Al6200 2008-12-27 14:18:22

Yeah, they're normally not taught until college. But in the 60s there was an experiment to teach set theory (normally pretty advanced undergraduate stuff) to elementary school kids, but it didn't work too well.

Al6200 2009-01-03 17:15:41 (Updated 2009-01-03 22:52:14)

"to be honest I think kids are already being taught more advanced things earlier. I know my brother was learning things in elementary I didn't learn till HS, and things his freshman year I learned Junior year. And that's only a 4 year difference."

Ah. Very true. When I was in the 8th grade in middle school, there was a class of about 20 advanced kids who were learning basic algebra, and about 5 really advanced kids taking geometry.

By the time that I was a senior in high school, they had a full class taking geometry, and a few kids taking algebra 2! In 4 years my school district's math students had advanced an entire grade level (or rather, a lot of smart kids might have just moved into my town).

"I like the idea of "doubling up" systems, and not just of math. The problem is of course one you've already stated: would they be able to learn all that stuff?"

Yeah. In the 1960s, the US tried something called "New Math", where kids would be taught set theory and abstract algebra in elementary school. I don't think it worked that well though...

That said, while I think it would be interesting to teach vectors/matrices to little kids, I don't they'd end up using it much. I find it hard to believe, but there are a lot of adults who don't know what an equation is, and get by just fine.

"There's also just the problem of letting kids be kids. I think recess is just as cruicial to a kid's development as trig, but that might just be me"

Oh, definitely. Social skills are just as important as academic skills. I mean, there's no point in training someone as an engineer if they're going to become a criminal or a terrorist.

"Ironically the problem seems to be "solving itself" as it were; Kids might not be learning more, but adult education has and is growing by leaps and bounds, and I know more and more people heading back for Masters degrees of all types. I heard once the Masters is becoming "yesterday's" Bachelors."

I think that more education is a good thing, but I'm afraid that a lot of people go after the bachelors degree for the prestige, and not the for the skills/knowledge. The problem is that prestige is a negative sum game. In other words, the more people get BA's, the less prestigious the BA is. Pretty soon the masters degree might become the new "norm".

"Course if that's true, maybe something higher than Ph.Ds will need to be developed before long....."

That's a scary thought. But I bet that there are very few people who can afford to get a Ph.D. just for the prestige. Hell, I can barely afford to get a B.S. degree, and I'd like to think that it'll lead me to the career that I want.

"Interesting stuff nonetheless"

Well thanks.