Posted on 02/17/2024 3:53:38 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Travis Meier, opinion editor for The Washington Post, got on LinkedIn to brag about his first WaPo column titled "The trouble with schools is too much math," calling it a “major moment.”
As the author of the recently published Logic for Kids, I thought I’d take a close look.
Alas, the article is nothing to brag about. While Meier makes some good points, he also harbors serious misconceptions about logic, overlooks serious problems with mathematics instruction, and would do away with a key component of mathematics with us since Euclid. I sent him an email suggesting he study my book. No reply as of this writing.
Meier may well be right that most people “have no use for imaginary numbers or the Pythagorean theorem” and that “more than three-fourths of the population spends painful years in school futzing with numbers.” Many computations can be done by simple calculators and, in technical jobs, by sophisticated software such as Matlab. The convoluted mess known as Common Core, which has caused massive headaches among students, parents, and teachers alike, goes unmentioned, however. My critique of Common Core is here and here.
Meier’s proposal that schools “end useless math requirements” will elicit howls of protest (laughter?) from the education establishment in this country and, indeed, probably worldwide as well. He wants to dump those requirements in favor of “something more useful.” Like what? Meier answers, “applied logic.” What’s that? Let’s take a close look at Meier’s exposition of this idea, quote:
This branch of philosophy [logic] grows from the same mental tree as algebra and geometry but lacks the distracting foliage of numbers and formulas. Call it the art of thinking clearly.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The OP is wrong - it won’t be met with howls of criticism but cheers of support by our elites who are scrambling to stupify our children and make it impossible for them to question authoritarian dictates.
“Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.”
― George Orwell, 1984
This idea won’t work too well for those of us who work in laboratories.
It might work for the corporate diversity officer, though.
“The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Isn’t the WaPo in some sort of math problem with their budget?
Why not? Up to this point, nothing in a leftist’s life has added up to anything anyway.
Is there AI without Math?
If 10 pork chops are $40.00 in 2024, and
If 2 pounds of sugar are $40.00 in 2024, then
How many mail-in ballots are required for Chuck Norris to win the Presidency?
SOMEONE show him the picture of the Bridge in Florida that collapsed as it was being dedicated.....
GREAT
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says illegal immigrants are “the heart and soul of our culture and the backbone of our economy”
Then this!
Oregon students shouldn’t have to prove they can write or do math to get a diploma, lawmakers decide!
The Oregonian ^ | Jun 16, 2021 | Betsy Hammond
Posted on 6/21/2021, 4:16:01 PM by george76
Students in the class of 2021 did not have to prove they could write or do math at a basic level to earn their diplomas. A bill headed to Gov. Kate Brown would prohibit any such requirement at least until 2027.A bill to prohibit Oregon schools from requiring students to show they can read, write and do math at a basic high school level is headed to Gov. Kate Brown after lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday. (The bill was signed by the governor, and it is now in effect in Oregone!)
The idea is to hit pause on the requirements, in place since 2009 but already suspended during the pandemic, at least until the class of 2024 gets their diplomas and for Oregon to thoughtfully reexamine its graduation requirements in the meantime. A report recommending what the new standards should be is due to the Legislature and Oregon Board of Education by September 2022.
But since Oregon has long insisted it would not impose new graduation requirements on students who have already begun high school, new requirements would not take effect until the class of 2027 at the very earliest. So at least five more classes could be expected to graduate without needing to demonstrate roughly 10th grade level proficiency in math and writing.
The decision to remove the skills requirement was largely but not entirely a party-line one, with Democrats staunchly opposing the proficiency rules and Republicans decrying what they see as a lowering of academic standards.
A spokesperson for Brown told The Oregonian/OregonLive Wednesday she has yet to decide whether she will sign the bill, veto it or allow it to become law without her signature. (She proudly signed the bill!)
Oregone, unlike other states, did not require students to pass a particular standardized test or any test at all. Students could show their ability to use English and do math via about five different tests or by completing an in-depth classroom project judged by their own teachers. In reality, most schools relied primarily on standardized tests and most students easily passed them.
But demonstrating proficiency proved most challenging for students who learned English as a second language, students with disabilities and students of color.
Officials on the Oregon Board of Education, when they enacted the “essential skills” graduation requirement more than a decade ago, said they hoped no student would be denied a diploma for lacking the skills but that schools would step up and help juniors and seniors who hadn’t mastered enough English or math to do so. Many high schools created special math and writing workshop classes for seniors who needed to demonstrate those skills to get their diplomas.
The bill calls on the diverse committee studying graduation requirements to come up with a recommendation “with the goal of ensuring that the processes and outcomes related to the requirements for high school diplomas are equitable, accessible and inclusive.”
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3969771/posts
It is simple, Eliminating schools as places to learn and making them serve as day care centers all day. Beginning with breakfast, morning breaks, lunch, afternoon breaks and a dinner before going home. Maybe midnight basketball.
Teachers and their unions will still be paid. Any so called classes will be conducted by supposedly graduates, and the highly paid teachers will monitor those former classes on Zoom.
More Gardeners, janitors and other custodial care at the former schools will require more union workers, managers and whatevers!
So our taxes will go up for the above B$!
https://nypost.com/2021/09/15/virginia-teacher-says-making-kids-behave-is-white-supremacy/
The author is someone trapped between saying something relevant about the quality of math education and educational “wokeness”!
America’s greatest weakness, imo, is our constant pandering to the intellectually-challenged. Those maths are hard, to be sure, but...
That’s because math is hard for most useful idiots aka demo-commie supporters.
And this is supposed to help children?
A teacher acquaintance told me that formerly the curriculum in schools was designed to dumb students down. Now, she said, the curriculum is designed to ensure they know nothing.
She told me some of the latest. Students these days are not required to know, memorize facts. Facts are presented to them and they discuss them. That’s it.
As for math, completely left handed teaching methods that parents can’t understand in order to teach their kids.
somebody find the columnist’s school report cards.
This should lead to renewed calls for “Ebonics”
So the Washington Post is advocating innumeracy? This is insanity.
Numeracy is rewarded in the market place, it’s just the wrong people (Jews, Asians and Whites) are numerate.
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