From: cpd@cat.pan.net   
      
   "Your Name"  wrote in message   
   news:i05tag$i9t$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...   
   >   
   > "RT"  wrote in message   
   > news:4C259D64.2D5BC16A@hotmMOVEail.com...   
   >>   
   >> What do you consider "the basics" to be?   
   >   
   > Try being able to read and write properly (something a large proportion of   
   > Interent users can't do for a start), spell correctly, correct grammar,   
   > simple mathematics, basic life skills (e.g. boil an egg), etc. Learning   
   > Shakespeare, complex algebra, etc. are an unnecessary waste of time and   
   > money for most people, and should be left as an optional choice in later   
   > high school years for those who want to read it.   
      
   Complex algebra is not taught in the basic elementary grades over here.  If   
   they try to do that in Australia, then they really need their heads examined   
   and I will agree with you on that.   
      
   Boiling an egg on the other hand?  Waste of time to teach that in grade   
   school, on either side of the ocean.   
      
   I would consider critical thinking to be a more important life skill to   
   teach in school.  Egg-boiling would fit in far better as part of a   
   home-economics elective than as one of the mandatory grade-school basics.   
      
   Undecided on the division of literature courses.  Perhaps they should be   
   split into an overview intensive starter course, with classes pertaining to   
   in-depth literary dissection reserved for the senior elective courses.   
      
   Any of this sound reasonable in any way at all?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)