Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: FredZarguna

Actually...some of us are not math people. I can’t play pool unless my husband points at the ball and the shot.

I lost my kid in sixth grade math.. but the way that math is taught now is non sensical. My school went with new math in the early 70’s... I was toast.

Not that I am sympathizing with this dirtbag... I did Minor in Economics and had a great GPA. Lemme tell ya this dweeb couldn’t pass Econ 101... Paul Samuelson..still have the text.


12 posted on 10/25/2012 9:34:00 PM PDT by acapesket
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies ]


To: acapesket
Actually...some of us are not math people

And we generally try not to elect such people president. I don't expect every president to be Einstein, but a person who can't do above 7th grace math would not have the logic and reasoning skills to be the leader of the free world. Period.
22 posted on 10/25/2012 9:51:02 PM PDT by fr_freak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

To: acapesket

“My school went with new math in the early 70’s... I was toast.”

My late life sister in law got hit with that “new math” and we were baby sity with her and I helped her with it.

You have to know all forms of math to decipher it, they take them and toss them in a bag, shake and hope the parents can’t help the kid!!!!

I finally told her to seperate the problem into sections solve it and after she has the answer go back and write it in terms that the teacher would accept!!!

I can see no purpose for it other than to make sure that parents can’t help the student!!!!


26 posted on 10/25/2012 10:01:34 PM PDT by dalereed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

To: acapesket
Setting aside the question of how you could minor in Econ without Calculus, I sympathize with people who've been disabled by the various educationist approaches to teaching math. They started that when I was in fourth grade (1963) and it was a train wreck. Luckily, my mother taught me "old" math and I didn't need to pay attention to the teachers.

They have tried to revisit this atrocity several times over the decades, as "conceptual math," and various other educationist approaches under new names. They could've done less damage to the country with a nuclear bomb or two; we now have several lost generations of kids.

Truly educated people need to understand algebra, geometry, trig, and at least some concepts from Calculus. I don't believe you can claim to be an educated person if you don't. In the 1970's, even liberal arts curricula required one Calculus course; algebra and trigonometry -- even in humanities were considered remedial -- for a BA/BS and did not qualify.

Now colleges are talking about dropping math requirements altogether. It's a mistake. There's no such thing as someone who can't do math. There are just bad teachers and bad methodologies.

38 posted on 10/25/2012 10:36:20 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Can he even count to zero?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

To: acapesket
Lemme tell ya this dweeb couldn’t pass Econ 101... Paul Samuelson..still have the text.

Samuelson was a dweeb, too. Won the Nobel Prize, too.

Samuelson was a quack, earning royalties for filling American undergraduate heads with mush.

Soviet Growth & American Textbooks

49 posted on 10/25/2012 11:11:53 PM PDT by cynwoody
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

To: acapesket

“I lost my kid in sixth grade math”.

My condolences.


64 posted on 10/26/2012 4:02:12 AM PDT by Rebelbase (The most transparent administration ever is clear as mud.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

To: acapesket
the way that math is taught now is non sensical. My school went with new math in the early 70’s... I was toast.
It’s my settled opinion that educationists intentionally mystify their subjects to prevent parents from being able to critique their teachers and maintain the respect of their children. I have an engineering degree which I earned back when every Tom, Dick and Harry didn’t go to college. But some of the nomenclature they use now . . .

I was chatting with an old friend recently, and I remembered that he had said he had never been able to understand math. Now as the subject comes up, maybe the fact that he was in school ten years later than I meant that he had “new math” and his problem wasn’t altogether his fault. In any event, I can recommend a solution to math phobia:

khanacademy.org
A free math education for anyone interested in learning it. I mentioned it to my friend, and hope he will enjoy it (since he’s retired, he certainly doesn’t need it).

69 posted on 10/26/2012 5:44:35 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which “liberalism" coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson