March 23, 2005
A Twisted, Tortured Industry
Today's assignment: If you are or have ever been in any way associated with the education of children, read this.
By the way, since, presumably, you were a child yourself once, and since, presumably, you are able to read this now, I think I can safely say that all of you should have followed the link and read the article.
I knew a lot of this already, but not all of it . . . and I really wasn't aware of the full extent of what the textbook industry has become. I mean, I knew that textbooks sucked as a general rule, and that "conscientious citizens" are more often than not the number one enemy of a well-rounded education of any value, but this is ridiculous! Be sure to note the reference to Longview in the article . . . I just stopped dead for almost a full minute when I read that. Somehow, though, I really wasn't surprised.
Posted by Jared at March 23, 2005 06:33 PM | TrackBackWow, that is horrible! Nice article, but I wasn´t surprised.
You know what is even worse? My education professors don´t like that stuff either. When I learned about stuff like this in my education classes, I decided to drop educaion :(
Although, I will say I had some okay math textbooks.......but that was mostly (exclusively?) at CAG...
When I did a research project on multi-cultural math education, I heard about an 800 page ´´multicultural´´ math book that hardly had any math in it.......wait......I´m going to search for that article...... :)
Posted by: Asa at March 25, 2005 10:39 AMArticle is from U.S. News & World Report; 05/26/97, Vol. 122 Issue 20, p14
By John Leo titled ¨That so-called Pythagorus¨
Found it on ebscohost.
Anyway, I can´t copy the whole article because of copyright laws, but you should read it yourself. It will shock you even more than the article you just read, Jared. The book the article destroys is called Secondary Math: an Integrated Approach: Focus on Algebra and is 812 pages long. Here are a FEW quotes from the article:
´Much of the literature claims that nonliterate peoples indicated their grasp of math in many ways, from quilt patterns to an ancient African bone cut with marks that may have been used for counting.´
´It includes Maya Angelou's poetry, pictures of President Clinton and Mali wood carvings, lectures on what environmental sinners we all are and photos of students with names such as Tatuk and Esteban "who offer my daughter thoughts on life." It also contains praise for the wife of Pythagoras, father of the Pythagorean theorem, and asks students such mathematical brain teasers as "What role should zoos play in our society?" ´
´But a lot of ethnomathematicians, who are busy holding conferences and writing books, say that all peoples have a natural culturebound mathematics. Western math, in this view, isn't universal but an expression of white male culture imposed on nonwhites.´
So, Jared, what is YOUR impression about basic algebra, arithmetic?
Posted by: Asa at March 25, 2005 11:15 AMNow jared, I'll admit that the fact that anything titled Orange County could be even mildly entertaining was surprising (I recently saw the film on an airline flight) BUT...better than Dangerous Liasons? Better than any number of films you have rated at 90% over the last few years?
Lili Tomlin- Funny; tragic surfing accident-dark but humorous;family dynamics- mildly entertaining; premise that there is enough of life in Orange County California to make someone a great writer--unbelievable and contrived; Jack Black- I'ma always ashamed when I laugh at him so I won't make a comment here
Hey, I watched Resident Evil last night.....not the scariest horror movie....but not so bad for a horror movie.....how did you like it?