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I remember sitting in a 9th-grade math class in 1974, and the idiot teacher could not get formula-type algebra (basic stuff) across to the group. We were supposed to spend no more than three weeks on this chapter, and move on, with a big test. At the end four weeks, less than sixty percent of the group were grasping this. We wasted another two entire weeks on the subject, with only three-quarters of the group understanding this. The teacher just gave up, and skipped a chapter or two for something else.

The next year...different school....different book...different type teacher. We were simply handed the book, and advanced on our own speed. The book was well-designed and made sense. At the end of each chapter, we tested, and proceed on. The teacher was just there to answer one-on-one questions.

I put a great deal of the fault in the marginal skills upon poor math books and individuals who should never have been math teachers.

I watched a German documentary ten years ago...a baker trying to hire 15-year old apprentice kids. Like this guy mentioned....the baker had gone to two tests. One was about proportions and adding/subtracting. The other was a 10-question current events test. Out of fifteen kids who applied, and he could have hired five....he had only one kid with appropriate math skills (something you need as a baker), and that one kid marginally passed the current events test.

The whole system has turned into a failure...it’s just a baby-sitter service that hands out certificates.

>>The other was a 10-question current events test. Out of fifteen kids who applied, and he could have hired five....he had only one kid with appropriate math skills (something you need as a baker), and that one kid marginally passed the current events test.

I don’t know that anyone could pass a current events test these days.

I don’t watch the tv news (haven’t in over 10 years) and haven’t even watched anything on the national or local networks in that time either.

I don’t read any daily print edition newspaper. I may thumb through 2 copies of them in a year tops (waiting at someone’s home while visiting or at a doctor’s office).

I skim and read and reply on FR most days.

But the articles that make it to FR are not the headlines that I see pimped by MSN.com (default page on browsers at work so I see it “land” there numerous times on dozens of systems in a day) or by Facebook (what latest DNC spawned “outrage” headline they are pimping as trending).

Mix in a rejection of the myths and money of the man-made global warming scam, the rejection of the bad science of “we are all poly now”, and the rejection of the “Trump and his supporters are literally Hitler and man-in-the-clouds believing Pence is even worse!” news, I would probably fail most any “current events” test an employer would make me submit to.

I did beginning, intermediate, and advanced algebra like that in community college. It was called a Math Lab. We had a great book that explained everything in detail. We advanced at our own rate as long as you took a quiz weekly and then after so many quizzes a test. There was someone there to help you with something if you needed it.
I finished each class early because sometimes I’d take a couple of quizzes a week. I stayed ahead of schedule the whole time. Was a great way to learn algebra.
It was the only book from college that I kept and didn’t resell. My granddaughter used it to get through her high school algebra classes because it was a better teacher than the teacher.