Progression in teaching math in the US

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> The Evolution of Math from 1950 Through 2005.....
>
> Last week I purchased a bottle of water from Circle K for $1.58.
> The counter girl took my $2 and I pulled 8 cents from my pocket
> and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3
> pennies, while looking at the screen on her register.
>
> I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me back
> two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help and while he
> tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried.
>
> Why do I tell you this? Read on . . .
>
> Teaching Math in 1950:
> A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.
> His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
> What is his profit?
>
> Teaching Math in 1960:
> A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.
> His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80.
> What is his profit?
>
> Teaching Math in 1970:
> A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a set "M" of money.
> The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is worth one
> dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set "M."
> The set "C", the cost of production, contains 20 fewer points
> than set "M." Represent the set "C" as a subset of set "M".
> Answer this question: What is the cardinality of the set "P"
> of profits?
>
> Teaching Math in 1980:
> A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.
> His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20.
> Your assignment:
> Underline the number 20.
>
> Teaching Math in 1990:
> By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20.
> What do you think of this way of making a living?
> Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did
> the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees?
> There are no wrong answers.
>
> Teaching Math in 2000:
> A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.
> His cost of production is $120.
> How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit is $60?
>
> Teaching Math in 2005:
> El hachero vende un camion carga por $100.
> La cuesta de produccion es ...

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That is hilarious. I have the same problem all the time. It's one of those cases where you have to laugh to keep from crying.

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I can remember as a child (8-12 years old) doing errands in the 5&10 and figuring out the change faster than the sales clerk. We're talking late-40's, early-50's before "smart" cash registers.

One has to hope that some cashiers earn blue ribbons for stocking shelves and tidying merchandise.

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That post got a lot of mileage on Abuzz. It degenerated into a shouting match because some posters found it politically incorrect, showing an anti-Latino bias. Hope that doesn't happen on this site.

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MA, I believe the members of A2K are much more mature over that other place.

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unless i have the exact change ready, i have pretty well given up offering "partial change". seems to get confusing for everyone involved. i read somewhere that the "new" cash-registers that calculate the change have resulted in dumbing down the job of cashier. when once in a blue moon someone comes along to offer partial change the cashier really has to shift gears, and that is where the problem lies - i guess it's like expecting someone who has only driven cars with automatic to drive a stickshift. hbg

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CI,
At one time in my varied career I was weighing wool and paying the farmers for it.

A couple of high school kids happened by and naturally I was willing to use their muscles and company. (Kind of a slow day).

They had been around a while, helping me throw around the wool sacks around and reading the scales, providing conversation etc.

Then one asked, "how much did the farmers get per sack?" I explained that the price was $.50 a pound, figure it out!

These 10th and 11th graders couldn't figure it out Crying or Very sad

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akams, This is what I learned. When we were attending grade school, my siblings and I (except our sister) were required to go out to the farms in the Sacramento Valley to work in harvesting fruits during the summer months. One summer in Lodi, I did swamping work - throwing boxes full of grapes on the flatbeds of trucks - for which we were paid .01c per box. After high school, I did typing jobs until I finished college, and got paid minimum wage (actually closer to starving wage), except when I joined the Teamsters and did night-time teletype billing for trucking companies. After graduating from college, I pushed a pencil to make a living, and that paid much more than swamping grapes or billings jobs. How do you figure? Easier work pays much more than hard work. What a screwy world! LOL

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That's an easy one CI,

Obviously there is much more brawn than brain in the human condition. Sad

Economic laws of supply and demand can explain the seeming disparities quite satisfactorily.

To the thread---. Our schools are charged with shifting humanities surpluses from "brawn" to "brain". They are not doing so good (IMO). Perhaps we have charged them with an impossible task. Idea

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About two years ago my wife, our daughter and I were at an Old Navy store in Denver. They had a gimmick going to try to entice you into signing up for a new Old Navy credit card. The bait was they'd take 10% off the price of your purchase when you turned in the application form.

As we were checking out, the customer at the adjacent cashier turned in her application, and wanted her discount on her purchase. The cashier, a girl of perhaps 19 or 20, had to ask our cashier "what's 10% of $53?".

I'm willing to bet we all have similar stories to tell.

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Frankly I think the math curriculia are sufficient in the US. Well at least high school math in New York state which is what I was taught.
It's just that the students aren't learning it.

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Our (Slovenian) best high schools were sporting notoriously difficult math courses in the eighties.

The math was so advanced that you could go first year of college on Faculty of Physics with just a modest investment in new math, most technical colleges almost without additional material(!), and ALL nontechnical colleges (including economy Smile

Of course even the best students in high school didn't learn all of the material and the average student forgot most of it after 10 years.

The point is that this generation manipulates math in an unusually effortless way.

Now these days all goes towards 'careful to not hurt the child' approach, the grades disappearing from elementary schools and so on. Nobody wants to learn math anymore, and even some teachers dont think hard math should be really taught.

I believe the reason is commercial schools. Teachers are more and more looked at as a salespersons in a store, the 'service' they provide is measured against complaints from parents and the children themselves. And because math is hard, there is a tendency to 'make it easier for the child' thus make it a virtual lesson to no avail.

The evidence? Well, look at the results of schools in China, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, ex Yugoslavia, and then look at the results of International Mathematics Olympiad. Eastern block all the way!

Relative

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Very strong point Relative. IMO Naturally Sad

If a teacher gets paid the same for teaching easy subjects as one dies for teaching hard ones what do we expect will happen?

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Unfortunately, most schools are now teaching our children to pass "leave no child behind" tests without regard to individual skills and interests.

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Progression in teaching math in the US

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