Teen stumps Gov. Bush with pop math quiz

[JohnLocke]

Teen stumps Gov. Bush with pop math quiz
Tuesday, July 6, 2004
Associated Press
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Gov. Jeb Bush had come to pitch the virtues of reading, but instead got stumped on a math question today.
During a speech to high school students who mentor younger children in reading, a teenager asked the governor a basic geometry question taken from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which Bush has championed.
"Me and a couple of my friends ... we know that the FCAT is a very important part of schooling in Florida and we were wondering if you could answer one of the questions we remember from the FCAT?" said Luana Marques, 18, who just graduated from Freedom High School in Orange County and is heading to Flagler College in the fall.
(...)
"If the point is, I haven't been in school for the last 30 years, that's true. But if I'm going to be graduating from high school and I can't pass a 10th-grade aptitude test, then I'm fooling myself," Bush said. "The fact that a 51-year-old man can't answer a question, is really not relevant. You're still going to have to take the FCAT and you're still going to have to pass it in order to get a high school degree."
Marques said later that she had asked the governor the math question only as a joke but she does believe the governor and others who call for the use of the test should be able to pass it.
"I think I offended him," Marques said of the governor. "I don't think he had much of a sense of humor."
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Read the rest here.

[Djinn]

1. Protozoa beats Bush in general knowledge test n/t

[Beearewhyain]

2. From a fellow Floridian, Thanks for posting this

IMHO, the FCAT is simply a way to encourage the voucher programs proposed at the expense of districts that have limited funds due to the tax base. I just wish we we fund districts a little more uniformly instead of trying to dismantle (arguable) the best and most fundamental social program for everyone; save universal health care.

BTW...have you posted this in the Florida forum?

On Edit: I am a dumbass and should have checked...it is in the Florida forum.

[neoteric lefty]

9. My mother is a pretty high-ranking employee

of the Palm Beach County school board and she has told me so many stories about how this whole system is a joke and is actually hurting the educational process for many students. It is all for politics and does nothing to really help the kids.

[Eric J in MN]

3. It was a difficult question

The luncheon crowd at an Orlando hotel, gathered to honor 200 students who take part in the Teen Trendsetters Reading Mentor program, laughed and Marques posed the question: "What are the angles on a three-four-five-triangle?"

The governor gave a steely grin and then stalled a bit. "The angles would be ... If I was going to guess ... Three-four-five. Three-four-five. I don't know, 125, 90 and whatever remains on 180?"

Marques had an answer, although it wasn't the right one: "It's 30-60-90."

The correct answer was 90 degrees, 53.1 degrees and 36.9 degrees, said Michelle Taylor, a graduate student in mathematics at the University of Florida, when told about the governor's pop quiz.

---------------------------

Everybody who would have said 90, 53.1, 36.9, raise your hand.

[wtmusic]

5. And a totally useless bit of knowledge

We all know Jeb is a moron but this doesn't prove anything

[DieboldMustDie]

7. I got it!

But I used a calculator to find the arcsines.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Exactly. Jeb Bush doesn't get any points for his answer

but the student looks a real fool for asking a question, and then giving the wrong answer. If I were a professor at Flager College, I'd be putting her into remedial math classes, and also some public speaking classes - trying to look clever (and trap someone else at the same time) and then trapping yourself is the worst thing you can do.

[Doctor_J]

4. I read that Jeb

is even stupider than Smirk. I don't really think it's possible, but maybe... Sounds like he lapses into the same speech pattern when someone asks him a question he can't answer, "The point is, it's not relevant".

[MajorFlaw]

6. And he's supposed to be the "smart" son.

I guess it's all relative.

[dad]

8. w

I just wish the Repukes trusted teachers to teach and fairly grade the kids they see every day.

[shraby]

10. Schooling started to decline

about the time the Dept. of Education was made at the federal level. I think it was about 1976 or so. I knew when they did it they'd screw up education in the schools. There isn't anything the government meddles in that stays right.

[pa28]

11. It's funny and I applaud these clever kids

But not the same level as * having no idea who the Prime Minister of India is.

[JohnLocke]

13. KICK!

[Poiuyt]

14. Is our governers learning yet?

[UdoKier]

15. Jeb is a charmless a-hole.

It amazes me that he got elected, but then again, he's from Florida, a state positively teeming with a-holes.

(No flames please, I AM a former Floridian...)