[ProtectOurFreedom]

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Unexpected! Utterly unpredictable. A related aside. The article quotes teacher McHenney: “I am supposed to start sixth-grade teaching how to divide fractions. At the beginning of this year, in many cases, I had to go over addition and subtraction with these kids. That’s a third-grade skill.”

That's nothing. My sister teaches math mostly to middle school kids at a "magnet" school in downtown Baltimore. She occasionally teaches the high school seniors. If you ask one of them to divide one-half by two, they are utterly and completely befuddled. These are kids who are going to be graduating with high school degrees and most are headed to college!

If she gives them this, their heads explode...

[eyeamok]

I had to go over addition and subtraction with these kids. That’s a third-grade skill.”

That's not that bad, over 75% of the High School Graduates in Los Angeles Unified can't perform basic math above the 3rd grade level.

[PallMal]

Believe it or not, I remember when it was shameful to be dumb, and this was in the "inner city community". You were routinely called the "dumbass" if you couldn't add a column of numbers.

That seemed to have turned during the mid to late 70's, when dumbassery was held up as something to strive for.