Tag: Education

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Why Bullying Exists In Schools

This is one of the best descriptions of why bullying exists to a much greater extent in an educational environment as opposed to the professional world that I have read in quite a long time:

People often think bullying is a result of kids being kids. Its not. Its a direct result of placing them in the school system with its rules and authority apparatus. If you placed adults in an identical environment you would end up with bullying as well.

One of the main differences between school and the adult world is, in school if kids fight they will both be punished. You will often hear “I dont care who started it”.

In the adult world, whoever attacks is guilty of assault and the other person can defend themselves and will not be punished at all.

In the adult world, if someone is annoying you, you can get up and walk out. In school, you are essentially a prisoner.

Also, the school staff has to see with their own eyes an act of bullying. If a teacher sees a student punch another student, they will likely do something. If a student tells a teacher they were punched nothing will likely be done.

In the adult world, courts believe the testimony of victims.

Bullies are just kids who are using the system to their advantage. And thats only human nature. To stop bullying, what needs to change is the system so bullies are no longer rewarded and encouraged by it.

– ClassicalFizz (Reddit)

This was always my belief as I went through the public system and if you know me, you know how much I love the public school system.

I think the perspective one has to take is that you never ever start a fight but don’t be afraid of finishing one. That probably has a tendency to have some consequences but sometimes you have to let your kid take a stand while still trying to teach them violence isn’t always the answer.

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Can You Solve Simple Math Problems?

It is no shocking news that the ability of children all across the country to perform lower level mathematics has been significantly dropping year after year. By lower level math I mean things like division with decimals, multiplication with exponents, scientific notation as well as basic geometry, algebra and trigonometry.

The test that I am going to attach below and hopefully something that you will all take just to see how much you simple math you still remember to be able to do. Out of the 13 problems on that exam, I had problems with (1e) for some unexplainable reason but I guess that is me being rusty. I did well there not to embarrass at least myself but it certainly would not surprise me if those people who have done little to no math since high school that they would struggle exam. It is not a trend that I like but it is only a matter of fact nowadays.

This was a test (UW – Math Test) was conducted by a professor at the University of Washington who teaches Atmospheric Sciences 101, which is supposedly a large lecture with a diverse population of students from different majors I would assume. The results that the professor got from the simple test were rather appalling due to the lack of abilities of the incoming freshmen year after year.

The professor went on to write:

The results were stunning, in a very depressing way. This was an easy test, including elementary and middle school math problems. And these are students attending a science class at the State’s flagship university–these should be the creme of the crop of our high school graduates with highGPAs. And yet most of them can’t do essential basic math–operations needed for even the most essential problem solving.

Consider these embarrassing statistics from the exam:

The overall grade was 58%

43% did not know the formula for the area of a circle
86% could not do a simple algebra problem (problem 4b)
75% could not do a simple scientific notation problem (1e)
52% could not deal with a negative exponent (2 to the -2)
43% could not do simple long division problem with no remainder!
47% did not know what a cosine was.

Take The Test Here: UW – Math Test

Answer Key (Take Test First!): UW – Math Test Answers

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Stevens Makes Senior Year Interesting

[Edit] – Here are the lawsuit filing papers by Stevens and the Administration. [download id=”5″]. I love how the following line appears in the first few pages describing Stevens. “It has forged relationships with foreign educational institutes which span the world, and it has become recognized as a significant partner to the United States government in the war on terrorism.” Nothing like implying a little fear of terrorism in lawsuits to try win a case. [/Edit]

It has forged relationships with
foreign educational institutes which span the world, and it has
become recognized as a significant partner to the United States
government in the war on terrorism.

I really wonder how much this is political gamesmanship but you have to think this was a long time coming but the financial problems Stevens Institute of Technology has had in the past. It’s a little ironic this gets announced on the day that Stevens held a humanities forum on the corruption of Jersey politicians and politics.

Plenty of angry sentiments amongst the students from what I have gathered so far but I can’t say it’s all one sided. Some people definitely don’t like the timing of this announcement with an election coming up in about a month or so but we’ll see what kind of impact this really ends up having when all is said and done.

I wouldn’t expect this to be a speedy process but this certainly livens up Senior year as if Hoboken didn’t already have enough going on. Credit to Professor Wharton for linking the article – I’ve attached the entire piece but only partially available on the main page. Click the headline to read the entire article.

Stevens Institute of Technology makes pre-emptive move as attorney general prepares to sue the school

Attorney General Anne Milgram plans to file a lawsuit Thursday against Stevens Institute of Technology, charging the school with fiscal impropriety and seeking to remove its top two leaders, a spokesman for her office said tonight.

Spokesman David Wald said the state’s two-year investigation also discovered misappropriation of endowment funds and excessive compensation.

Seeking to pre-empt any damage to the Hoboken school’s reputation, Stevens filed its own lawsuit against Milgram today, according to court papers. The school’s suit asks for any case to be pursued through confidential arbitration.

The lawsuit also accuses the attorney general of overstepping her authority by threatening legal action against the private school if it did not alter its business practices.

Milgram met with Stevens’ board of trustees on Sept. 2 to outline her case. According to the school’s lawsuit, she said she was planning “devastating” legal action that would raise “accreditation and other issues,” as well as seek leadership changes and independent oversight.

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