Magazine Reveals Flaws in K-12 Edcuation

[From article]
This upscale progressive magazine ran a super-long, super-detailed article titled "The Math Revolution." It basically wanted to proclaim the happy news that extraordinary things are taking place in American education.
The Atlantic fell all over itself with enthusiasm. You would reasonably suppose that some fresh winds were blowing, and students in America would actually know how to add and subtract with competence, and maybe even multiply and divide efficiently.
What else does the word "revolution" suggest but wonderful sweeping change? At last, at long last, our public schools will redeem themselves and begin to turn out little math experts.
Then the writer gave it away: "The students are being produced by a new pedagogical ecosystem – almost entirely extracurricular – that has developed online and in the country's rich coastal cities and tech meccas."
[. . .]



Please savor the words "almost entirely extracurricular." In other words, these superior, successful math students are not in essence attending American public schools. They are going outside of American public schools, to something separate, uncontaminated, and therefore superior.
And why would that be necessary? Because American public schools, for many decades, have been a killing field for mathematical achievement. John Saxon became a legend in the late 1980s for his valiant effort to create instruction that would replace the nonsense epidemic in the schools. The Education Establishment resisted Saxon with all of its considerable resources. These officials had come up with New Math circa 1964 and then Reform Math after 1985. All those bad, and very unpopular, approaches have modulated into Common Core Math. All bunk according to many analysts, but that doesn't mean our Education Establishment willingly lets a smidgen of it go.
[. . .]



The point is, they're not getting it in their local public school.
Please note: the Atlantic article is focused on the best and cleverest students. Indeed, they are so very clever that they outwitted the Education Establishment, and beguiled the Atlantic Monthly into telling the truth about K-12.
It has always seemed to me that the Atlantic Monthly is obliviously liberal. Do they even know what they've done? Namely, they revealed that official experts have been running a con for all these decades. This con has been, in general, so successful that highly motivated students must find or create an entirely separate school system.
[. . .]
It's worth asking: how does the Education Establishment do such a bad job? Can we find a common denominator among dozens of separate programs over dozens of years? Yes, and here is the perennial gimmick: to whatever degree possible, mix in complexity and confusion. Typically, that means teaching children an oddball algorithm that is hard to learn and difficult to do. Or teach three different ways to do the same sort of problem.
[. . .]



One of the biggest subjects in education now is STEM and the need for renewed attention to STEM subjects. Often the emphasis is on doing more in middle school and high school. By that time, however, many children have learned to detest and fear STEM subjects. A major theme in John Saxon's battle with the Education Establishment was that their methods stop children from pursuing anything more advanced, whereas students who took Saxon Math were much more likely to study calculus, chemistry, physics, and so on.
The lesson is very plain. Elementary arithmetic is the gateway to later success.
Children do need to start with the elemental and proceed to the more complex. Children need to memorize the multiplication table. They need their "math facts." They need to master a lot of simple stuff so they feel confident about what comes next. Reform Math and Common Core Math show how not to do it. The public schools show how not to do it. That's what the Atlantic Monthly is trying to tell us.
If math were taught efficiently at each level from K to 12, you would see much higher NAEP scores and much greater entry into STEM subjects, and students would not need an extracurricular alternative.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/04/a_liberal_magazine_just_spilled_the_beans_about_k12_education.html

April 20, 2016
A Liberal Magazine Just Spilled the Beans about K-12 Education
By Bruce Deitrick Price

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

Americans Lack Problem Solving Skills, War On Poverty Continues

[From article]
The Wall Street Journal has an article titled “Americans Rank Last in Problem-Solving With Technology,” with very bad news for the economy.
The results build off a global survey conducted in 2012 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. To better compare the skills of younger and older adults and the unemployed, researchers did additional surveys in 2014. The countries that scored the highest on the problem-solving with technology criteria were Japan, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Poland scored second to last, just above the U.S.
One stark revelation is that about four-fifths of unemployed Americans cannot figure out a rudimentary problem in which they have to spot an error when data is transferred from a two-column spreadsheet to a bar graph. And Americans are far less adept at dealing with numbers than the average of their global peers.
“This is the only country in the world where it’s okay to say ‘I’m not good at math,’ ” said Mr. Provasnik. “That’s just not acceptable in a place like Japan.”
Perhaps a key cause of the problem is the kind of free-spending, vote-buying Democrats who do not want to have to deal with the fiscal realities and therefore encourage innumeracy in our public schools. The kind of politicians who might say, “What difference, at this point, does it make?” or who promise “free” college tuition to everyone. What good is a free college education if the “graduates” can’t do simple math and therefore can’t get a paying job?
[. . .]
Nobel laureate for physics (1965), Richard Feynman had something to say that now seems prophetic
There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
[. . .]
It seems the War on Poverty has greatly exceeded the cost of the Vietnam War and the combined cost of all other wars in American history! Is it time to declare defeat and give those dollars back to the American taxpayers, who earned them in the first place?

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

March 11, 2016
The mathematics of ending the endless war on poverty
By Bruce Thompson

Harvard University Mathematician Killed By Falling Construction Crane In New York City

David Wichs, right, with wife Rebecca

[From article]
The 38-year-old Upper West Sider killed Friday when a massive crane fell on him was a bright, Harvard-trained math whiz, a family member said.
David Wichs’ sister-in-law, Lisa Guttman, described her loved one as “the most brilliant person ever,” adding that he was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and immigrated to the United States as a teenager.
He seized every chance he had to get ahead and graduated from Harvard University, where he majored in mathematics.
“He really created a life for himself,” Guttman said through tears. “He literally took every opportunity he could find.”
Wichs died instantly when the 565-foot crane came crashing down on him as he stood on Worth Street. He was working at the New York-based financial trading firm Tower Research Capital.
Wichs lived with his wife, Rebecca Guttman, on West 81st Street. They wed in 2013, according to records, and Guttman is currently an associate at the international law firm Proskauer Rose LLP.
She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004 before attending the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, her LinkedIn page shows.
[. . .]
While at Harvard, Wichs co-chaired a men’s group that was part of the campus Hillel, a Jewish organization for college students.
“The Men’s Group is informal . . . a bunch of friends that do things together,” he said during an interview with The Harvard Crimson in 1998.
“It’s good for the kids who participate . . . people don’t have to feel awkward about their upbringing.”
Wichs and his wife were members of Kehilath Jeshurun, a modern Orthodox congregation on the Upper East Side, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
He was a donor to several charities, including Avodah, Mazon and Teach for America, the agency ­reported.

http://nypost.com/2016/02/05/math-whiz-killed-in-crane-collapse-was-an-absolute-angel/

Math whiz killed in crane collapse was ‘an absolute angel’
By Kevin Fasick, Shawn Cohen and Danika Fears
New York Post

February 5, 2016 | 11:28pm

* * *

http://nypost.com/2016/02/06/operator-kept-fatal-crane-collapse-from-being-much-worse/

Operator kept fatal crane collapse from being much worse
By Jamie Schram and Laura Italiano
February 6, 2016 | 5:22pm
New York Post


* * *

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3433589/Two-injured-construction-crane-collapses-lower-Manhattan.html

Cops question driver 'with a history of DUIs' over massive New York City crane collapse that killed married Harvard-grad trader, 38, on his way to work
Crane at 57 Worth Street, near Church and West Broadway in Tribeca, lower Manhattan collapsed at 8:24am
Prague-born, Harvard graduate David Wichs, 38, died; at least three more were injured, including one firefighter
Last night friends paid tribute to Wichs, including the family rabbi who said: 'He was an angel, an absolute angel'
The crane had a permit to move generators and air conditioning units at 60 Hudson Street and was parked on Worth
Authorities were lowering the crane to secure it; cell phone footage captures moment the crane breaks and crashes
Gas and water leaks have been reported in the area and ConEdison is on the scene monitoring every 15 minutes
See more news and coverage from New York at www.dailymail.co.uk/nyc
By JESSICA CHIA FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 09:09 EST, 5 February 2016 | UPDATED: 00:51 EST, 6 February 2016

If The Math Don't Work, Repeal It, So We Can Find Out What Is Happening

[From article]
No sooner had the president charged that those who claimed the economy is in trouble were “peddling fiction” than U.S. stocks posted their worst ten-day start to a year in history. Walmart announced it was closing 154 stores in the U.S. putting 10,000 U.S. jobs on the block. [. . .] Macy’s announced it was closing 36 stores and 27 Kmart and Sears stores were also to be shuttered. [. . .] Consumers simply are running out of money to buy things.
To be sure, the global economy is shaky right now.[. . .] the global recession looks to be more severe than the last one.
1.[. . .] a lot of municipalities and states are already a lot more stressed than they were in 08 and U.S. gov[ernment] debt is much higher.
[. . .]
4. Policy makers and central bankers seem even more clueless than ever after having embarked on an even larger worldwide binge to cure the hangover, [. . .] from their last binge.
[. . .]



Amid all the factors behind the tailspin of our and the world’s economies it is obvious that the grand progressive schemes based -- as they certainly are -- on ignoring reality play a critical part. [. . .] Walmart, [. . .] responding to demands to raise the minimum wage, [. . .] raised wages above the minimum. Critics of raising the minimum wage argued that that would raise prices, negatively affect sales and reduce employment rolls. It seems that it did.
In economic terms, we are in the worst possible situation: politicians and bureaucrats with no respect for reality support programs which depend on an ever increasing supply of other peoples’ money at a time when there isn’t such money to be had [. . .]
Reason sets out the dilemma succinctly:
Sanders has built his popularity almost exclusively on promises to spend more money [. . .] Sanders hasn't been specific about where the money would come from, [. . .] his plans require massive tax hikes not just on the rich but on the middle class, meaning his efforts at offering everyone an education could not only increase inequality [. . .] but also actually redistribute wealth upward.
[. . .]



Puerto Rico is this week’s U.S. basket case with $70 billion in debt for which they have no means of repaying. Other states with unfunded enormous pension liabilities look to be lining up behind Puerto Rico [. . .] On a national scale, People (sic) who could add warned that ObamaCare would collapse with expenditures quickly exceeding revenue, and there’s no doubt that the death spiral is well underway.
This week Humana joined the list of insurers reporting big problems with Obamacare. PJ Media’s Stephen Green Commented:
As for the ObamaCare!!! cheaters -- well, it's not like the Democrats who authored this law weren't given plenty of warnings about the perverse incentives.
The net result is that more and more insurers can't afford to sell insurance to ObamaCare!!! customers -- the very people the law was ostensibly designed to help:
[. . .]
"'We expect Humana will exit Health Insurance Exchange marketplaces in 2017 in light of this data.'"
This thing is coming off the rails, and a LOT of people are going to get crushed when it does.
Mere glitches to the innumerate progressives. I don’t know what they are up to where you live, but in Washington D.C. they are proposing a massive new paid 16-week family leave program which it is estimated could cost over $700 million a year. [. . .] In any event, it is most likely that if this passes, employers will hire fewer people and pay them less to compensate for the cost. Once again the bottom of the economic pyramid would bear the burden of the virtue signaling of those at the top.
[. . .]
Walmart officials were more frank about the reasons the company was downsizing. He said the company cited the District’s rising minimum wage, now at $11.50 an hour and possibly going to $15 an hour if a proposed ballot measure is successful in November.
[. . .]



Math is so hard for progressives. I expect any day now some Democrat in Congress will introduce a bill repealing it.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/peddling_fiction_or_repealing_math.html

January 17, 2016
'Peddling Fiction' Or Repealing Math?
By Clarice Feldman

Brief History of Mathematics And The Question of Its Origin

Math is great for describing the physical world, but falls short when describing economics, the stock market and weather. Engineers use approximations for their creations, which work well in the real world. Fun and exciting brief history. In a recent conversation I said math is an integral part of music. This was verified in this film. Explained are Aristotle's error, Gallileo's, Newton's and Maxwell's contribution to knowledge, and many more. 

Program Description
Join NOVA on a mathematical mystery tour—a provocative exploration of math's astonishing power across the centuries. We discover math's signature in the swirl of a nautilus shell, the whirlpool of a galaxy, and the spiral in the center of a sunflower. Math was essential to everything from the first wireless radio transmissions to the prediction and discovery of the Higgs boson and the successful landing of rovers on Mars. Astrophysicist and writer Mario Livio, along with a colorful cast of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers, follow math from Pythagoras to Einstein and beyond. It all leads to the ultimate riddle: Is math a human invention or the discovery of the language of the universe?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/great-math-mystery.html

Mystery of Mathematics
NOVA
April 15, 2015

Radical Teaching Group Undermines Learning Math

[From article]
Teach for America groups across the country are committing themselves to “culturally responsive teaching,” a radical pedagogy used by communist Bill Ayers and other blatant anti-American indoctrinators.
The site, Culturally Responsive Teaching, Teach for America, says that because math is seen as a domain for old, white men, many students cannot identify with it. Therefore, educators should find ways to relate math to the lives of their students.
[. . .]
Radical Math provides hundreds of social justice math lessons obviously meant to indoctrinate. For example, lesson titles include “Sweatshop Accounting,” “Racism and Stop and Frisk,” “When Equal Isn’t Fair,” “The Square Root of a Fair Share” and “Home Buying While Brown or Black.”
[. . .]
In keeping with their racism-of-evil-white-men theme, the site uses a story, involving racism against African Americans, of course, to suggest that the idea that math is neutral, rational, and logical is a myth and the premise that 2 + 2 = 4 is “naive.”

http://eagnews.org/teacher-group-math-is-the-domain-of-old-white-men-and-22-doesnt-always-equal-4/

Teacher group: Math is ‘the domain of old, white men’
September 12, 2014
DANETTE CLARK
Danette Clark is a mom, former paralegal turned business operator, researcher, and writer. She previously contributed to RBO2.com.

U.S. 15-year-olds Slip in International Rankings of Reading, Writing and Math

[From article]
For the first time three U.S. states - Connecticut, Florida, and Massachusetts - received separate scores.
Massachusetts’s average scores were higher than the U.S. and OCED averages in all three subjects, and Connecticut’s average scores were higher than the overall averages in science and reading.
Florida fared less well and was below both the U.S. and OCED averages on all three subjects.
[. . .]
Stanford University economist Eric Hanushek warned that the lagging performance would eventually start to have an impact on economic growth.
‘Our economy has still been strong because we have a very good economic system that is able to overcome the deficiencies of our education system,’ he told the New York Times.
‘But increasingly, we have to rely on the skills of our work force, and if we don’t improve that, we’re going to be slipping.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2517499/American-15-year-olds-falling-reading-maths-science.html

American 15-year-olds falling even further behind Asian and European counterparts in reading, maths and science global rankings
While the academic performance of 15-year-olds in other developed countries is improving, it has remained static in the U.S.
As a result the U.S. is losing ground and economists fear it will have a knock-on effect for the nation's prosperity
The top performers across reading, maths and science were all from Asia, including Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan
The U.S.'s under-performance was most striking in maths, where the average score of 481 was well below the average of 494
Three states received separate scores and Florida managed to under-perform the U.S. average on all three subjects
The nation's largest teacher union has blamed the mediocre results on high poverty rates
Even students from high income families did worse than those with similar backgrounds in other countries
By DAVID MCCORMACK
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 10:42 EST, 3 December 2013 | UPDATED: 13:34 EST, 3 December 2013

US Math Proficiency Poor

http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2012/02/22/math_matters

Math Matters
Walter E. Williams
TownHall.com
February 22, 2012

Fuzzy Math in Cambridge Public Policy

[Updated December 7, 2011 10:30 AM]
The City Council passed an "order" copied below on December 5, 2011 regarding official neglect of persons with disabilities. City Councilor Leland Cheung alerted me to the introduction of the order. It remains to be seen,
1. Will the City Manager respond at all? He is known to ignore orders arbitrarily.
2. What further than a report will this order merit?
3. Will the city adopt any actions to equalize the focus of their affirmative action programs?
IN CITY COUNCIL
December 5, 2011
COUNCILLOR CHEUNG
COUNCILLOR DAVIS
COUNCILLOR DECKER
COUNCILLOR KELLEY
MAYOR MAHER
COUNCILLOR REEVES
COUNCILLOR SEIDEL
COUNCILLOR SIMMONS
COUNCILLOR TOOMEY
WHEREAS:
Disabled persons are numerous in the city and in the United States as minority groups; and
WHEREAS:
After an immensely successful dialogue about the racial and gender makeup of the City's workforce at a recent City Council meeting, residents are requesting that the number of disabled individuals in the city government be made available to the public; now therefore be it
ORDERED:
That the City Manager be and hereby is requested to work with the Personnel Department to look into the disability makeup of the City's workforce by level and department and report back to the City Council on this matter.
In City Council December 5, 2011
Adopted by the affirmative vote of nine members.
Attest:- D. Margaret Drury, City Clerk
A true copy;
ATTEST:-D. Margaret Drury, City Clerk

Notice there are no numbers for persons with disabilities employed by the city. Not now not ever. Journalists join bigoted officials catering to wealthy politically connected victim groups. Disabled persons are as numerous in the city and in the US as Black people. Yet the City Council, the City Manager, the School Committee and journalists continue to ignore this large group. Disabled persons are only of interest to the depraved public officials, as clients for the human services industry which takes $2 billion in MA taxpayer funds each year. City officials deny disabled persons the right to participate in the general society, contrary to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Equal Protection Clause of 1866. But more typically the unlawful city policy is ignored by the comatose Cambridge Human Rights Commission. When I complain about this bigoted illegal policy boasted of by the City Council and the School Committee, they send out police thugs for harassment, character assassination and surveillance. Reliable sources point to City Councilor Reeves as the most abusive retaliating for free expression that he dislikes. He is accused of allegedly broadcasting two loathsome elements at me. The cure for mental illness and racism, according to Reeves is allegedly criminal assaults and abuses of power. The alleged efforts by Reeves are felonies under the MA Civil Rights Statute. But in Cambridge laws are optional for city officials. This is a charming City Council which denies not only the right to equal opportunity to persons with disabilities but attacks citizens who complain about their unlawful public policy abuses. The City reluctantly agreed to pay three claimants who filed lawsuits for retaliation. Yet they continue to retaliate against me for Constitutionally protected speech. The city acts and speaks with forked tongues.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x25723193/By-the-numbers-Race-in-Cambridge-city-government#axzz1clXGI5bB

By the numbers: Race in Cambridge city government
By Scott Wachtler/swachtler@wickedlocal.com
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted Nov 04, 2011 @ 10:44 AM

Failing Schools


"In the yearly "Nation's Report Card" (generated by the National Assessment of Educational Progress), fewer than 25 percent of US high-school seniors scored "proficient" in either math or science -- for the last 10 years running."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/escaping_offshore_ivpRXB3WaFMRmXwccik2iP

Escaping offshore
Washington driving out biz
By ROBERT J. HERBOLD & SCOTT S. POWELL
New York Post
Last Updated: 3:23 AM, November 23, 2009
Posted: 2:15 AM, November 23, 2009