Is Math Racist?

Quote: Mission146

What the hell do you even need History and Civics classes for if you're capable of critical thinking and know how to do research on a computer? Those classes should be fully incorporated into computer sciences, but as I understand it, some schools are transitioning to using either computers or tablets for basically everything in most classrooms---which I see as a positive and useful development.

Even though you might forget 98 percent of some class related to paleontology the difference between only doing research when you want to, versus having taken that unnecessary course is it may lead to not smashing up what you thought were just some cow bones rather than a museum class find. Because one can absorb general principles.

Students don’t need to remember all the details of how a despot rose to power, but they can remember the general ideas and hopefully recognize it before it just happens.

I just don’t think selective ignorance is going to lead to the overall benefit of the world.

Quote: AZDuffman

USPS is absolutely a monopoly by law. Nobody else may deliver first class mail, as well as several other classes.

As to which school districts mine was a good example. When I went there it was very middle of the road economically. A few rich kids and a few hillbillies. It always ranked high. While I agree there is more than zero correlation there are plenty of school districts spending way more per student but getting bad results. Usually these are the big cities such as Chicago.

Money does not bring the stable home life as much as the stable home life brings money. Single motherhood is about the biggest driver of poverty and juvenile crime that we have. Then if feeds on itself to cause another generation of it. The USA has backed itself into a huge corner here.

To me it is not the money in the schools, it is that we are using a schooling method that has not been updated in 150 years. We have urban schools that they have just let get out of hand. Even country schools. I told the story of the prom I worked where the teacher said they had good kids. So good that there was a metal detector and guard with a Glock 9mm sidearm.

What are you talking about now? You can ship something via FedEx or UPS however you want to, even if it's not specifically called, "First Class Mail." Even if UPS and FedEx handled those things; they would charge a hell of a lot more for it. You can send a letter from Florida to Alaska for whatever the hell a stamp costs, do you think Fedex or UPS would do that for the same price? Of course not. It would lose a ton of money and be an idiotic business move.

If nothing else, the United States Postal Service, it could be argued, competes in the market in such a way that keeps the delivery costs that other providers might charge DOWN just because UPS and FedEx have to find a way to do it cheaper, yet still profitably, to be the more desired course for consumers, all else being equal.

That said, you could abolish the USPS completely and it wouldn't break my heart. It's primarily extremely rural folks that benefit from it the most anyway, and they can all go get screwed for all I care. Watch and laugh as their delivery fees to get anything to their houses go through the roof.

I'm not talking about how much the schools spend per student. I'm talking about the general economic environment of the households that make up the district. I don't disagree that stable home lives correlate to good economic fortune.

We have updated the schooling, "Method," several times in the last 150 years. The bottom line consists of two fairly simple concepts:

1. School performance will largely be informed by socioeconomic conditions of the student body.

2. Some individuals are so stupid that no amount of money or method of teaching will ever help them.

I bet Columbine wishes they'd had a metal detector and a security guard with a sidearm.

Quote: rxwine

Even though you might forget 98 percent of some class related to paleontology the difference between only doing research when you want to, versus having taken that unnecessary course is it may lead to not smashing up what you thought were just some cow bones rather than a museum class find. Because one can absorb general principles.

Students don’t need to remember all the details of how a despot rose to power, but they can remember the general ideas and hopefully recognize it before it just happens.

I just don’t think selective ignorance is going to lead to the overall benefit of the world.

See, and if I cared about what, "Paleontology," means, I could Google it.

Which I'm doing now.

Plant and animal fossils. Don't care. I'd just take the online version and pay someone to ace it for me like I was paid to ace innumerable classes for others. I don't care about fossils or museums.

Anyway, I'm not saying you completely get rid of those classes. My suggestion is more along the lines of for how long should those classes be mandatory. Personally, I would say that they should be mandatory until about 8th grade and then become Electives thereafter. I think that most children around that age can decide whether or not they have a general interest in a particular subject or not...and I certainly knew by then that my interest in science and art was absolutely zero.

EDIT TO ADD: And, yes, that's because I'm not interested in things that I know I'm awful at. So what? I got B's in science classes for God sake, pulled down my GPA. Except I got an A in Environmental Science, because I found out that it was essentially the equivalent of a remedial science course and I needed one more full-year science class for High School.

Art class was even worse. C's and D's...good thing I transferred High Schools and convinced the new one that I had taken an Art class and that my previous school must have made some sort of mistake.

Do you know how much better I could have gotten in math had I not spent 50% of my day 'learning' subjects I didn't care about at all?

Quote: Mission146

What are you talking about now? You can ship something via FedEx or UPS however you want to, even if it's not specifically called, "First Class Mail." Even if UPS and FedEx handled those things; they would charge a hell of a lot more for it. You can send a letter from Florida to Alaska for whatever the hell a stamp costs, do you think Fedex or UPS would do that for the same price? Of course not. It would lose a ton of money and be an idiotic business move.

I am talking about USPS has a monopoly on First Class mail. Other classes, too. The "letter" FedEx sends is really a package. FedEx cannot deliver to a PO Box. They are not allowed to drop letters into a mail box on your house.

Quote:

We have updated the schooling, "Method," several times in the last 150 years. The bottom line consists of two fairly simple concepts:

1. School performance will largely be informed by socioeconomic conditions of the student body.

2. Some individuals are so stupid that no amount of money or method of teaching will ever help them.

We have not updated it all that much. Schools are mostly still rows of desks taught with the same methods. Luckily these days more and more kids are getting home-schooled. A positive thing out of the china virus is this seems to be increasing on a permanent basis. It is hard to say how much we could change to individual learning. Math and science for sure. English and literature less so as those probably give the student something from classroom discussions. PhysEd we can mostly junk, use how I was told they do in Europe and have local "clubs" that form a ball team of some sort and play other clubs.

I would love to see a "group homeschool" model where a few parents would get together and let various kids work together. It would have been a disaster in my neighborhood but in many I think it would be great. At least give the option.

I bet Columbine wishes they'd had a metal detector and a security guard with a sidearm.

Quote: Mission146

Art class was even worse. C's and D's...good thing I transferred High Schools and convinced the new one that I had taken an Art class and that my previous school must have made some sort of mistake.

You don't necessarily need art history to know some abstract might be worth something but it doesn't hurt. This might look like junk if you find it in your attic, but it sells for $27,600. I'm not saying you don't have a point. The difference between math and most subjects is you pretty much have to remember all the particulars in math. Because people can't remember the particulars of everything doesn't mean you got nothing out of civics or geography or home ick.

Quote: AZDuffman

I am talking about USPS has a monopoly on First Class mail. Other classes, too. The "letter" FedEx sends is really a package. FedEx cannot deliver to a PO Box. They are not allowed to drop letters into a mail box on your house.

That's what I'm saying, it's just called it a, 'Package,' instead of a letter. If you were getting enough from FedEx to justify it, then you could probably get a FedEx dropbox at your house if you really wanted to.

My underlying point is that the USPS conducts deliveries to places (or at least at prices to those places) that FedEx and UPS would not. If you or those recipients want to get rid of that, then suit yourselves. I'm certainly not going to offer any meaningful opposition.

Quote: rxwine

You don't necessarily need art history to know some abstract might be worth something but it doesn't hurt. This might look like junk if you find it in your attic, but it sells for $27,600. I'm not saying you don't have a point. The difference between math and most subjects is you pretty much have to remember all the particulars in math. Because people can't remember the particulars of everything doesn't mean you got nothing out of civics or geography or home ick.

It looks like junk because it is junk, it's just junk that some people happen to place a high value on. Did the artist just randomly throw paint at the canvas?

Quote: Wizard

I could talk at length about good and bad ways to teach math, but the various methods cut equally by race.

I've read a lot about mathematics performance by gender. Research shows that girls tend to drop out of taking mathematics classes once the requirements are met whereas boys are usually taught that math is important and they should stick with it longer.

I remember having one Japanese student who dropped out of school after the first month because he couldn't speak English. He found it impossible to follow the classes. However, in my class he aced every quiz and test. I suspect he was years ahead of the American and Latin American students and already knew everything that I was teaching.

Quote: Mission146

It looks like junk because it is junk, it's just junk that some people happen to place a high value on. Did the artist just randomly throw paint at the canvas?

Watch Prager U "Why is modern art so bad?" One art teacher asked students to say what they see in a piece like this. Then he widens the image to show it was just his dirty paint overalls. While sometimes a mismash of colors like this can look good paying more than $20 for it is insane.