Posted on 12/30/2006 9:36:31 AM PST by achilles2000
Math pop quiz stumps Randi
BY ERIN EINHORN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Talk about a high-stakes test. The radio audience was live and the question for teachers union president Randi Weingarten involved sixth-grade math: "What's 1/3rd plus 1/4th?"...
Mike Pesca, who was filling in for Lehrer, introduced the show's education topic by saying American college grads can't do basic math while high school grads in Canada and middle-schoolers in India have no trouble.
After Weingarten stumbled, another guest quickly produced the correct answer: 7/12ths, leaving Weingarten to explain herself.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
ooooh, **an animated turnip** Note to self, work on typing skills.
I've been to CalcII and have my BS degree in Biology graduating with a 3.9, but I still cannot do even the easiest math in my head. I am not defending Weingarten at all, just saying that some of us cannot "do math" in our heads. That limitation caused me many years of a college education because I truly felt inadequate in that area.
My high school geometry teacher actually told me that I would make a better stripper than a college student. Thank goodness I didn't take that as true, but it did cause me to go many years without an education in an area that I really loved.
One reason I can't do math in my head is that my brain will reverse numbers...calculators have been the BEST invention. I know and understand the theory, and can work a problem, but either along the way or with the answer there will be a numerical reversal making the problem wrong. I will even verbally say the correct number then write the number incorrectly. But with a calculator, seeing the number somehow allows me to then write the correct answer.
So to make a judgment on someone based on that one example is quite unfair. I too, am quite skeptical of teacher unions and the people who staff them; however, I am even more skeptical of those who would so easily jump to judgment.
[insert low whistle here......]
I would ask you to elaborate on the 'traitor' part, but you'd definitely get bonus points for enthusiasm and effort.
For some reason I thought he taught out in Staten Island. Oh well...His brother was a bartender at a pretty decent ginmill for years.
The "trick" about NYC that most don't realize it that it's a very pragmatic city. It produces the expertise needed for business. And if it can't produce the expertise, then it steals it away with higher salaries.
Although most see NYC as a "socialist" state, the truth of the matter is, it's the most capitalistic city on the planet.
you're right, they don't "report" to her, but as head of the union, she is free to represent to the Congress, the media and any others who will listen that she speaks on behalf of her XXXX members in support of the union's position for all kinds of left-wing causes having nothing to do with education. Most of which are not agreed to by your average classroom teacher.
I used to be in one...and I used to have to deal with the same union. Members don't cross the leadership, because there's a lot of discretion regarding what level of help you get from the union if you happen to be in trouble.
One of the reasons she is on the team is because she can do something most of the other high level math kids can't do and that is 'head-math.' Every year when we watch the kids on T.V. it floors me that there will be a long Calculus question these kids from these magnet schools can almost do in their heads but when given a 4 function question, all 3 teams freeze. Last weeks debacle was "In which way are lemons cheaper? 3 for a dollar, .25 each or 5 for 2 dollars." Silence. This after some long question involving a cosine where the teams were buzzing in on top of each other. It was good for a chuckle as my kid was rolling on the floor going "You IIIDIOTS!! It's B!"
Mental math is a skill that not everyone can do. Myself, I'm all over percents as in "If that dress is 49.99 and I have a 10% off coupon but during the hours of 1-3 it is an additional 15% off, how much is it?" I'm so there.
But, you're not a teacher, and not the head of a union, whose members are generally regarded as unqualified for the job.
Uhm is Stuyvesent in Staten Island ?(she asks with a blush revealing herself woefully ignorant of NYC)
yes, there's usually a complicated explanation
for the things i can figure out in my head, i just
like to keep it a secret. :D
I did it in my head and I am not even nine (anymore LOL).
That is a scary thought.
Apparently most of the plain engineers could come up with the answer but none of the phd applied mathematicians could.
well, i don't fear math. one of patton's math idols
from h.s. actually told me once "you must really like
math!" ... i laughed and moved on to my next class.
i have no idea where he got that idea from, certainly
not from me. i just "get it", i suppose. ;)
No, it's downtown. A couple hundred yards from Ground Zero.
I believe that the actress Lucy Lieu is their patron saint.
True Stuy Story: I have a friend that teaches there. During the promotion for Tom Cruise's last movie, he was set to ride various modes of transportation around the city to different theaters. He got off his speedboat and was preparing to get on his motorcycle when he noticed a group of students behind Stuy watching. He went over to sign autographs and do the "celebrity thing" when the students started shouting stuff like, "Wow, you're really short!" and "Katie is jailbait!" at him. Basically bullying him. He ran away before the press caught on.
On the other hand, I believe that the actress Lucy Lieu is their patron saint.
I just explained what you are doing in your head, you know. ;)
"And there are no lower standards in all of academia than primary school education."
P.J. O'Rourke once said, "Anyone who doesn't know what's wrong with education must never have screwed an elementary-ed major."
I was the New Math victim and overcame it.
My New Math textbook was stapled sheets titled "School Mathematics Study Group" and had my 1962 Jr. HS instructor's name on it, William Devenney. Since, I find him commenting on low achievers in math. Ho ho.
I retired from a career in Naval nuclear power. Admiral Rickover 'taught' remedial math and physics.
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