The New Math, Let's Hear It For Our Public Education System!!

[Eightball]

It's humorous, yet sad all at the same time. I know that not all schools are like this, but if some are teaching this way, we've got some big problems ahead.

Regards, Eightballsidepocket

"Nothing should be said anonymously behind a P.C., that can't be respectfully said in person"

The New Math

"Last week I purchased a burger for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2
and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and
gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while
looking at the screen on her register.

I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two
quarters, but she hailed the manager for help.

While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and
cried."

Why do I tell you this?

Please read more about the "history of teaching math":


Teaching Math In 1950

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 1960

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 1970

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.
His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?


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?
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 2005

El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. La
cuesta de production es.......

 

[Annie]

I believe that sums it up! (pun intended).

 

[Mr. P]

Gawd help em when the battery fails in their calculator.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

Gawd help em when the battery fails in their calculator.

You mean they still can use a calculator these days?

http://www.mackinac.org/article.asp?ID=6954

Dare We Compare?
How American Students Stack up Against the Competition

The results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study were released on Dec. 15, detailing the performance of fourth- and eighth-graders around the globe. On the eve of the results’ publication, I predicted:

Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong will be clustered at the top of the international heap. U.S. fourth-grade students will perform at about the average for industrialized nations, while U.S. eighth-grade students will be below the average for industrialized nations — possibly far below it.

Here’s how it played out: Among eighth-graders, the top five nations in combined mathematics and science performance were Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. Among fourth-graders, the top four nations in combined mathematics and science performance were Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (Korea did not test students in the fourth grade).

How did the United States perform compared to other industrialized nations — that is, the top 40 nations in terms of per-capita income? [1] At the fourth-grade level, American students were nine points above the average in science and 11 points below it in math, putting them almost dead average overall. At the eighth-grade level, American students were four points below average in science and 24 points below average in math, putting them clearly, but not abysmally, below the rich-country average.

The weak point in my prognostication thus appears to be my suggestion that U.S. eighth-graders’ overall performance might be "far below" the average of industrialized nations.

But perhaps it actually was.

Many nations that typically outscore the United States in math and science at the eighth-grade level did not participate in TIMSS 2003. Those countries include France, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Finland, Switzerland, Iceland and Poland.

But while they skipped TIMSS 2003, they all participated in another test of mathematics and science: the 2003 Program on International Student Achievement (PISA). Tellingly, every one of those countries significantly outscored the United States on the PISA test. In math, Canada bested us by 49 points, while Finland outscored us by 61. In science, France and Switzerland beat us by 20 and 22 points, respectively. If all of these nations had participated in TIMSS 2003, it seems likely that U.S. performance at the eighth-grade level would have been considerably further below the average of industrialized nations than it already was.

One question is often raised in response to international test comparisons: Do these results really mean anything? In the past, international testing programs have been criticized on a variety of grounds. Two allegations, in particular, have been common: first, that other nations have not tested as large a percentage of their student population, and hence their scores have been inflated; and second, that our best students are among the world’s best, with our average being brought down by a large cohort of low-achievers.

Whatever the historical validity such concerns, they are now, if anything, reversed. In science, the overall U.S. participation rate[2] at the eighth-grade was just 73 percent, the third-lowest of all 45 participating countries, and 11 points below the average participation rate of industrialized nations. In fact, the United States had the third-lowest overall participation rate for both grades in both subjects. Japan, Taiwan and Singapore all had participation percentages in the 90s.

How about our best and brightest? At the fourth-grade level, there is some truth to the idea that the best American students are among the best in the world. Looking only at the top 5 percent of test-takers, American fourth-graders beat the average of wealthy nations by 13 points. By the eighth grade, however, the tables have turned, with America’s brightest students falling 10 points behind their foreign peers.

If we carry this comparison to the final year of high school using the 1998 12th-grade TIMSS results (the most recent available), we discover that America’s top students placed last in combined science and math achievement among all the industrialized nations for which data were available. In both math and science, the gap between our best and the world’s best was substantially larger than the gap between our average performance and the average performance of other nations – not smaller, as many Americans believe.

The start of a new year is the ideal time to face reality. The notion that America’s public school problems are confined to inner cities, and that our wealthy suburbs produce world-beating high school graduates is a myth. It’s time we resolve to do better.

 

[Joz]

"Last week I purchased a burger for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her....While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried."

Teaching Math In 2005

El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. You know, I really wish this was the reason. I've done this on numerous occassions and I have a young person soooo confused, I hesitate doing it anymore. Gee whiz, you can teach a monkey to push buttons.

 

[dmp]

Reminds me of:

On my way home from the second job I've taken for the extra holiday cash I need, I stopped at Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat. In my billfold is a $50 bill and a $2 bill. That is all of the cash I have on my person. I figure that with a $2 bill, I can get something to eat and not have to worry about people getting pissed at me.

Me: "Hi, I'd like one seven layer burrito please, to go."
Clerk: "Is that it?"
Me: "Yep."
Clerk: "That'll be $1.04, eat here?"
Me: "No, it's to go." [I hate effort duplication.]

At this point I open my billfold and hand him the $2 bill. He looks at it kind of funny and says,

Clerk: "Uh, hang on a sec, I'll be right back."

He goes to talk to his manager, who is still within earshot. The following conversation occurs between the two of them.

Clerk: "Hey, you ever see a $2 bill?"
Manager: "No. A what?"
Clerk: "A $2 bill. This guy just gave it to me."
Manager: "Ask for something else, there's no such thing as a $2 bill."
Clerk: "Yeah, thought so."

He comes back to me and says,

Clerk: "We don't take these. Do you have anything else?"
Me: "Just this fifty. You don't take $2 bills? Why?"
Clerk: "I don't know."
Me: "See here where it says legal tender?"
Clerk: "Yeah."
Me: "So, shouldn't you take it?"
Clerk: "Well, hang on a sec."

He goes back to his manager who is watching me like I'm going to shoplift, and

Clerk: "He says I have to take it."
Manager: "Doesn't he have anything else?"
Clerk: "Yeah, a fifty. I'll get it and you can open the safe and get change."
Manager: "I'm not opening the safe with him in here."
Clerk: "What should I do?"
Manager: "Tell him to come back later when he has real money."
Clerk: "I can't tell him that, you tell him."
Manager: "Just tell him."
Clerk: "No way, this is weird, I'm going in back."

The manager approaches me and says,

Manager: "Sorry, we don't take big bills this time of night."
[It was 8:00pm and this particular Taco Bell is in a well-lighted indoor mall with a hundred other stores.]
Me: "Well, here's a two."
Manager: "We don't take those either."
Me: "Why the hell not?"
Manager: "I think you know why."
Me: "No really, tell me, why?"
Manager: "Please leave before I call mall security."
Me: "Excuse me?"
Manager: "Please leave before I call mall security."
Me: "What the hell for?"
Manager: "Please, sir."
Me: "Uh, go ahead, call them."
Manager: "Would you please just leave?"
Me: "No."
Manager: "Fine, have it your way then."
Me: "No, that's Burger King, isn't it?"

At this point he backs away from me and calls mall security on the phone around the corner. I have two people staring at me from the dining area, and I begin laughing out loud, just for effect.

A few minutes later, this 45-year-oldish guy comes in and says at the other end of counter, in a whisper:

Security Guard: "Yeah, Mike, what's up?"
Manager: "This guy is trying to give me some [pause] funny money."
Guard: "Really? What?"
Manager: "Get this, a two dollar bill."
Guard: "Why would a guy fake a $2 bill?" [incredulous]
Manager: "I don't know? He's kinda weird. Says the only other thing he has is a fifty."
Guard: "So, the fifty's fake?"
Manager: "No, the $2 is."
Guard: "Why would he fake a $2 bill?"
Manager: "I don't know. Can you talk to him, and get him out of here?"
Guard: "Yeah..."

Security guard walks over to me and says

Guard: "Mike here tells me you have some fake bills you're trying to use."
Me: "Uh, no."
Guard: "Lemme see 'em."
Me: "Why?"
Guard: "Do you want me to get the cops in here?"

At this point I was ready to say, "sure, please," but I wanted to eat, so I said,

Me: "I'm just trying to buy a burrito and pay for it with this $2 bill."

I put the bill up near his face, and he flinches like I was taking a swing at him. He takes the bill, turns it over a few times in his hands, and says

Guard: "Mike, what's wrong with this bill?"
Manager: "It's fake."
Guard: "It doesn't look fake to me."
Manager: "But it's a two-dollar bill."
Guard: "Yeah?"
Manager: "Well, there's no such thing, is there?"

The security guard and I both looked at him like he was an idiot, and it dawned on the guy that he had no clue.

My burrito was free and he threw in a small drink and those cinnamon things, too. Makes me want to get a whole stack of $2 bills just to see what happens when I try to buy stuff. If I got the right group of people, I could probably end up in jail. At least you get free food...

 

[Joz]

I've never heard this one before. And you usually have to have a degree & experience to be a manager

 

[KarlMarx]

This reminds me of something that happened to me a few years ago.

I was working late one night. When I got out of work, I decided to stop at a Burger King for dinner (that's a home cooked meal if you're a bachelor! . While I was waiting for my order at the counter, a girl of about 16 or 17 was filling out an employment form nearby. After a minute or so, she asked the boy behind the counter (who she obviously knew), "How do you spell "schedule"? He gave her a hard time about it (probably because he didn't know how to spell it, either), so I spelled it ouf for her, "S-C-H-E-D-U-L-E". The boy looked at me and said "She's SOOOO ignorant!", to which she retorted "Well, I don't have to know how to spell! That's what 'spell check' is for!" (referring to the spell check feature in Microsoft Word). After I got my meal I walked away shaking my head.

 

[insein]

the dumbing of america. Communists unite. Your plan is succeeding.