The New York Times on Friday, October 10, 2008 on pages A15 & A19, published and article, "Math Skills Suffer in US, Study Finds" by Sara Rimer.
Here is a quote from this article, "'We're living in a culture that is telling girls you can't do math -- that's telling everyone that only Asians and nerds do math,' said the study's lead author, Janet E. Mertz."
This is a well written article that touches on one of the great failings in America education: the poor attitude within our culture towards mathematics. I remember reading an op-ed writer in a national newspaper, the Washington Post I think, writing that he never learned algebra and that did not hurt him, so he felt no one needed to learn algebra.
There are a lot of negative attitudes towards math, even amongst school teachers and college professors in the colleges of education. I have most certainly run across parents who had a poor attitude towards algebra and passed that bad attitude on to their children.
I heartily recommend the article by Ms Sara Rimer and I suggest we need a greater effort to promote valuing mathematics.
Robert Canright
The title of this article in the print edition was "U.S. Failing to Promote Math Skills, Study Finds - Citing Lack of Value for Talent in Culture." Sometimes the print edition and the online editions have different titles.
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2 comments:
A few things about math. It is the easiest subject, and should be taught that way. Number theory should be used early on in education (I developed a number chart based on number theory that resulted in my wife teaching her Kindergarten class to count to 100 in just a few months, and to teach them how to add and subtract 2-digit numbers by the end of the year -- unfortunately, she changed districts, and the new principal won't let her use it). All math is addition, subtraction, and division -- but only if we introduce geometry early. I taught a 6 year old how to do multiplication in only a day by using addition and squares.
Troy, you are right. In some ways, math is the easiest subject because it is objective and systematic.
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