Report: Happy Students Do Worse In Math

ClickonDetroit ^ | October 18, 2006 | AP

[ShadowDancer]

Wow. My 12 year old must be deliriously happy.

[Paloma_55]

This really pisses me off...and by the way, the square root of 13 is 3.60551

[blues_guitarist]

I wonder how much govt. money they wasted on this jackass study?

[HEY4QDEMS]

I remember asking my daughter after she flunked her math test, "Are you happy now?"

I now know the answer.

[twhitak]

"Is enjoyment important? You bet it is. Is confidence important? You bet it is," Fennell said. "If we don't have those variables, we can't compete."

Nice choice of words.

[ShadowDancer]

LOL

[goodnesswins]

That's the problem.....school is all about how they FEEL.....NOT what they learn.....sheesh. Get over it. Do your math.....NOW!

[gaijin]

Naw. It's just that kids who do well on tests generally say they did poorly, which seems like unhapiness. And the reason why they THINK they did poorly is that they DID do poorly against the high standards they have up in their own heads.

If you give a black kid an intelligence test and ask him how he did on it, he's going to tell you he did the best any human being has done in all history.

And what's going on there is you're quizzing him about how much he esteems himself, which is very, very much.

[CarrotAndStick]

See this!

[Uncle Miltie]

Self Esteem doesn't work?

[dinoparty]

Math was by best subject in school, and my least favorite. Damn boring, IMHO. History/Government was much more interesting to me.

[dfwgator]

Math is a means to an end. It is ultimately just a tool for solving real world problems.

A person can be totally good at the mechanical aspects of solving math problems, but totally suck at applying those skills in real-world problems. Book smarts don't equal street smarts.

[CarrotAndStick]

In essence, happiness is overrated, says study author Tom Loveless.

Why'dya think?

[ShadowDancer]

x + z = me

[Physicist]

I think they're confusing cause and effect. Student unhappiness and lack of confidence do not bring success, rather, all of these things are the result of students being pushed beyond their "comfort zone" in math.

Set a bunch of 12th graders doing basic addition and subtraction, and praising them when they get some of the answers right, and you'll turn them into happy, confident ignoramuses. Push them into advanced algebra and calculus, and they'll complain loudly, but some of it will stick.

[Physicist]

Book smarts don't equal street smarts.

No, but in the case of math, they're a necessary prerequisite.

[freespirited]

Naw. It's just that kids who do well on tests generally say they did poorly, which seems like unhapiness. And the reason why they THINK they did poorly is that they DID do poorly against the high standards they have up in their own heads.

Exactly. And this kind of thinking is most common among Asian kids. Who as it happens are the best performers in math.

It has nothing to do with how math is taught.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Hmm... most of the depressed and generally disgruntled kids I went to school with did well in Math, maybe that's because we just wanted to get the hell out of Highschool and away from the social drama that took place everyday...

[mtbopfuyn]

In other words, depriving kids of their mp3 players, PS2, and their cell phones will get them better math scores?

[Warren_Piece]

Math is a means to an end. It is ultimately just a tool for solving real world problems.

You must be an engineer. :)

Mathematics is the "Machine in the Ghost". As I get older, I approach the subject with a sense of awe, how it pervades everything from music to religion to art. How, even in the chaos of the universe, there is order - even at the sub-atomic level.

Yes, it's a tool, in the same way the Bible is.