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Then you have this that almost made my oldest fail because the way he had been taught for years (read your questions, then read the passage to answer your questions) https://www.khanacademy.org/test-pre...rature-passage
Yeah, didn't need to read past ;100 percent of students will....
Ridiculous ambition.
It s a one size fits all ridiculous standard.
Look, they taught children how to read in the "Old World" for centuries, with pretty much "one size fits all" approach.
But Americans decided to turn the process into *science* and implement the "individual approach."
What you see is the result of it.
Then you have this that almost made my oldest fail because the way he had been taught for years (read your questions, then read the passage to answer your questions) https://www.khanacademy.org/test-pre...rature-passage
In an effort to make things "more accessible," they have actually made things more obscure for the overwhelming majority of students. Rather than sitting the student down, explaining the concept, and telling him/her to now learn it, they try to figure ways around the concept. It turns out to be a Rube Goldberg machine--a concept that is now explained poorly in ten pages which was once explained concisely in one paragraph. The height of academics was the early twentieth century. But by using an algebra text from 1905, we are denying a modern publishing company the three hundred dollars a new math text now typically costs--then of course, there is the added expense of infuriatingly dreadful software.
Common core basically moves education away from less memorization and towards more critical thinking. Basically, it’s a threat to creating future Republicans.
Last edited by Winter_Sucks; 01-20-2018 at 05:57 AM..
It's a set of standards set by an organization called The National Governors Association and each state voluntarily agrees to comply. Not all have.
It's a federal program masquerading as a "state" program. $$$ to buy in, no $$ if you don't.
The organization has a nifty title too since the states had NO INPUT. Neither did the state governors. And the association is a PRIVATE not GOVT organization. How's that for misleading advertising?
Just like a peacemaker is NOT a missile that kills people. Nifty title that has nothing to do with what is really happening.
You made a claim as well. So don't play that game.
But, here are some examples:
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A College Algebra - Henry Burchard Fine (1905) (I cannot post the entire text here, but you can find it on Amazon)
Here are the typical reviews for such books (NOT my review):
I discovered a shelf of old antiquarian algebra books in my university library and upon reading them I must admit I was astonished to see the incredible contrast between how rigorously algebra was taught in the past and how depressingly watered down the subject is now. This book was first printed in 1905 and I found a few others printed in the 1880's, All of which are absolutely phenomenal books, seriously the subject of algebra is built from the ground up rigorously and if you look at the tables of contents of these older books you will likely be as shocked as myself when you see just how much ground they cover. We as a society need to make a return to teaching algebra in the way it used to be taught and stop watering the subject down. I bought this book and have been reading it whenever I find the time and enjoying every opportunity I get to dip into it. By the way I also want to recommend an old algebra book, the book that got me started on my recent algebra text collecting, higher algebra by Hall and Knight, it was originally printed in the 1880's, but it is a phenomenal book as well.
Response:
I couldn't agree with you more about these math books from around 1900. I have been collecting them (not just algebra, but also geometry, trig. and calculus/analysis) and there are some real gems. Many of them have exercises that contain exam. problems from the time (many from Oxford and Cambridge) and the level is far more difficult than today. Try Durrel's Advanced Trigonometry (many of the topics would be in a calculus/analysis course today) and, my favorite for algebra, Chrystal's Textbook of Algebra (2 vols., originally published 1886).
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Or this one: Differential And Integral Calculus: For Technical Schools And Colleges (1898) - Preston Albert Lambert
This would have been considered watered-down in its day (it was for "technical schools," not mathematics students). This textbook's material is now split into five semesters of higher math. Calc through ODEs and PDEs, and even some differential geometry that is seldom covered even for math majors.
Compare it with the calculus text you used in college and honestly note the differences. Turn to a random problem set in the middle of the book and try some of it (you know this stuff because you went through the class, right?). Be honest in deciding if what you were taught might be a little watered down compared to this.
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I have a degree in math with an emphasis in statistics/computing. After graduating and examining texts of yesteryear, I realized, even as a math major, how watered down the curriculum really was. I spent four or five years going over some of this stuff from the past on my own. It was an eyeopener to say the least. And this was twenty years ago. It's far worse now as we let technology do more and more of our thinking for us. Math major programs, as a whole, are not AS watered down--at least at the grad level. But everything else...
Since you have been through stats and calculus, here is an elementary basic math problem for you:
Without using any electronic device or tabulated aid, find the square root of 39 to ten decimal places. All you get is a pencil and a piece of paper. You can't "ask Alexa." And do it as quickly as you can do long division by hand.
At one time, that was one of the most basic things taught in the first couple of years of grade school. My grandfather could do that and he was a farmer all of his life who didn't go to school past eighth grade. When and if you went to college you were taught rigorous mathematics that are rarely seen today except by PhD mathematics candidates. "Common knowledge" university math as taught today is essentially learning how to manipulate a calculator/computer and solve routine manipulative or computational problems via technology.
Wow... I'd like to point out that utilizing Amazon reviews for proof would be unacceptable on any collegiate level. Also, as far as claims I made, I said this:
Quote:
I’m currently in college and my required math classes were statistics and calculus for my BS.
I’d love to see any facts supporting your claims. Your individual university lowering their standards does not make it a standard everywhere, nor does it make it “common”.
From the get go my claim was asking you to support yours as I find it difficult to believe.
Also, your claim that math is watered down because we use electronics to answer questions is ridiculous. Check the year, it is 2018. We don't live in a world where a farmer needs to know how to find the square root of 39 nor do we live in a world where knowing how to do so by hand is needed.
That being said, not only could I do it, but so could my 12 year old. She's in pre-algebra. She doesn't have a book at home with her but once I gave her the formula for how to solve it she could do it.
We live in a world surrounded by technology, to make qualms about people using it when that is part of why it exists in the first place seems silly. The book you linked wasn't too terribly different from what was used in my own class, I had an excellent professor as well who made everything easier to understand (at least for me).
At this point you've not provided any concrete evidence (math books from the era you're referring to, curriculum, anything of the sort). The book you referenced was written by a Princeton professor... he's not exactly going to be writing about college algebra for the basic university student considering he taught at Princeton. Oh, and you posted the only review on Amazon that had any length to it at all. Again, that's not really evidence.
It's a federal program masquerading as a "state" program. $$$ to buy in, no $$ if you don't.
The organization has a nifty title too since the states had NO INPUT. Neither did the state governors. And the association is a PRIVATE not GOVT organization. How's that for misleading advertising?
Just like a peacemaker is NOT a missile that kills people. Nifty title that has nothing to do with what is really happening.
It's a truly lousy program, I'm not arguing for it.
As a retired HS teacher, I was on the front lines of watching govt edicts erode education over the past 15 years and Common Core is just another corporate initiative to stress high stakes testing, which shovels billions of dollars away from schools and into the bank accounts of the corporations that compose and score the tests.
But it isn't a federal program.
If it was, states wouldn't have the option to not adopt it.
It's a truly lousy program, I'm not arguing for it.
As a retired HS teacher, I was on the front lines of watching govt edicts erode education over the past 15 years and Common Core is just another corporate initiative to stress high stakes testing, which shovels billions of dollars away from schools and into the bank accounts of the corporations that compose and score the tests.
But it isn't a federal program.
If it was, states wouldn't have the option to not adopt it.
You are right, it's not a Federal Program. But remember they also implemented RTT..a bucket of over $4 billion dollars..FREE MONEY to states if they signed up and 48 states were tripping over themselves to get in line.
That's how the Fed got control...dangling $$$$ to states.
DoE Inspector General's report in 2014 stated that some states were still in the planning phase; RTT money was not taken away.
There was still no annual reports made of RTT spending sent to DC nor produced by the DoE.
Tens of billions of dollars were "lost" to fraud, abuse, misspending by individuals and entire school districts.
There was no accountability and no control.
Common core basically moves education away from less memorization and towards more critical thinking. Basically, it’s a threat to creating future Republicans.
Common core basically moves education away from less memorization and towards more critical thinking. Basically, it’s a threat to creating future Republicans.
There is very little "critical thinking" going on in K-12 today.
It's a nice mantra to chant but it's hallow.
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