Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by E-Reverance 1829 days ago
>>"we want to handicap top students"

Why do you think this is true?

3 comments

"The plan closely mirrors California's recent efforts to discourage students who are proficient at math from taking calculus any earlier than their classmates" . This is holding people back, stunting them, in other words putting a 'handicap' on them
a) That doesn't prohibit them from learning calculus on their own

b) High-school is a terrible place to learn calculus (or anything). Online resources are often far better.

> High-school is a terrible place to learn calculus (or anything). Online resources are often far better.

This is pure, steaming bullshit you're just making up post facto to try and pretend your beliefs are consequence-free. I was never particularly strong at math-- nowhere near smart enough to get a math degree and so I went into engineering instead-- and I had two years of calculus (AB and BC) in high school, which was an enormous asset in engineering classes.

Single-variable calculus should be considered the floor of what the highest-achieving students can do in math by the end of high school, and here you're saying it shouldn't even be the ceiling.

>>steaming bullshit you're just making up post facto

What are you saying? My Gr.11 chemistry teacher would literally play YouTube videos instead of teaching the material himself. My Physics teacher would make YouTube style videos (on a different platform) but she told us to also watch YouTube videos from other teachers because they were better!

>>floor of what the highest-achieving students can do in math by the end of high school

The highest-achieving students are often self-taught

I wouldn't say it would stop anyone.. I just posted the quote to show the intent behind the action, which I find disgusting. The internet has been amazing for me and others to learn anything at anytime - there are no barriers for anyone to learn anything they want and if people are willing to put in the time and work, they can achieve anything.
Is that literally their intent or is the writer assuming that is their intent? The publication is trying to push a narrative to appeal their audience, that is why that isn't quoted from the school board itself.
"Education officials don't like that some higher-achieving students are sorted into environments where they are more likely to succeed than their less-gifted peers, and would prefer to keep everyone officially at the same level to the greatest extent possible."
Because they take away the forum for them to demonstrate their ability. Would you be against ranking students? Then when you apply to college or jobs how would I demonstrate my abilities?
They would just let you in, I guess and pass you too, because they wouldn't want to hurt your feelings, or hold you back in any way... after all you deserve equal outcome with everyone else regardless of merit, skill or ability right? Scary stuff.