Quote:
Originally Posted by Phanuthier
I think training is an important smart of developing a smart person. Very very few of the smart people can work their way through a problem without an ounce of training. In K-12, I found schools to straight memorization and everything went out of the window after the test. At UofA and Stanford, how the classes are taught (as far as sciences go) the concepts are shown in simple examples but not a single homework problem will resemble anything to an in class example. Lectures give you the tools to work out the problem, but not the process, which is why the homework sets were 3-4 questions per set, each set given every 2-3 weeks. I think you learn a lot more that way, rather then the K-12 education where homework was 20 questions and night, all streamlined the same way.
I can also say that in high school (gr 10-12) my math teacher did not believe in assigning homework. In comparison to the 2 other classes (each class had the same teacher throughout HS) our class performed far above the other 2 classes in terms of provincial exam (our class was 9% and 13% higher on average), math/science competitions, university success for those that entered science fields, and career wise.
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So I'm kind of confused by your first part. You seem to insinuate that few smart people can get through a problem without training (homework)..?
At any rate, much of the concepts learned in K-12 do just require straight memorization. There is no "outside the box" in 4 x 4 = 16. That's just the way she goes. Furthermore in English, there are rules and laws that govern how we read, write and speak. Homework reinforces what's taught in the classroom through repetition. Plus it cuts into smoking, drinking and video game time. No?