[sparkscoffee] Fw: Math
- From: "schalestock@xxxxxxxx" <schalestock@xxxxxxxx>
- To: sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2013 22:39:04 GMT
Wonder why today's elementary school honor roll students have trouble with
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division? Read Michelle's latest
column on the subject (especially the part highlighted in red that explains why
the situation will get even worse soon thanks to new Federal rules encouraging
schools to dumb down their curriculum):
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January 23, 2013 12:00 A.M.Common Core Corrupts
The Obama administration is corrupting education.By Michelle Malkin
inShare9 PrintText Comments 79Michelle Malkin America�s downfall
doesn�t begin with the �low-information voter.� It starts
with the no-knowledge student. For decades, collectivist agitators in our
schools have chipped away at academic excellence in the name of fairness,
diversity, and social justice. �Progressive� reformers denounced
Western-civilization requirements, the Founding Fathers, and the Great Books as
racist. They attacked traditional grammar classes as irrelevant in modern life.
They deemed grouping students by ability to be bad for self-esteem. They
replaced time-tested rote techniques and standard algorithms with fuzzy math,
inventive spelling, and multicultural claptrap.
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Under President Obama, these top-down mal-formers � empowered by
Washington education bureaucrats and backed by misguided liberal
philanthropists led by billionaire Bill Gates � are now presiding over a
radical makeover of your children�s school curriculum. It�s being
done in the name of federal �Common Core� standards that do
anything but set the achievement bar high.
Common Core was enabled by Obama�s federal stimulus law and his
Department of Education�s �Race to the Top� gimmickry. The
administration bribed cash-starved states into adopting unseen instructional
standards as a condition of winning billions of dollars in grants. Even states
that lost their bids for Race to the Top money were required to commit to a
dumbed-down and amorphous curricular �alignment.�
In practice, Common Core�s dubious �college-ready� and
�career-ready� standards undermine local control of education,
usurp state autonomy over curricular materials, and foist untested, mediocre,
and incoherent pedagogical theories on America�s schoolchildren.
Over the next several weeks and months, I�ll use this column space to
expose who�s behind this disastrous scheme in D.C. backrooms.
I�ll tell you who�s fighting it in grassroots tea-party and
parental revolts across the country from Massachusetts to Indiana, Texas,
Georgia, and Utah. And most important, I�ll explain how this
unprecedented federal meddling is corrupting our children�s classrooms
and textbooks.
There�s no better illustration of Common Core�s duplicitous talk
of higher standards than to start with its math �reforms.� While
Common Core promoters assert their standards are �internationally
benchmarked,� independent members of the expert panel in charge of
validating the standards refute the claim. Panel member Dr. Sandra Stotsky of
the University of Arkansas reported, �No material was ever provided to
the Validation Committee or to the public on the specific college readiness
expectations of other leading nations in mathematics� or other subjects.
In fact, Stanford University professor James Milgram, the only mathematician on
the validation panel, concluded that the Common Core math scheme would place
American students two years behind their peers in other high-achieving
countries. In protest, Milgram refused to sign off on the standards.
He�s not alone.
Professor Jonathan Goodman of New York University found that the Common Core
math standards imposed �significantly lower expectations with respect to
algebra and geometry than the published standards of other countries.�
Under Common Core, as the American Principles Project and Pioneer Institute
point out, algebra I instruction is pushed to ninth grade, instead of eighth
grade, when it is traditionally taught. Division is postponed from fifth to
sixth grade. Prime factorization, common denominators, conversions of fractions
and decimals, and algebraic manipulation are de-emphasized or eschewed.
Traditional Euclidean geometry is replaced with an experimental approach that
had not been previously pilot-tested in the U.S.
Ze�ev Wurman, a prominent software architect, electrical engineer, and
longtime math-advisory expert in California and Washington, D.C., points out
that Common Core delays proficiency with addition and subtraction until 4th
grade and proficiency with basic multiplication until 5th grade, and skimps on
logarithms, mathematical induction, parametric equations, and trigonometry at
the high-school level.
I cannot sum up the stakes any more clearly than Wurman did in his critique of
this mess and the vested interests behind it:
I believe the Common Core marks the cessation of educational standards
improvement in the United States. No state has any reason left to aspire for
first-rate standards, as all states will be judged by the same mediocre
national benchmark enforced by the federal government. Moreover, there are
organizations that have reasons to work for lower and less-demanding standards,
specifically teachers unions� and professional teacher organizations.
While they may not admit it, they have a vested interest in lowering the
accountability bar for their members. . . . This will be done in the name of
�critical thinking� and �21st-century� skills, and
in faraway Washington, D.C., well beyond the reach of parents and most states
and employers.
This is all in keeping with my own experience as a parent of elementary- and
middle-school age kids who were exposed to �Everyday Math�
nonsense. This and other fads abandon �drill and kill�
memorization techniques for fuzzy �critical thinking� methods
that put the cart of �why� in front of the horse of
�how.� In other words: Instead of doing the grunt work of
hammering times tables and basic functions into kids� heads first, the
faddists have turned to wacky, wordy non-math alternatives to encourage
�conceptual� understanding � without any mastery of the
fundamentals of math.
Common Core is rotten to the core. The corruption of math education is just the
beginning.
#######################
If you still have the stomach for it, here's a more humorous treatment of the
problem...
Years of Math 1950 - 2010 1. Teaching Math In 1950s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of
the price. What is his profit ?
2. Teaching Math In 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?
3. Teaching Math In1970s
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80.
Did he make a profit?
4. Teaching Math In 1980s
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.
5. Teaching Math In 1990s
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate
and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our
woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20.. What do you think of
this way of making a
living?
Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds
and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong
answers, and if you feel like crying, it's ok. )
6. Teaching Math In 2009
Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones
es $80. Cuanto
dinero ha hecho? 7.Teaching Math In 2013Who cares, just steal the lumber from
your rich neighbor's property. He won't have a gun to stop you, and the
President says it's OK anyway cuz it's redistributing the wealth.
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