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Nope, I do know more math than an average citizen though, but I never really had much use for it. I would say that significant % of sci&eng jobs dont really require math past basic arithmetics. As things get more specialized and computerized, as population grows % of jobs requiring math proficiency will further shrink. That's why this STEM propaganda is so amuzingly dishonest. People who are proud of their math inspired critical thinking cannot apply those famed critical thinking skills to something so obvious. Instead of carpet bombing general population with doomed to be forgotten math, we should look for the gifted kids and make sure they'd work in appropriate careers utilizing their gifts.
Nope, I do know more math than an average citizen though, but I never really had much use for it. I would say that significant % of sci&eng jobs dont really require math past basic arithmetics. As things get more specialized and computerized, as population grows % of jobs requiring math proficiency will further shrink. That's why this STEM propaganda is so amuzingly dishonest. People who are proud of their math inspired critical thinking cannot apply those famed critical thinking skills to something so obvious. Instead of carpet bombing general population with doomed to be forgotten math, we should look for the gifted kids and make sure they'd work in appropriate careers utilizing their gifts.
I am self-employed plumber, not a rocket scientist. I own my small home improvement business. Doing practical math is my daily routine. A while ago, we had a young man as temporary helper. He had no clue that "3/4 is double of 3/8. I feel that younger generation has less basic math skills than the older one.
Death march to Calculus is crazy. But math proficiency is still required by many employers. With higher minimum wage, those math illiterates may be first to weeded out by small business owners.
Many of you citing the studies (foreign) that show "tracking" lowers overall quality, don't seem to understand that in many foreign countries, the cultures/ethic/experience, whatever is very close, certainly much closer than in the US of A.
Here, when we refuse to group children of like ability together, we are getting incredible variance in the students. And moreso the parents, which are the true engine for academic achievement.
It has not worked and it will not work.
If I was king, and woe be to many if that was the case, we would cull, yes, cull, under-performers at frequent intervals. They would be relegated to a life of hard working and low paying jobs. Those that remained in school would have an ever increasing quality learning environment with unlimited opportunities.
Think about it, we put people on the moon in a situation, similar, but not as severe as this. Those guys with the slide rules, short sleeve shirts and pocket protectors were in elite classes. You betcha!
Many of you citing the studies (foreign) that show "tracking" lowers overall quality, don't seem to understand that in many foreign countries, the cultures/ethic/experience, whatever is very close, certainly much closer than in the US of A.
Here, when we refuse to group children of like ability together, we are getting incredible variance in the students. And moreso the parents, which are the true engine for academic achievement.
It has not worked and it will not work.
If I was king, and woe be to many if that was the case, we would cull, yes, cull, under-performers at frequent intervals. They would be relegated to a life of hard working and low paying jobs. Those that remained in school would have an ever increasing quality learning environment with unlimited opportunities.
Think about it, we put people on the moon in a situation, similar, but not as severe as this. Those guys with the slide rules, short sleeve shirts and pocket protectors were in elite classes. You betcha!
Some European countries already do that, don't they? Or did they stop doing that? Germany still does that, and sends the under-performers to trade school beginning in middle-school or so. Doesn't it? Or was your post sarcasm?
I new an Italian student in Romania. His mother was Romanian, so he was offered a full college scholarship from an organization under Ceausescu that was aimed at bringing Romanian descendants abroad back into the fold, so to speak. This guy had been relegated to trade school, a future life of nothing but factory work, or the equivalent. He grabbed the opportunity to get a college degree, and went all the way through the PhD level, all free. He went back to Italy (probably after doing the required few years of teaching in Romania, to repay the gov't), and landed a career as a university professor, and lived happily ever after.
I don't know why some kids get shunted off to trade school; some of them may be bright kids, but they misbehave in class, or ....? In the US, I've seen bright kids placed in the slow tracks just because they were Native American or some other minority. That's one reason tracking doesn't work; the people who make the decisions for the children are all-too-human.
On the other hand, I was awfully grateful when it came time to take advanced math/Trigonometry in HS, that they offered an easy track! I never would have passed the course in the other section. But the choice was left entirely up to the students, not to teachers, counselors or administrators.
"If Shanghai is a showcase of Chinese educational progress, America’s showcase would be Massachusetts, which has routinely scored higher than all other states on America’s main federal math test in recent years.
But in a 2007 study that correlated the results of that test with the results of an international math exam, Massachusetts students scored behind Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. Shanghai did not participate in the test."
Our showcase is significantly less spectacular than Shanghai. Asian competitors have much more high math achievers (level 5 or 6) than MA and CT, the top 2 US states. Massachusetts compares favorably to Canada or Western Europe. It seems Singapore math outshines Finland math.
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