Sometimes reading King's blog on the latest in academia gives me nightmares. For example this comparison of the index of math books tells you all you need to know about the disintegration of public education. The index for the letter F in a 1973 math book:
In the 1973 book, for example, the index for the letter "F" included "factors, factoring, fallacies, finite decimal, finite set, formulas, fractions, and functions."
Seems pretty normal, eh? Math terms. Pretty much what you'd expect to find. How does that compare to the index in a 1998 textbook?
" In the 1998 book, the index listed "families (in poverty data), fast food nutrition data, fat in fast food, feasibility study, feeding tours, ferris wheel, fish, fishing, flags, flight, floor plan, flower beds, food, football, Ford Mustang, franchises, and fund-raising carnival."
I could just throw up. It's everything you need to know about why our kids are scoring lower in comparison to their international peers. Chock full of social propaganda crap.
My kids are in public school and I've felt they've been pretty insulated here in the country from the radical agenda pushed in urban schools. (We still have Christmas concerts. Shhh. Don't tell. I feel like part of a subversive underground every time I attend one. I'm even afraid to blog about it because I know we have at least one ACLU wacko locally who's made trouble for one local school board.)
But wait! There's more!
"How often does your 6th-grade daughter have oral sex?"
If the question offends you, then talk to the school officials at Shrewsbury, Mass. But don't expect a sympathetic response.
When Mark Fisher protested quizzing his 12-year-old daughter about oral sex (among other topics), the school authorities asserted their right to gather such information without his consent.
Yes. They must have my express written permission to give my child an aspirin. They will suspend my child for making a gun with their hand. But, it's none of my bloody business if they want to take my daughter to have an abortion or quiz a child about oral sex.
We don't have a lot of options where we live, but I've been threatening the kids with private christian school, an idea they're not very keen on. The more crap I read like this, the more I'm thinking that train may have already left the station.
I never thought before of teaching math as a political/cultural effort before. Now that I come to think of it the concept of "SOCIAL utility problems" to practically learn math concepts has been around since the turn of the last century. How much of the comparison of the topics in the "73" index which I would describe as raw math skills as opposed to the "98" index of "practical applications" is the result of a concerted effort to "socialize" the subject matter I'm not sure..but certainly graduates should at least know the formal concept names; factoring, finite, factoring etc. if they are going to succeed academically.
Posted by: honnistaibe | June 23, 2005 at 12:29 AM
Social utility problems?
Like how many homeless people could be fed by one of Ronald Ray-Gun's battleships?
I'll bet you get a different answer to that question in Bandar Aceh than you would in Minneapolis/St. Paul?
Posted by: aelfheld | June 23, 2005 at 12:43 AM
Jack and Jill went up the hill. Jack walked at 4 miles and hour. Jill walked at 3 miles an hour. Which will get to the top of the hill first?
Rafael Palmeiro has 65 hits in 214 at bats. What is his batting average?
In the "jargon" of the teaching profession..those are what have ALWAYS been called "social utility problems"..All of you had them when you were at any level of schooling. They are supposed to supplement the teaching of math concepts..not supplant or indocrinate..although maybe as Sandy's post suggests this is changing.
Posted by: honnistaibe | June 23, 2005 at 08:18 AM