A radical idea to transform what kids learn in school

[proud2BlibKansan]

Exxon-Mobil is airing education-reform television ads. In the one I’ve seen most often, implicit and explicit messages are simple and clear: (a) We live in a dangerous, technologically complex world. (b) Our lives, liberties, and happiness hinge on our ability to cope with that world. (c) Coping requires mastery of math. (d) On standardized math tests, America ranks 25th in the world. (e) Be ashamed and afraid. (f) Get behind corporate education reform efforts.

I’ve no confidence in the standardized tests that produced that ranking or the ranking itself. Scores on tests that can’t measure the qualities of mind and spirit upon which survival depend are useless. And oversimplifying statistics to support an ideology-driven agenda is inexcusable.

I agree, however, that America needs good mathematicians.

How many? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says, “Employment of mathematicians is expected to increase by 16 percent from 2010 to 2020…. There will be competition for jobs because of the small number of openings in this occupation.”

Take math teachers out of the mix, and the number of mathematicians America needs is tiny. If one kid in each high school in the country became a professional mathematician, it would glut the market.

more . . . http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-radical-alternative-to-standardized-curriculum/2012/05/14/gIQABGXpPU_blog.html

[NYC_SKP]

1. We don't need mathmaticians, we need kids who can read a tape measure, know fractions...

kids who can sketch an idea on a napkin or triple the ingredients for a recipe or for a building project.

We lost our way as a society, and schools have followed.

Indeed, we don't need mathmaticians.

We need well-rounded kids with a broad set of hard and soft skills.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. When I'm in that nursing home or hospital many years from now,

I just want whoever is taking care of me to know the difference between a milliliter and an ounce.

[patrice]

4. !

me too!

. . . or else!

[patrice]

3. Math has intrinsic value, beyond a means of employment. The logic patterns alone are

vital and, I opine, on a rather steep decline in the population. Math helps to develop cognition and being better thinkers/problem solvers has wide value beyond the number of mathematicians America needs.

And none of that even begins to address the value of Mathematics as part of the Humanities, but I expect those are pretty much dead and gone anymore anyway with the demise of the Liberal Arts in post-secondary education.

[patrice]

5. I like what, I think it was, John Dewey had to say about this stuff: We have it backwards in

education. We start by trying to make everyone generalists and if we/they survive that battle long enough, after, what, something like 16 years of that, we let them FINALLY become specialists, i.e. what we assume (probably pretty mistakenly by that time) they WANT to be.

Dewey said we should start by helping them discover what kind of specialist they are and proceed from there to generalism.

[exboyfil]

6. Maybe math major jobs are capped out but

lots of growth potential for math heavy majors like engineering (has got to be they want to further expand the H1B Visa program (sarcasm alert)).

They say math, and I think math is important. More important is science especially the ability to detect B.S. I have been amazed by even trained engineers that do not flip an envelope over and determine if something really can be true. An understanding of the world requires an ability to quickly evaluate things. It is a skill which can be taught. It ranges from simply understanding the difference betweeen a million and billion (and now trillion) to how much is spent on what at the federal level.

[longship]

7. Radical, but a lot of BS

Teaching math, which I have done at both high school and college level, is not just about becoming a mathematician; it's about learning how to think logically and ultimately to make informed decisions when even a rudiment of math awareness may help.

Like how to reduce the fucking national deficit without putting 99% of the people on the freaking street!!!

[Mass]

8. We dont need mathematicians, but we need people who understand the basic concepts of maths and

science. Therefore, learning maths and science is important.

Way too much time is spent on math facts and way too little is spent on understanding what a fraction is, for example (at the elementary level). And this continues throughout the K-12 cursus. Kids solve 30 equations a night, but never see how to apply these equations in the practical world. Does any kid know what the Pythagorean Theorem was intended for (except driving kids nuts).

We live in a society where the importance of maths and sciences is at the same time ridiculously increased (which frightens some) and ridiculously diminished (in articles like the one). We may not need mathematicians, but we need people with a solid foundation in maths and sciences, and this includes algebra and geometry.

One of my kids is graduating from college. The other one from HS. They both aced their maths placement test in college. However, because my oldest was not that much exposed to the concepts in HS, he had trouble with his statistics class and ended with a D.

So, if the point is that maths is poorly taught, I agree. If it is that we need less maths, I could not disagree more.