Posted on 04/20/2012 4:27:02 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
Here’s some good news. M. J. McDermott’s wonderful video about why Americans don’t know math has exceeded 1,000,000 views.
This is one of the best videos about education on the web. If you haven’t viewed it, please do. Running time is about 15 minutes.
In this video, McDermott explains the flaws in so-called Reform Math, which was introduced to the country around 1985. Reform Math actually consists of more than a dozen separate but basically identical curricula. As fast as a community figures out that one of these things is bad, the so-called experts introduce another. These experts are diabolically clever.
Point is, there are good ways to teach any subject. And there are awkward, incoherent, inefficient ways to teach any subject. Reform Math incorporates all the bad ways to teach math. The predictable result is that few American children become good at math (which in turn undercuts science).
I had noticed the same inefficiency in the field of reading. The McDermott video confirmed for me that this tendency could be found all across the educational spectrum. The closer you look at any of the popular educational fads, the more you’re likely to notice that the foolish thing doesn’t work at all as claimed; in fact, it’s probably counterproductive. Here I’m thinking of Whole Word, Constructivism, Self-esteem, Cooperative Learning, Multiculturalism, Learning Styles, Prior Knowledge, and many more.
I’m afraid the Education Establishment is going to repackage all the bad ideas in Reform Math under the name Common Core Curriculum.
(My article “36: The Assault on Math” discusses parallels between math and reading. http://www.improve-education.org/id60.html )
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Well, I didn’t think it was such a wonderful comment as much as it was appalling. I mean, he tells me stories (he’s on the other side of the US) and I just go bananas. He must have the patience of a dozen saints, because the stuff he tells me just blows my mind.
I am not sure the bureaucracies involved are aiming for dumber and dumber per se; they could, if you think about it, be very well meaning in terms of the children but part of a very “extractive” triumverate of teachers, textbook vendors, and administrators who are obsessively concerned about keeping themselves employed and changing curricula every 2 years so that the booksellers get huge orders for new books and methods. I am sure teachers work pretty hard, in general, and if they get the type of students my cousin gets, they must go absolutely batty now and again. I couldn’t retain my sanity in that environment.
He claims he failed 40% of his students last year, and I asked him if he thought that this would place his hard-won job in jeopardy. He really did work to become a teacher and I wouldn’t want him to get booted. But he said he checked with his administrators if such a failure rate was “OK” and they said “so be it”. He offers to tutor the kids after school, they make appointments and don’t show up. They get 2-3 chances to turn in HW assignments, promise to do so, then fail to turn them in. I don’t think there is a design or grand conspiracy to make them dumb, yet I definitely acknowledge that the entire system has precisely that
effect on most of them.
60+% can’t use a ruler? He could tell you 150 more stories.
Thanks for posting.
Neil Boortz interviewed a guy who wrote a book that told about dumbing down American students on purpose, to be good little worker bees for the government, who could be easily entertained so that they wouldn’t cause problems by learning to reason and question the powers that be.
Does anyone know the name of that book?
Algebra is about solving relationships of variables in equations. One must have a knowledge of logical methods of arranging terms and equating identities. a calculator is of little use for this task. Being handicapped by being denied a calculator is nothing to brag about. A calculator is of little use for algebra.
I have taken some ‘routine’ math courses as well as advanced math courses while getting an engineering degree. I have always thought of my ‘arithmetic’ learning as part of my ‘math’ learning, something like baby talk and learning the English/language/grammar.
Exactly! Your description is so exact. And not just make it so kids can’t understand math, but so they can’t think at all, and can’t trust their own wits and reason.
I taught many kids to read and totally gave up on readers, I made my own reading books and vocabulary etc. I taught many kids to read using my own stuff. Mostly phonetics. And I”m a high school dropout...
Good for you!
Without paper, I can’t, provided the numbers are large enough. It wasn’t expected of us to take Math in 11th or 12th grade in my high school. Outrageous, I know, although that was 25+ years ago.
What I described in post #46 was second to seventh grade arithmetic.
Without a solid understanding of these principles algebra would be impossible. Fractions, specifically, are a large part of algebra, although letters, instead of numerals, are used to represent quantities.
Honestly, because you have missed out on the basics, whole swaths of the economy are closed to you. Many, many opportunities for engaging, interesting, highly creative, and often, highly paying work are solidly shut against you. With a little effort, some time at the community college, and some payment of tuition this could be completely overcome.
And...You really might surprised yourself how smart you really are in mathematics.
Arithmetic is indeed a part of math - you can’t easily solve equations unless you know your gazintas.
It’s also a gateway to number theory and other abstract sciences.
I plan to enter college for nursing in the next year. I am test taking at Khan academy online to brush up before I go into credit courses.
Yes. ‘Core’
It’s called the core.
The other day, at a retail shop, I noticed something that I see all the time now, but I noticed that it appears to be getting worse. The younger people working there are dense and it shows. A doctor I know spoke of younger med students, raised on group learning, who now have to be told what to do, as they do not think for themselves anymore, even as interns/residents. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
“I graduated before this new math came in and I still can’t do algebra.”
Do you....buy groceries, pay a mortgage, use a car? If so, you are most definitely using algebra.
Attaboy
Good for you, fatboy! How far are you going to take it? Are you going to try tackling the calculus next year?
I’m going to take calculus in the fall of 2013
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