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The Evolution of Math In Public Schools (364 hits)

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King 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".

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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?

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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?

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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.

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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 birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? (There are no wrong answers)

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Teaching Math In 2005: El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. >La cuesta de production es............. :-\

True or False?

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Sunday, October 26th 2008 at 8:54PM
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Funny thing happened today as I was going through the McDonald's drive through with my family. My husband has the habit of wanting to get rid of small change which embarrasses the heck out of me. We bought 2 small coffees, 2 muffins, and 1 garden salad that ended up costing $5 and some odd change. Guess what? My husband gave the girl all change and she just looked at the change and put it in the register. Is this a trip or what? I have noticed that it isn't just the young kids, but adults as well do this.

I won't go as far to insinuate that these people can't count, but perhaps they are a bit on the lazy side. LoL Some people will ask me if this is the correct change and when I say yes, they will put the change in the drawer without counting it. Has anyone else experienced this? Aren't some schools allowing kids to use calculators? Not for trig and calculus..... special education classes where the kids are on ritalin and drugged up....
Sunday, October 26th 2008 at 9:43PM
Jen Fad

False. Unfortunately, what you are speaking of is the fact that the vast majority of mathematics teachers are people who can do mathematics and not many who actually understand mathematics and are able to convey the ideas to anyone. Our children don't do well because their teachers can't answer the 'why' questions. The best and brightest rarely enter the education field because we live in a capitalist society, where the amount of money you make determines your status. How many parents ask their children to calculate the change in any financial transaction? Educating our children isn't only the role of the schools but parents as well. We are also under the misconception that anyone can teach. Many people who enter the education field enter it because they can't do anything else and are poorly armed. Their inadequacies become the inadequacies of their students; perpetuating a cycle that, unfortunately, continues throughout their school experience. Many of our students never get a chance to have a teacher that not only understands the subject but also is able to make it accessible to them. Real teachers have a passion for their subject and it inspires their students to want to learn for the sake of learning. As a mathematics teacher, I always taught those students that struggled with mathematics. I developed a practice that helped students to at least reach their grade level, and in many cases, exceed it, in one year. If you really want a student to feel good about themselves, teach them how to think and reason. Students feel good when they are successful. With success comes pride. This should be the cycle educators strive for.
Sunday, October 26th 2008 at 10:38PM
George Milliken

This is what I have found out about math and how it is taught. Some people just get math, period. A problem may have 5 steps to it before reaching the answer. Here is the issue. Some teachers will skip some of the steps when working out the problem on the board (some students will still get the answer), it is the other students that need to see every step that fall through the cracks of understanding math. If a student that processes math is teamed with a teacher that processes math the same way, I think one would see better results. I also believe that for those students that don't need to see all steps, if they're team with that type of teacher they will not feel like it is moving too slow for them. Our children are not being taught to learn anymore, they are being taught to pass test, therefore most of the information is not retained.
Monday, October 27th 2008 at 2:48PM
Marquerite Burgess