FlaSoxxJim Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Teaching Math in the US, the last 50 years... Teaching math in the 1950s: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit? Teaching math in the 1960s: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit? Teaching Math in thw 1970s: A logger exchanges a set L of lumber for a set M of money. The cardinality of set M is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set M. The set C, the cost of production, contains 20 fewer points then the set M. Represent the set C as a subset of set M and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set P of profits? Teaching Math in 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: underline the number 20. Teaching Math in 1990: By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? What's wrong about it? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? (there are no wrong answers). Teaching Math in 2000: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Anderson determine that his profit margin is $60 and how many documents were shredded to achieve this number? Teaching Math in 2010: El Loggero se habla with the truckero y se ponen de acuerdo con otro driver de la conpentencia...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YASNY Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Sad, but true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 I know this was meant for a laugh and you know better The computers were so slow in the 1950's they couldn't do much more than that. Not withstanding the environmental jab, a kid today with 1950's math skills would be locked out of many job markets. With calculators and computers, just figuring 4/5 of 100 isn't going to feed the bulldog. Kids are working quadratic equations in middle school. That was an *optional* HS course in the 1950s. At the HS level we have made so many statewide mandates (at least in Texas) as to curriculm, kids have almost no electives. That is a bigger concern of mine. The problems given kids on standardize tests have increased tremendously over the years. Here is a nice review of how one standardize test has changed from 1950 onward. Note the section that many problems from older tests are too easy today. Link One final thought. If a HS grad with 1950 skills entered your office, what job would he have? What did we take out to teach kids computers? And theres more history to learn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted March 25, 2004 Author Share Posted March 25, 2004 I know this was meant for a laugh and you know better The computers were so slow in the 1950's they couldn't do much more than that. Not withstanding the environmental jab, a kid today with 1950's math skills would be locked out of many job markets. With calculators and computers, just figuring 4/5 of 100 isn't going to feed the bulldog. Kids are working quadratic equations in middle school. That was an *optional* HS course in the 1950s. At the HS level we have made so many statewide mandates (at least in Texas) as to curriculm, kids have almost no electives. That is a bigger concern of mine. The problems given kids on standardize tests have increased tremendously over the years. Here is a nice review of how one standardize test has changed from 1950 onward. Note the section that many problems from older tests are too easy today. Link One final thought. If a HS grad with 1950 skills entered your office, what job would he have? What did we take out to teach kids computers? And theres more history to learn Ach, I don't buy it, Tex. Given the choice, I'd take the average 1950s high school grad over one today, hands down. regardless of WHAT they had to learn, they understood that it was their JOB to learn and that some EFFORT was actually required. Try getting the average (not the exceptional) student to do any real academic work these days – it ain't easy. While there are certainly better, harder, deeper MST (math, science, and technology) offerings for THE HANDFUL of GAP, AP, IB, or other select honors tracts in the public school system, that has no bearing on the lazy, low-grade morons being churned out by most public school curriculum tracts. I was appalled when I was part of the system more than 10 years ago (but I worked with primarily AP's and science research students so I was spared most of the horror). Now that I see my wife going through it, I'm just numb with disbelief. The average Florida 8th grader knows next to nothing and cares not to address the problem proactively (ie, actually putting in some effort). Parents in typical two-working parent families offer no help for the first 3 marking periods because they have their own stuff to deal with and have decided that the school system can function as a babysitting service and juvenile corrections facility even at the expense of the education they are supposed to be getting. But you can bet these same parents show up in the last marking period, after it has become mathematically impossible for many of these students to pass, wondering an d pleading about what can be done (500 points of extra credit?) to get Junior a passing grade. The worst part is the internal pressure the administration puts on teachers to give undeserving kids a free ride and let them matriculate through the system in spite of clearly being unable to demonstrate proficiency and mastery of any of the content and standards they were responsible for that year. My take is that it is the in-trench implementation of the ill-conceived Bush "No Child Left Behind" program. In actuality, no child is to be left behind while classmates advance grades and actually held responsible for doing the required work – let them slide, it' snot your problem, water down the material, and just do your job until your students' miserable performance on the state achievement tests dictates that YOU should be fired while the students and their parents remain blameless. A teacher at my wife's school told the administration she would teach to address the standards, no more and no less, and the students that didn't pass at the end of the year would not graduate. She kept her word and failed a large number of students. The administration threatened her with termination if she didn't pass them and she refused. Word of the threats got out to the other schools in the system and this teacher's peers voted her the county educator of the year knowing that the principal would look like a dick if he then fired her. This stuff is near and dear to me. 2061 seemed like a long way off when the NSF Project 2061 was launched (the goal is science literacy for all Americans by the date of Haley's Comet's return to earth in 2061). Now, I'm pretty convinced we won't make it unless there are sweeping changes in the American ecudation system, including remediating the s*** out of the students until they can perform at grade and not letting them go on until they can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen Prawn Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 Parents in typical two-working parent families offer no help for the first 3 marking periods because they have their own stuff to deal with and have decided that the school system can function as a babysitting service and juvenile corrections facility even at the expense of the education they are supposed to be getting. I guess my parents were a-typical working parents. When the teachers would strike she gave my brother and sister assignments to do during the day. She checked homework when they were in class and if she couldn't help them with homework (i.e. she didn't understand some of the math homework or science homework), I did. It's not working parents as much as parents who in general don't give a damn regardless of whether they were working or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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