'd be home schooling. The school systems don't work, in many places, anymore.

Actually, the biggest problem with schools today is the fact that you don't have to learn anything whatsoever to get a passing grade (or even to get an A).

Most teachers freely admit to grading based on how much effort a student puts forth, since this is supposed to be the 'fair' way. So any student who does his homework is essentially guaranteed a C in the class, even if he fails every test.


Even in college it's like this.


Thus no one bothers to learn how to learn.


And if you think it's only the younger generations who has this problem, you're a ****ing idiot. Just watch "Who's Smarter Than A Fifth Grader." The fact that any college graduate, or any high school graduate, for that matter, can't get 99% of those questions right says a fair amount about our education system.

I made no comment on the status of the United States' education system in the world, I made the simple point that education funding, curriculum, and standards are largely decided on a local level - if people are unhappy, this is where change should take place.

The statistics about our subpar workforce are also overblown (a topic of a recent NPR Science Friday segment).

Oh I do agree with you here..and no, I don;t think its just the younger generations. but I am saying this because the earlier you start this type of program, the better they are able to learn.

this will not be some overnight fix..it took generations to cause, and will take generations to fix. I only brought up the school age ones as a starter point. They should use it in companies and such for thier workers if they could.

So I agree with you on all your points.

Agreed ajhagena. Not only do you not have to learn anything to pass, since homework will get you through, but they will teach half of the same material for four or five years because very few students will learn it.
The poor, sad, honest truth is that in an effort to promote feelings of equality in the student population our education system has decided that learning is less important than self-esteem. I'm not saying that self-esteem is bad, but a school is supposed to be an institute of learning, not a club for feeling good about oneself.
Until there is a curriculum that requires actual learning, with tests being the only actual measure of grade, and with tests that actually challenge knowledge, then we will continue on this path. Additionally, we need a tough curriculum, not one that teaches the metric system for 7 years. I'm not saying that feelings aren't important, but in our social effort to not belittle anyone we have turned our backs on everything else that should matter... placing it on the back burner, so to speak.

When i was in school, i was pulled out of class with the other "gifted" kids once a week and put into a problem solving class. We did all kinds of different things, my favorite was the logic puzzles.

You are so right though, it bugs me when people freak out about stupid sh!t cause their brain doesnt know how to solve something!

me???????--nada--i'm a hypocrite--

Well actually the schools are funded on all 3 levels, Federal, state and local. And the curricullum is usually mandated by the state with the local levels to have choices in "elective" style courses. And that whole system has been failing for years and is only getting worse.

Apathy on the parental plain and even general public is partly to blame. Parents too busy to take a real interest in whats going on in the schools and placing the full burden on the teachers to do everything with the children. Then add in the fact you usually have very low paid teachers that get easily overwhelmed with 30+ students in every class.

The system needs an overhaul, but no one wants to seem to band together to do anything about it. They want to :leave it up to someone else" to change it...and no one is stepping up to the plate. if people would simply join together and form a "front" then things would change. But it seems too many are too busy with tier own lives to care about the whole community anymore. Most people don;t even know thier own neighbors these days.

Reminds me of an old saying... "United we stand...divided we fall". looks to me there is a lot of division these days.

just a bit of trivia here...I have several of my hs geometry quizes/tests that my Mom saved for me...lol. I had my nephew who was studying civil engineering take a couple of them...with no computer to help him. He flunked all of them. We are relying too much on technology to do our thinking for us. What happens if your laptop dies? Can you still function in your job today?

pleads for the fifth------

damn it---

They problem is the teachers have to teach to make the kids pass the almighty standardized test...believe me I've gone head to head with teachers and a principal over whether my child learns or can just recite by rote.

LOL, no, because I build computers and networks. :-P But I can do math, etc without a computer or calculator! And I can tell you the if you touch a flame, you will get burned! But if my laptop dies, I'll have a hell of a lot of fun RELAXING and glas this bastard is down for a while! :-D I'll go put on some Boston, sit at the drum set and have a ball!

And that is the focus of my question. Use a "problem solving" (hence a learning style) class be mandatory for the students to take and pass. Teach them to think..and that teaches them to learn as well.