Posted on 06/27/2021 4:27:31 AM PDT by MtnClimber
It is sad to see. I used to do math tutoring for the VA when I was in college.
I taught graduate courses recently that required math of various types. It was sad to see none could do simple linear algebra.
I was in the advanced math, physics and chemistry program in high school. I don't know how someone entering college can make up for years of lost time in the formative period of their education.
They don’t. ‘C’ get degrees is the mantra. They get passed on without knowledge. Sad. I watched a black girl get told to turn in a Calculus I exam with her name on it for a D- just to get passed on.
The Education establishment wants “equity”, which means equal results (”shrinking the achievement gap”). Raising the achievement levels of black kids is hard.
In practice, this means crippling the educational achievement of the white kids so they don’t make the black kids look bad.
It only makes the black kids look bad if you think they are white people with black skins.
Do we cancel basketball tryouts because it makes the white kids look bad? Of course not.
Making black kids go to schools designed and optimized for white kids is cruel and unfair.
I never saw that although I understand it has become common. When I was in college there was no way the profs would do that. They would tell the student to take algebra again. I was able to do tutoring for the VA up through calculus, but all I ever did was algebra and trigonometry. I only did the tutoring for a few years because it was too depressing.
My experience as a parent goes waaaaaaaaay back to the 70s.
When we tried to answer our bright son’s math questions, we received a nasty note from the teacher specifically telling us not to introduce him to advanced concepts and processes because it made him stand out from the other kids.
Some kids even then were bullied by teachers and some students for being brighter or more knowledgeable. The brighter kids would also show off, making things worse.
It isn’t always the fault of parents. Not everyone can homeschool, especially the brighter kids. Not everyone can afford private school, when there are no more financial sacrifices to make. It has to be done at higher levels and the problem is that even a school board needs a majority and then there needs to be superintendents on their side. Both are political positions ultimately stymied by the universities and the very corrupt textbook industry.
Even when a non-partisan local establishment manages to effect change, that change is predicated and mediated at much higher, more powerful levels. Imagine a well-intentioned professor of teacher education trying to go against the Bill Ayers types at the university level, especially today.
Back then, I identified as liberal. I gained appointment to a state board in my field. I ran into a political wall over the allocation of grant monies. I stuck it out for 3 years as the only member working in the field, but there were 11 other members, all politically connected with interlocking agendas. It was the Aegean Stables.
However, I now see citizens taking action and I hope it continues and accelerates. We cannot allow our lives to be stolen any further. The globalists and their shills play hard ball.
How many equations in how many unknowns?
E.g. I learned linear algebra with two equations in 8th grade. College algebra (matrices) was 11th grade.
~Yeonmi Park~
_______________________
The hit pieces and snide YT comments against this remarkable woman are just sickening. She is such a hero.
Her organized detractors make her point crystal clear.
6. That’s it.
“National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)”
For those who may not know, this is the bunch who effectively destroyed math education in the US with their “Everyday Math”
Of course rote memorization was forbidden—and it still is in common core math. I understand, or at least I think I do, what NCTM were about. Most math teachers are rather good at math, like it, always have liked it and learned their much of what they know though self-discovery. They ignore the fact that most humans don’t have a knack or talent for math, don’t particularly enjoy it and see math as a tool to use to get things done.
The result of this is that most students are subjected to teaching methodology that is unsuited for likely 95% of the population and fails to teach them what they need to know to actually use math productively.
When I was in the third and fourth grades, most of math class was devoted to memorization of the times tables. This prepared me to be able to deal with fractions in the 5th grade. Today at least half of the 8th graders cannot do 8 x 4 without resorting to a calculator or if that is not allowed either adding on paper or trying to use their fingers...
Dumbest & most absurd article title of the year...
Where was Marie in the 1960’s & 70’s?
I’m glad you’re reformed and glad you tried to work the system. But its been 40 years now, and whether we like it or not, they got us. They’ve beaten us the same China is about to beat us - hold out dollar bills (in this case ‘free’ education) and most Americans will sell-out and bite.
In my case, I was fortunate enough to have Thomas Sowell’s writings in my brain before I even knew my wife, much less had kids - so by the time the kids came around, I was ready to move into a trailer park, if that’s what it took to prevent the public schools from getting their dirty hands on them (and it one point, it was close). But what disappoints me the most is that the people I work with, who are mostly conservative Texans and would NEVER take their kids to Drag Queen Story Time at the library (for example), still dump them into the public schools because they ‘cannot afford’ to not do that. I know what they make, and they certainly could afford to keep them out, but then they have higher priorities, I guess. So, while money may not be everything, it sure makes the decision a lot easier, at for those who work with me.
My hubby, a PhD in hard science, was tutoring a girl in our church in math — 8th grade, I think. He taught her how to FIGURE it out, and the steps to WORK it out. She was verbally abused by her teacher for showing off. The teacher herself didn’t know how to work a math problem. The kids go online and enter an answer; they don’t need to show their work. It’s shameful.
“I have often wondered if they are getting rid of the advanced courses because the “teachers” don’t understand the stuff themselves; and, cannot do advanced work themselves.”
No, they’ve already said why - they HATE the fact that primarily whites (which includes Asians) dominate those classes. So they spent the past 40 years twisting math around like a pretzel to see if they could find a formula that provided ‘equity’ for the ‘underrepresented’. They couldn’t, so now it’s Plan B, which is to simply get rid the classes that were causing the ‘stigmatizing’.
It ASTOUNDS me that any conservative thinks this crap can be ‘reformed’ or that they can ‘fight the system’, when we have 50 states, some super-bright red, that cannot do jack against this system. Either it is removed and replaced, or this crap (common core, CRT, fuzzy math, etc.) will continue unabated...and for parents, this entire public school system has to be SCRAPPED at the state level, but until then, there is literally NOTHING they can do other than keep their kids as far away from these animals as humanly possible (and yes, that might just mean NOT keeping up with the Jones).
“At some point, the enrollment of one’s children in government schools becomes tantamount to child abuse.”
But, but, it can’t be ‘child abuse’ if it’s free...
” I understand, or at least I think I do, what NCTM were about. Most math teachers are rather good at math, like it, always have liked it and learned their much of what they know though self-discovery. They ignore the fact that most humans don’t have a knack or talent for math, don’t particularly enjoy it and see math as a tool to use to get things done.”
The reason we keep GETTING DEFEATED is very simple - we assign ‘good intentions’ to the people who hate us, and hate the country.
There is literally NO PROBLEM with Modern Math, or Everyday Math, as far as the teachers are concerned - they are getting EXACTLY what they intended from these programs - which is the end of a country they despise.
We’ve already been many, many steps along the path to educational disaster.
Most math teachers in K12 don’t have true math degrees. They usually have a Math Ed degree which might mean that set through a ‘Calculus for Poets’ class.
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