Today, we learn that mathematical logic is oppressive…
Teacher Group: Math is “The Domain Of Old, White Men,” Urges Working “Social Justice” Into Math Problems.
…and that when it comes to certain topics it’s never too early to start:
A D.C. public school gave a sixth grade class a homework assignment that required students to draw comparisons between former President George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler.
From the assignment:
Now that we have read about two men of power who abused their power in various ways, we will compare and contrast them and their actions…
Meanwhile,
White House press release: “Saudi Arabia has extensive border with Syria.”
It’s all good.
Doncha just love the smell coming from Commie Martyrs Public school? – smells like rotting ideas from dead old white guys
In many parts of this country, a newly certified teacher will have spent 6 years in university study, four for a B.A. or B.Sc. and two more for a B.Ed. I would not be surprised to learn that some — and I must emphasize, only some — of our teacher education graduates could be part of any of these stories.
The best students going into teacher education are as good or better than the best I encountered forty years ago, but they are a minority, and they are having more and more of their time wasted with endless repetition of the same moth-eaten canards as programs try to out-do one another in their “commitment to social justice.” I advise the good ones to keep their heads down, don’t make faces or act “oppositional” during the classes of their looniest professors, learn all they can about what education actually demands and how to make their own classes educational and not anti-educational, and stay true to their values.
Until we dismantle the public school system (or it collapses in on itself), it is important to nurture those young people who understand or are prepared to learn what’s wrong with the stories referred to above.
‘Saudi Arabia has extensive border with Syria’
The American President’s advisors inadvertently reveal how and why some mistakes have been made during Obama’s term in office.
…a newly certified teacher will have spent 6 years in university study, four for a B.A. or B.Sc. and two more for a B.Ed.
…and pretty much all of it a waste of time and money, since the home schooled constantly outclass the ‘professionally’ taught.
Okay, I can accept that math is hard for many, and its not surprising the lefty educators would want to pound that square, logical, analytical peg into a round hole of touchy-feely politically correct gibberish.
But the Syria and Saudi Arabia border? I find it unnerving that our White House is filled with people who not only didn’t read the textbooks but apparently were incapable of even looking at the pictures.
Example from the Website: Culturally Responsive Teaching – Teach For America
( http://culturallyresponsiveteaching.weebly.com/crt-in-secondary-math.html )
“In addition to what makes culturally responsive teaching challenging, period, there’s a myth that math is neutral—that it’s objective, abstract, rational, logical, and there’s always a clear right answer. After all, 2 + 2 always equals 4, right? Marilyn Frankenstein (http://www.umb.edu/academics/cpcs/faculty/marilyn_frankenstein)in Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice: Conversations with Educators, tells a story she attributes to Marcia and Robert Ascher, in which a European explorer (presumably Francis Galton, the man who invented eugenics) agrees to trade an African shepherd two sticks of tobacco in exchange for one sheep. When he offers four sticks of tobacco in exchange for two sheep, however, the shepherd declines; the explorer later tells this story as evidence of the shepherd’s inability to comprehend simple mathematical reasoning and as “proof” of intellectual inferiority on the African subcontinent. But, if sheep are not standardized units, as there is no reason to believe them to be, then doesn’t it make sense that the second sheep might be worth far more than the first? And then doesn’t our premise of 2 + 2 = 4 look awfully naive?”
Talk about fuzzy thinking!!! And let me get this out of the way first, AFRICA is NOT a SUBCONTINENT”. (Geography/math lesson: If the world has 7 continents and one subcontinent, how many continents does the world have? Answer: Anywhere from 6 to 9 if you believe Atlantis sunk in the Atlantic Ocean and that some continents have been misclassified by old white men).
However, my real point is that the example simply stops talking about mathematics and starts talking about human values. This example simply degrades the teaching of math by confusing the young minds. Horrible that someone actually thinks this is relevant to teaching math.
As I recall, there is a short section in the book “1984” which has a similar math lesson………
Math. Hmmm.
..I can accept that math is hard for many…
I can’t…What I can accept is that the Education system is the one that has made it hard by not teaching it with time honoured methodology. there is what the issue is..and the above simply underscores that point. At 62 now, I still am able to use algebra – trig and do mental arithmetic. Why is that I wonder when your average college graduate is incapable of add 47+75 in their heads nor might I add is able to spell or punctuate.
This BS started long ago as I recall my 3 yr younger sister coming home with coloured sticks: The shortest one was the number 1 and so on. I laughed and still laugh at the continual BS coming out of those screaming leftist factories known as Universities.
ROTE Learning works..It always has and always will. What you learn and memorize in Grade i & 2, you will carry with you all your life. And those that home teach and use this method…I would bet a months salary will outperform those taught in our schools.
stk
Recently I was shown a math problem that said – if one dispsable diaper takes 2,500 years to decompose in a landfill, how long will it take for for 4 disposable diapers to decompose?
Don’t leave us hangin’ mister hellacopter man. How long?
Now, be fair.
It was likely just a simple spell check editing error.
For example, the original text could have been:
“Saudi Arabia has extensive border with Syria-Iraq Caliphate.
Our two nations will be offering the Caliphateri huge bribes to
stop drawing so much unwelcome western attention to their
unique customs which, as we all know, are not part of Islam.”
Education today is just politically left propaganda with institutionalized brain washing instead of learning.
From reading to Math its all political. These are not subjects of reason or logic, but opportunities for social engineering.
The answer’s obvious, 10,000 years,unless the decomposition is accelerated by global warming,in which case,who knows!? At the current rate of warming,it could be as little as 9000 years!
I wish the schools today would teach simple arithmetic the way we were taught in the 50’s, by rote.
It’s tiring having to explain to young people that if they buy one item for $7, it’s no bargain when they buy 3 of the same item for $21.99.
And please, MH,tell me that wasn’t a real question on a school test.
The answer’s obvious, 10,000 years…
Public education? lol
Culturally Responsive Math
Q: LeBraun he da ‘hood pimp, he gots fi ‘hos. Skinny Rita bring in $20 dolla’ a bj, 40 fo roun’ da worl’. She do fo bjs and 2 roun’ da worl’.
LaTasha she mo purdy, bring in 30 fo da bj and 60 for da worl’. She do 4 bj and 4 roun’ da worl’. Niki, it er time of month so she at her crib wit her brat.
Niki, she da new one dat gots the habit and steals half of LeBraun money but she works hard and do 8 bj’s and 3 roun’da worl’. She git 25 a bj and 50 roun’da worl’
An’ den der Suzi, she a cutie, only 15, LeBraun he jis turn her out las month. She hi class so she gits 80 a bj and 200 fer da works. she do 3 bj and 2 worl’
But LeBraun he has de ovvahed. He pay 20 a nite each crib for his girls and 5 fo rubbas. How much money LeBraun git for his girls a nite ifn he doan fine out Niki be a stealin’ his money?
be that Messican pay-so…Oa, green baks?
As a ex small business entrepreneur I tells yu that overhed
is a reel beetch. First you gots emplyment insurance and then
CPP and then pay off the gendarmes and you gots rent and electric
and phone and internet. I teel yu it’s tough trying to make
and honest dollar these days.
Right on, Steakman (or rote on?)
Let me rephrase – math isn’t hard, it requires disciplined thinking.
I was no brainiac, but I was good in math – still am, not thanks to me but thanks to several very good math teachers who taught it “old school”.
I think part of problem today is many of the teachers themselves don’t have/didn’t learn that discipline, and/or were taught that anything that involves difficulty is somehow wrong, just like anything that makes one uncomfortable is politically incorrect and should be banned.
“Saudi Arabia has extensive border with Syria.”
Obama could have written that press release himself, right after he finished booking his upcoming All-American golfing tour in the 57 states.
Jack Handey’s Common Core math lesson:
“Instead of having “answers” on a math test, they should just call them “impressions”, and if you got a different “impression”, so what, can’t we all be brothers?”
(transcribed from “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey”)
City of Los Angeles/Detroit/St. Louis High School Mathematics Proficiency Exam
Name:
Gang:
1. Johnny has an AK-47 with a 30 round clip. If he misses 6 out of 10 shots, and shoots 18 times at each drive-by shooting, how many drive-by shootings can he attempt before having to reload?
2. Joey has 2 ounces of cocaine. He sells an 8-ball to Jackson for $320, and 2 grams to Billy for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the balance of the cocaine?
3. Rufus is pimping for three girls. If the price is $65 for each trick, how many tricks will each girl have to turn so Rufus can pay for his $800 a day crack habit?
4. Jerome wants to cut his half pound of heroin to make 20% more profit. How many ounces of cut will he need?
5. Willie gets $200 for stealing a BMW, $50 for stealing a Chevy, and $100 for stealing a 4×4. If he has stolen 2 BMW’s and 3 4×4’s, how many Chevys does he need to steal to make $800?
6. If the probability that Amy graduates from high school is 1/5, and the probability that a high school graduate gets into college is 2/3, and the probability that a student who enters college graduates is 1/2, what is the probability that Amy graduates from college?
7. Hector has knocked up 6 out of 27 girls in his gang. What percentage of girls in his gang has Hector knocked up?
8. Raoul is in prison for 6 years for murder. He got $10,000 for the hit. If his common law wife is spending $100 a month, how much money will be left when he gets out of prison? As a bonus, how many years will he get for killing the bitch that spent all his money?
9. Latisha takes TV’s from 25 houses, and VCR’s from 27 houses. If in 10 houses she takes both a TV and a VCR, and in one house she takes 2 TV’s, how many houses did Latisha rob?
10. If the average spray can covers 22 square feet, and the average letter is 3 square feet, how many times can Jane spray her favorite four-letter word with 5 spray cans?
They’re numerate to get street business done all right or it’s their neck.
What they can’t do is read all that stuff you wrote up there.
That’s a good thing though, because when they get taken to the voting booth they can’t read who they are being paid to vote for.
This is one of the reasons the Dems want voting machines, for the picture screens.
Strooth!
The original: “Math has traditionally been seen as the domain of old, White men, and when students cannot identify with mathematics—with role models who have been successful in math or with reasons that math matters to them and their lives—it becomes harder to stay motivated, particularly in secondary mathematics when the content leaves the easy applicability of grocery stores and bank accounts and becomes significantly more abstract.” from http://culturallyresponsiveteaching.weebly.com/crt-in-secondary-math.html
The outrage should be tempered. The group at the above website may believe all sorts of things, but this statement is nothing new: make stuff relevant that appears irrelevant if you want students to work at it. The statement may be incorrect (i.e., it doesn’t reflect teachers’ experiences), but it shouldn’t be interpreted as trashing math as the province of old, white men.
We’re supposed to be the ones who can read and comprehend and don’t distort.
Thanks for the apropos “Deep Thoughts With Jack Handey” quote. Very funny.
I especially love his “Fuzzy Memories”.