

Are US students really that bad? - tokenadult
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5husRstDOy6YVktMTCOP-pknQw7pAD988GTU00

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furyg3
Brief overview of compulsory courses completed by most of my Dutch friends,
pre-collage, through the Dutch public school system (as in available-to-all
and free).

Languages: Dutch (literature), French, German, English (all 5+ years).

Classical Languages: Latin, Greek (3+ years), also "classical cultural
education" courses in ancient Greek and Roman culture.

Math: through Calculus, including Statistics

Sciences: Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry, Biology, Physics

Etc: History, Political Science, Dance, Art.

It's ridiculous. I went to a very desirable US public high school and it would
have been nearly impossible to even _take_ all of those courses (excluding
ones that weren't available like most of the languages).

Universities in Holland don't need to spend time getting students up-to-date
with 2 years of general education courses. They get to school and are set to
jump right into their chosen major.

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tokenadult
I was hoping I would hear from participants in other countries. I should make
clear that I don't believe the submitted article, but think that the United
States school system is genuinely behind that of many other countries.

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ZeroGravitas
I love these journalistic pieces where the tone is "I'm totally destroying
their argument" but the actual data is lacking. Sophistry of the lowest kind.

Personal highlight: it's okay to fall behind in a certain test because that's
"only" measuring the real-world application of maths skills. We want to be
judged only on what they've learned in school, because other countries are
cheating by learning not just in school but "at home, or even elsewhere".

I mean even if you accept their premise that's still nonsense.

