Posted on 06/26/2005 6:42:49 AM PDT by grundle
In the early 1990s, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued standards that disparaged basic skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, since all of these could be easily performed on a calculator.
In a comparison of a 1973 algebra textbook and a 1998 "contemporary mathematics" textbook, Williamson Evers and Paul Clopton found a dramatic change in topics. In the 1973 book, for example, the index for the letter "F" included factors, factoring, fallacies, finite decimal, finite set, formulas, fractions and functions. In the 1998 book, the index listed families (in poverty data), fast food nutrition data, fat in fast food, feasibility study, feeding tours, ferris wheel, fish, fishing, flags, flight, floor plan, flower beds, food, football, Ford Mustang, franchises and fund-raising carnival.
They advocate using mathematics as a tool to advance social justice.
Among its topics are: "Sweatshop Accounting," with units on poverty, globalization and the unequal distribution of wealth. Others include "The Transnational Capital Auction," "Multicultural Math," and "Home Buying While Brown or Black." Units of study include racial profiling, the war in Iraq, corporate control of the media and environmental racism.
It seems terribly old-fashioned to point out that the countries that regularly beat our students in international tests of mathematics do not use the subject to steer students into political action. They teach them instead that mathematics is a universal language that is as relevant and meaningful in Tokyo as it is in Paris, Nairobi and Chicago. The students who learn this universal language well will be the builders and shapers of technology in the 21st century. The students in American classes who fall prey to the political designs of their teachers and professors will not.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
bttt
For those who wonder why kids today at fast food places can't count back change then you might want to read the following history of math problems in the public schools.
Math in 1950
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
Math in 1960
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price or $80. What is his profit?
Math in 1970
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Does he make a profit?
Math in 1980
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: underline the number 20
Math in 1990
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrles feel as the logger cut down the trees? (There are no wrong answers)
Math in 2005
El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. La cuesta de production es....
When our son was in the fifth grade, the school switched to "Chicago Math." It appears to have been designed to amuse college level mathematicians and confuse everyone else. Until his experience with "Chicago Math," our son was pretty good in math. After one year of it, he no longer understood the relationship between decimals, fractions, and percentages. They'd gotten him so thoroughly confused that it took several school terms to get him back on track, and he still has no confidence in his ability to do math to this day. He'll be entering high school this fall, and he still calls math the "Evil Class."
Yes,
thankfully, our president's "no child left behind" education program will put things right again!
Oh, wait...........
Heh heh heh!
Yea, it is sad.
bmp
My 9-year-old was studying long division this year, and the math textbook was so confusing, even I couldn't understand it.
They had the poor kids doing things with circles and little blocks of squares.
When I showed him how I was taught to do long division, he said, "How come it's so much easier your way, Mommy?"
Good question, kid. Good question.
Regards,
PS: Back a couple of years ago, he got the following:
Find the sum: 7+8=_____
How did you arrive at this answer?
(When my son asked me what that meant, I told him I honestly didn't know. Turns out they want the kids to say, "doubles plus one." Silly me, and I thought that just knowing that 7+8=15 was all you needed to know.)
Chicago Math:
On Election Day, the democrat candidate is trailing the republican by 100,000 votes, with 50,000 ballots still to be counted. From this, we can surmise that:
a. The republican will win by at least 50,000 votes.
b. The republican will win by fewer than 50,000 votes.
c. The republican will win, but the final margin is not
determinable as yet.
d. The democrat will win.
If you chose A or B or C you are a naive fool.
The correct answer, of course, is D.
I teach mathematics to inner-city postsecondary school students. Almost none of them understand simple fractions. Almost none of them understand how to place the decimal point when converting from decimals to percentages.
Those who do not know these things do not seem capable of learning them.
One of them, when asked to calculate a 15% tip on a $15.00 restaurant bill, came up with $137.50.
ping
It looks like another generation of American school kids is about to get screwed out of an education.
Just when you think it can't get any worse...
I teach mathematics
doesn't look like it ...
15% tip on a $15.00 restaurant bill, came up with $137.50.
"Mathmatics is the language in which God created the Universe" - Galileo Galilei
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