Thanks BruceDeitrickPrice.
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Posted on 04/20/2012 4:27:02 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Here’s some good news. M. J. McDermott’s wonderful video about why Americans don’t know math has exceeded 1,000,000 views.
This is one of the best videos about education on the web. If you haven’t viewed it, please do. Running time is about 15 minutes.
In this video, McDermott explains the flaws in so-called Reform Math, which was introduced to the country around 1985. Reform Math actually consists of more than a dozen separate but basically identical curricula. As fast as a community figures out that one of these things is bad, the so-called experts introduce another. These experts are diabolically clever.
Point is, there are good ways to teach any subject. And there are awkward, incoherent, inefficient ways to teach any subject. Reform Math incorporates all the bad ways to teach math. The predictable result is that few American children become good at math (which in turn undercuts science).
I had noticed the same inefficiency in the field of reading. The McDermott video confirmed for me that this tendency could be found all across the educational spectrum. The closer you look at any of the popular educational fads, the more you’re likely to notice that the foolish thing doesn’t work at all as claimed; in fact, it’s probably counterproductive. Here I’m thinking of Whole Word, Constructivism, Self-esteem, Cooperative Learning, Multiculturalism, Learning Styles, Prior Knowledge, and many more.
I’m afraid the Education Establishment is going to repackage all the bad ideas in Reform Math under the name Common Core Curriculum.
(My article “36: The Assault on Math” discusses parallels between math and reading. http://www.improve-education.org/id60.html )
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ML/NJ
Thanks BruceDeitrickPrice.
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McDermott explains the flaws in so-called Reform Math, which was introduced to the country around 1985. Reform Math actually consists of more than a dozen separate but basically identical curricula. As fast as a community figures out that one of these things is bad, the so-called experts introduce another. These experts are diabolically clever. Point is, there are good ways to teach any subject. And there are awkward, incoherent, inefficient ways to teach any subject. Reform Math incorporates all the bad ways to teach math. The predictable result is that few American children become good at math (which in turn undercuts science).Thanks BruceDeitrickPrice.
Bozo? Who are you referring to?
and if you don’t think any of that is deliberate...why just take a gander at Wall St....
I was referring to the Bozo on the video who thinks arithmetic is mathematics. I have degrees in Mathematics and I never once took a course in multiplication to obtain these degrees.
I do agree that kids should be taught how to multiply without calculators, but this isn't mathematics. People who do not know the difference are dangerous, IMHO.
ML/NJ
The mathematics curricula where I went to high school in the 1970s was severely lacking. I had to take dumbbell math at San Diego State....
Kids who get screwed up on arithmetic will never learn more advanced topics, just as kids who don't learn to read (by non-use of phonics) will not likely gain much appreciation of literature.
Plus, in common usage, arithmetic is part of math.
I graduated before this new math came in and I still can’t do algebra.
Common people misunderstand lots of things and usually vote for Democrats.
When I went to school, the texts we used for the first six years were titled Growth in Arithmetic I-VI respectively
ML/NJ
The math I took in high school was so advanced that I knew the first 3 math courses I took for my Chemical Engineering major. I also got a 800 in my Math SAT. The only problem was that I did not do high school here, I did it in Dubai. The school there was hell academically, had 4 scheduled quizzes and 3 exams weekly and that really kept you on your toes. It was a school that catered to foreigners living there.
Mathematics in just a general term to most people. She probably should have said arithmetic. I’m sure she knows the difference. Isn’t one of the programs called “Everyday Math”? I remember seeing the video a couple of years ago, and I think one of the programs she spoke about was called “Everyday Math.” Maybe it should have been called “Everyday Arithmetic.”
The video is a wake up call to parents whose kids are saddled with half-assed math (arithmetic) programs foisted on them by gullible school administrators and school board members who want to look “cutting edge,” much like the failed whole language reading courses.
If I were a public school kid to today, I’d jump off the roof of my school. I don’t know how kids put up with the garbage they put up with today, and I don’t know how parents put up with it, either, although I think a lot of them are waking up — but that’s a different story.
Anyhow, my brother and his wife (who is a science teacher) pulled my niece out of her public school and put her in a Catholic school because they realized that the new math (arithmetic) program the public school chose was an absolute horror and would just confuse the children, and it did. It confused students, parents, and even the teachers whose job it was to teach it. The school bought this pig in a poke program and math (arithmetic) scores plummeted, and since they signed on to this program, they couldn’t get rid of it easily, so for years and years, the scores were horrible.
I don’t know if they ever got rid of it, but I do know that a lot of savvy parents pulled their kids out of the public school and sent their children elsewhere, where they flourished and now have wonderful jobs and wonderful lives because they were spared this nightmare of a math (arithmetic) program.
What was your score on the writing section?
They tend to be somewhat arrogant about their vocation.
They tend to be somewhat arrogant about their vocation."
Go figure!!!!
Ping
And I think people who get so worked up over dictionary minutiae are dangerous.
Take a knee before you strain something.
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