Comments on: Math Creates Spin, Reactionaries, Murderers and Even Worse: SOLDIERS!

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:48:22 +0000

Wow, this is sad. Here I am a “Gary” writing about how extensively used fractions are in our world and a different “Gary” says they are next to never used.

Sheesh. We were left with no alternative but to home school our daughter because all public school or virtual public school options heavily pushed Everyday Math. After getting tired of seeing her lost on Math and losing interest in the topic, the Math major & teacher in me took over.

Back to the basics. Only a solid understanding of the core or elementary math can help on the higher level math. The only calculator I really ever used in my Math major was your standard solar powered calculator. Trying to calculate e to the x was a bit time consuming.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:45:25 +0000

I enjoyed reading your post. You make some good points.

By: Matthew K. Tabor

Matthew K. Tabor — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:02:36 +0000

ms_teacher,

The panel’s report echoed your sentiment to a slight degree – that early mastery is an important part of succeeding in algebra and beyond.

By: Matthew K. Tabor

Matthew K. Tabor — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:52:51 +0000

Michelle,

I wonder exactly how your guidance counselor would describe and diagnose that conceptual wall between Geometry and Trigonometry.

I also wonder how he/she performed on the Quantitative portion of the GRE. If they were anything like the average guidance counselor in the United States – for the sake of argument, let’s put them at the mean – then they got exactly a 500 on the Quantitative section. That puts them at the 25th percentile among all test-takers.

For comparison’s sake, those studying History at the graduate level averaged a 556.

So, yes, the 25th percentile of math scorers [and remember, half of them scored below that] is advising students on which math courses to take.

I’m not suggesting that one absolutely needs to be a scholar in a subject to make decent course recommendations, but when those with a full-time job advising students ought to be a bit further from the bottom than this disgraceful lot.

By: ms_teacher

ms_teacher — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:03:21 +0000

Thanks for the link. Please understand I was speaking out of frustration. I strongly believe that if our students had a better understanding of elementary mathematics, they might be able to perform better in higher level mathematics. However as math is currently taught, I think that there are some serious gaps, but then the expectation is that ALL kids will take higher level math, even if they are not adequately prepared for it.

By: Michelle (The Beartwinsmom)

Michelle (The Beartwinsmom) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:38:53 +0000

Considering the fact that it took me two times to pass Algebra I (I barely passed it in high school, so I had to take the remedial Algebra in college before I could take Algebra II), I’m not going to touch this one. (wink).

Although, I will say that I still hold a bit of disdain against my high school counselor who told me, “Don’t go beyond Geometry. You just don’t have a mind for math.” Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr