For the second time this week, this blog deals with education. The previous one (see here) dealt with the idiocy of some parents, who would transfer their children from a public to a private school because, in one instance, the child was excluded from certain cliques and the Principal refused to do anything about it.
Today, though, the subjects are certain school systems, which are failing miserably in teaching mathematics.
There is a long-running joke in many parts of the country that says that California schools have gone to a “softer” curriculum, and now, instead of children being asked what 2 + 2 equals (4, for those of you that are products of suspect school systems), now the question goes something like “2 + 2 =4. Write down on your paper how you FEEL about it being 4.”
Sadly, that is more than just a joke today. From the 11/14/06 edition of the New York Times:
“For the second time in a generation, education officials are rethinking the teaching of math in American schools.The changes are being driven by students’ lagging performance on international tests and mathematicians’ warnings that more than a decade of so-called reform math — critics call it fuzzy math — has crippled students with its de-emphasizing of basic drills and memorization in favor of allowing children to find their own ways to solve problems.At the same time, parental unease has prompted ever more families to pay for tutoring, even for young children. Shalimar Backman, who put pressure on officials here by starting a parents group called Where’s the Math?, remembers the moment she became concerned.“When my oldest child, an A-plus stellar student, was in sixth grade, I realized he had no idea, no idea at all, how to do long division,†Ms. Backman said, “so I went to school and talked to the teacher, who said, ‘We don’t teach long division; it stifles their creativity.’ â€
That just makes my blood boil. I feel like burning Paris in protest. Feel free to add your own comments. Or burn Paris.
____________________Written by Jean Valjean
Wow…we had to do long division…
Of course, it’s not like I actually learned long division…but I know what it is…I think…