This is downright bizarre. Mississippi removed decimal paces and fractions from its mathematics curriculum?
It happened nearly a decade ago. I wasn't blogging then so I didn't report it.
"This has absolutely nothing to do with religion," she told reporters at a press conference Friday morning. "We're simply seeking to make mathematics more accessible to schoolchildren by de-emphasizing the elements that so many of them find confusing. It makes no sense to try to train our students how to think logically, then present them with nonsensical concepts such as 'irrational' and 'imaginary' numbers."
Senate minority leader Cora Tull indicated that religion did play a part in the passage of the legislation, however, maintaining that "if cardinality is good enough for the Catholic church, it ought to be good enough for the children of the great state of Mississippi." She added that "'improper fractions' have no place in any respectable school system, public or
private."
Wha happened? Huh? Come again? Wha?
I didn't exactly excel in math but these dudes sure take their suspicion and ignorance of math to another level.
I wonder how this is working out.
A whole generation of kids will be taught to be hooked on creationism while not being able to comprehend mathematical nuances .
Impressive.
OK, so the Wall and Bay Streets wizards must have been schooled in Missippi.
ReplyDeleteOnce you wrote that Religion (Christianity) favoured Renaissance, Science and Enlightenment ... I didn't want to comment at that time .... :-)
ReplyDeleteMoR, we are talking deep US south christian fundamentalists here, roughfly the christian equivalent of the taliban.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, this dumbing down of the curriculum is not due to Christian backwardness, but the requirements of the 'No Child Left Behind' act.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/dgckp4
But in Como and other poor, rural districts around the country, the law's regimen of testing and sanctions has had little, if any, effect.
''Despite abysmal test scores, Como {Elementary School] earned a passing grade under No Child Left Behind, largely because the standards of student proficiency, which are determined individually by the states, have been set so low in Mississippi. Its small size also exempts it from some standards.''
If the students can't pass the law seems to encourage lowering the bar so that more can 'pass.'
It's nothing to do with religion unless you count liberalism as a religion.
Anonymous: lowering the bar so that more can pass seems good to me, I understand.
ReplyDeletePaul & Anonymous: in the ancient Roman and Greek religion there were no fundamentalists. An example, I don't want to get back there lol.
I mean, when there are supreme truths and revealed books, the system "can" (not necessarily though) engender fundamentalists. An observation, not criticism of Christianity which has brought a lot of good ethics
Well, well, also liberalism sometimes … but no sacred books there at least (or am I wrong?) ;-)
Gentleman,
ReplyDeleteAnonymous (state your name!), is right. It doesn't come from the religious side but the secular side through the 'NCLB.' However, wasn't this introduced by Bush? If so, it's not a produce of liberalism - although the idea of making everything egalitarian as a whole in schools is. They think this will help to enhance self-esteem. I think this is misleading. Maybe the kid will earn a ribbon just for participating and feel good for sometime but once in the real world where competition is real it can come crashing down. Thus, all school was to self-esteem was a "fix" akin to a heroin shot. Up one sec, down the next.
The dumbing down of standards is taking place across North America.
In some schools, teachers/professors have refused to even give grades.
... feel good for sometime but once in the real world where competition is real it can come crashing down.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. When I was a teacher I was raising the bar, not lowering it down. Type of marine training, to better prepare them. But some cases, some areas ... hard to say. I have doubts. When you are a drop-out and your self-esteem is under your shoes like sh**, one might really go down the drain. I've seen many students go down the drain, not useful to themselves and to society anymore, I'd even say dangerous to both.
But definitely I am against the dumbing down of standards. Yes, totally agaist.
I think the cases of Europe and North America are different. From what I hear and read, Europe still maintains tough educational standards at the pre-university/college level.
ReplyDeleteThe "lowering of standards/expectations" is a North American phenomena I think.
I hope Obama can do something about it. He said he would. He might know the world of drop-outs better than us.
ReplyDeletePS
ReplyDeleteBy the way, did you guys see the movie 'Freedom writers' ? It was a good movie, taken from a real teaching experience in difficult LA multiracial areas.
No I haven't.
ReplyDeleteI'd hate to run across one of these kids working behind a counter. I better get my change back! :)
ReplyDeleteActually, NCLB was written and introduced by Ted Kennedy. Bush was an idiot for signing it.
Ah, Ted Kennedy! I shoulda known!
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Bobo.
Either way, Bush brought it in. So. Was he blamed for NCLB too?