Re: 11 year olds homework

From: Brian VanPelt (bvanpelt_at_neo.rr.com)
Date: 11/18/04 

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 02:20:20 GMT

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 17:41:59 GMT, "Stephen J. Herschkorn"
<herschko@rutcor.rutgers.edu> wrote:

>David Ames wrote:
>
>>Randy Yates <yates@ieee.org> wrote in message news:<8y95q7uk.fsf@ieee.org>...
>>
>>
>>>Is this a problem for an 11-year-old???
>>>
>>>--RY
>>>
>>>
>>
>>Elementary-school teachers sometimes assign inappropriate homework.
>>For example: "What was the name of Paul Revere's horse?" As if anyone
>>cares, but there is apparently no factual evidence that Paul Revere
>>owned a horse. Another one was to list all the words that are
>>exceptions to the rule concerning the order of "i" and "e." A
>>grade-schooler could think all night and not come up with a single one
>>on his own. Perhaps the teacher had a book and could have looked it
>>up. But there is no excuse for wasting a kid's time, when it is the
>>time in his life for him to be a kid.
>>
>
>Perhaps so, but that was not the case with the problem presented. I
>think it was an *excellent* problem, The pedagogical goal was not the
>solution, but the exploration towards a solution.

This is my take on the problem. I'm sure it was meant as an
exploratory problem. Great problem.

Brian

Relevant Pages

  • Re: 11 year olds homework
    ... >> cares, but there is apparently no factual evidence that Paul Revere ... >> owned a horse. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: 11 year olds homework
    ... >Elementary-school teachers sometimes assign inappropriate homework. ... but there is apparently no factual evidence that Paul Revere ... >owned a horse. ...
    (sci.math)