Former Cornell University Professor Advocates Maintaining Dumbed Down Students

[From article]
The American left, and the educational establishment it controls, has always wanted a readily controllable population produced by schools, but leftists usually write and speak in misleading euphemisms (“outcome based” or “critical thinking,” for example) to disguise their intent. But Andrew Hacker, former Cornell and Queens College professor, a man who has been a leading light of the left for many decades and is now well into his eighties, has lost some of his inhibitions in his old age and is openly advocating giving up on teaching American children algebra, apparently willing to cede to our Chinese, Japanese, European and – hell, just about everywhere else – masters the role of scientists and technologists in the era when these skills determine the fate of economies and civilizations.
[. . .]
Hacker’s reasoning is chilling:
The professor also claims that a measly 5 percent of all occupations — and perhaps less — require algebra or any other sort of advanced math.
Instead of learning how to solve rudimentary equations, Hacker argues, American high schoolers should be presented with a math curriculum concentrating on statistics and number sense. (Number sense is an en-vogue academic buzzword for the ability to estimate and compare numbers.)
[. . .]
Hacker is part of what Dan Luskin memorably called “the conspiracy to keep you poor and stupid.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/famous_lefty_professor_argues_that_algebra_is_too_hard_for_american_kids.html

March 29, 2016
Famous lefty professor argues that algebra is too hard for American kids
By Thomas Lifson