Seattlest: School Board Delays Discovering Algebra

Dan_Dempsey

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:44:57 -0800

this is really a serious topic... check it out at: http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/ Do not let the School Board and Central Administration off the hook again for their continued failure to select adequate materials for mathematics.

TroyJMorris

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:00:56 -0800

Show off. I like how this thread just became a scholastic bragging thread.

TroyJMorris

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:59:51 -0800

Show off.

Finn

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:58:38 -0800

The world will end in 2012 if, and only if, you adhere to the Mayan calender, Swidler... That is soooo 12.19.0.0.18. I, on the other hand, rely on the predictions of my lucky astrology mood-watch - It is reddish-green right now; I ate a churro.

Kim P.

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:18:11 -0800

Blahhhh, all this talk about math hurts my head. I still have scary childhood flash backs about geometry homework. Math teachers certainly deserve more credit, but they can only do so much in the class (or even after school), ask my Dad, Algebra II/Trig homework nearly gave him a heart attack. Needless to say, I graduated college with honors, from the school of communications.

Kim P.

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:01:05 -0800

Show-off

davidswidler

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:30:13 -0800

It's not like any of this matters, the world is going to end in 2012.

LarryB

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:07:54 -0800

I don't think that parental ability to help should even be a consideration. When I was a kid, I didn't know anyone who asked their parents for help with math because we knew that what we were learing was something most of our parents were never taught. (I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn.) Kids who needed help turned to each other by forming study groups, and some parents hired tutors if it was really needed. As far as texts go, approaches to teaching math are pretty much religious wars. Do you teach set theory, symbolic logic and Euclidean geometry at the same time because they're really the same thing, or treat them separately. How to you teach Trigonometry? As a single subject, or in conjunction with geometry? And how do you make sure kids have basic Trig before they learn about AC or basic optics in Physics. It's a tough problem, and it's tough to have enough information to even form a meaningful opinion unless you're knee (or neck) deep in the issue.

TroyJMorris

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:01:35 -0800

I say we force everyone to go through pre-calc. And before anybody whines "I can't do math" stfu. I whined that same whine in the 3rd grade and graduated calculus in my junior year of high school. It's called having to work hard at something that's not easy for you to grow and become a better person. Sure as hell I forgot my triagularian formulas, but it gave me character to still cheer for the Seahawks.

MvB

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:45:13 -0800

If anyone sees anything like this happening, PLEASE take a picture and it to us. And then, you know, try to save the teacher. If you have time.

Finn

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:37:20 -0800

Yes, let's just stay with the good ol' math books that we've been using - they've been working sooo well. Let's just streamline this bad-boy and make kids ONLY study for math that they will find on standerdized tests so that the state can justify the huge cash outlay of the wonderfully bankrupt WASL... Oh wait, we already tried that. At this rate kids in Washington State public schools are going to be so afraid of math they are going to view it as some form of witchcraft - look out for roving packs of 5th graders throwing math teachers in to lakes to see if they float or setting them on fire.

Seth

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:28:12 -0800

Algebra's only a theory, anyway.