http://www.scribd.com/doc/127806081/High-School-entry-quiz
Pretty interesting to take a look at this Ontario high school entrance exam ... some of the questions are tough! I like the mathematical word problems that involve selling cattle, farmers supplying milk, and buying a house for $4000. I also enjoy one of the options for a composition: "A frolic in grandfather's hay-mow."
A few weeks ago I had my grade 11 English class read the article, "Are We Raising a Generation of Nincompoops?" by Beth J. Harpaz. The class is pretty feisty so I knew that it would trigger a good discussion. Many of them argued skills and knowledge that used to be valued is no longer useful. Why should they commit to memory the historical facts that students in 1925 had to, when they can access Google from their cell phones? And, they added, while teachers call them nincompoops for relying on spellcheck ... who does the teacher look to when the projector begins to flicker or their computer has a problem? Even as a young teacher, I know where I look: to the students in front of me.
Interestingly enough, while this class defended their own age group they complained that "the next generation" was made up of nincompoops.
"What do you mean, the next generation?" I asked the sixteen-year-olds in front of me.
"You know, kids like five years younger than us. They can't do anything. When we were young we built treeforts and played ... they just sit on their iPads and computers."
The world is changing quickly. Has the older generation always labelled the younger as nincompoops, or has the divide widened to the point that it is unique to our historical context?
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