FUNDAMENTAL
SKILLS
Methodical Approach to Education [click]
Clarity of Definitions [click]
The Age Factor [click]
Systemic and Incremental Approach [click]
Fundamental Skills [click]
Conceptual Thinking [click]
this is another one, which was hollowed
and thrown away in America, being substituted by a monster
carrying the same name, but very different in nature.
And, of course, why not - our schools continue to pummel
students into submission with all those "essential" skills
such as the theory of probabilities. And make no mistake,
what they teach is not a theory - theory of probabilities
is an enormously complex and advanced course, which takes
months of intense study in... universities. What students
get here is just a glimpse, a deft touch, which gives
neither understanding nor skills, at least not the ones
that matter. They press students into a mayhem of synthetic
division, imaginary numbers or description of the quantum
theory and yet... for the most part, students as late
as 10th grade have enormous issues with simple operations,
have no idea what defines an increase or decrease of
function, what are the proofs of fundamental theorems
of geometry, what are the derivations of formula of the
roots of quadratic equations, and how many types of those
there are. They do not know what the impulse of the physical
body is or how problems of integration relate to the
uniformly of accelerated motion.
They seem to know everything about everything, and nothing
about particular things. Give your child a factoring
problem from the 7th grade of a European school and see
how she or he will fare. Mind you, everything your child
will need will be a fundamental skills, not probabilities,
not synthetic divisions, and not matrixes, just basic
or
Or solve this problem from the course
of European 8th grade physics: the iron pot, which has
a mass of 10 kg
is filled with water that has a mass of 20 kg. What amount
of heat is required in order to change the temperature
of both the pot and water from 10 to 100 deg C? Consider
the specific heats of the iron to be 460 J/kg deg C and
of the water-- 4 200 J/kg deg C.
We give those examples here for a single
reason: to underscore a tremendous difference between
actual fundamental
skills and the ones that are called "fundamental".
This reveals an astonishing truth - it actually takes
less effort
and is more interesting and exciting to follow interconnected,
logically complete curricula of the true fundamental
skills, as well as being able to handle truly complex
things, than go through all this drudgery of random,
not related, spotty skills that dominate today's American
"fundamental" education. Consider the fact that
the above stated problems are designed for 12-13 year
old students.
Another truth is - "fundamental" does not mean basic
or primitive, alas, it is fundamental knowledge that
drives
the most sophisticated scientific ideas of our time.
Fundamental means foundational - and no durable buildings
in the world are built without a firm foundation.
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