Brainwashing vs. Education

computers dont do algebra, nor do they multiply or divide
all a computer or adding machine or calculator can do is add
sometimes it adds negatives but it still only adds

 

yeah i was reading about someone trying to build a system that worked on wavelengths of light inside of fiber optics, but we arent quite there yet.....lol

 

"Incrementalism" is correct, as far as it goes. They make an advance in hardware, so they can develop new software to use the new features. Used to be they'd make sure the new items were 'backwardly compatible', so your older PC could use the new software (but not all it's advanced features), or the new PC could still run older software. It lessened the impact on people - you didn't have to totally reinvest in both hardware and software. Now, they are getting away from that - more andmore,when you finally buy that spiffy new PC, you need to get all new software too - 'katching' for the industry! And they are already bringing out the NEXT nifty new stuff they convince you to buy........

I still fire up the old Commodore 64 and Atari XL on occasion - those old games are still fun to play. In some cases, they have not been bettered by the newer crap. More features and 'bells&whistles' does not always make a better product.

At work, we are replacing the current PC's with new machines. The older ones do everything I need, but the developers on the 'bleeding edge' need the newer features (or so they say). So I surplus the old ones, and add the new ones to my Property List. Admin says they intend to totally change-up every two to three years. Ah well...... it's just money........

 

New Math...

YouTube - ‪Tom Lehrer - New Math‬‏

 

and theres another good reason to hate arabs...algebra...lol

 

YouTube - ‪Funny Math Problems‬‏

 

I prefer the S.W.A.G. method....Scientific Wild Ass Guess...works for me!

 

if god wanted us to count higher than 20...
we would have more toes....LMFAO

 

Actually your right, at least in Oklahoma.

End of my daughters 6th grade year
My daughter came home one day crying, when asked why, she said it was because she had done so poorly on the annual general proficiency tests. (they called them the Iowa Basics back then) She kept crying about how she had really tried and read all the questions, and picked what she thought were the right answers....

Now up until this time she had always scored right around the 50% percentile. (meaning she did as well as half of her fellow students on the tests)

My first reaction was;

Me: "Well you always done OK in the past, what was different THIS time?" "B---y if you really read all the questions THIS time, and picked what you thought were the right answers THIS time.... What did you used to do?"

B: OH I just marked the answer sheets at random.

Me: BOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't need to go into the rest of that conversation, let's just say that we pulled her out of school the next day, and home schooled her for 2 years.

After having her tested, at OUR expense we found that she couldn't read at the 3rd grade level, and couldn't do arithmetic at the 2nd grade level; she had discalcula, and is slightly dyslexic.

Public education was going to let her advance to the 7th grade, and in fact argued that there was not a problem.

Today she performs intellectually at a much higher level than most of her classmates from that time. Reads writes, balances a check book, can work a budget, and keep inventory at her job, not to mention she is a whiz at organizing file systems. I scares me to think of what she would have turned out like if she hadn't "tried so hard" on that one test.

OH and if you hadn't noticed it, the fact that any student could test at the 50 percentile on that test means that either it is grossly flawed, OR TPTB are perfectly happy with our children performing on the same intellectual level as the Chimps at the local ZOO!

Issue me a tin foil hat, but I really think that the public schools systems know exactly what they are doing, and are doing it on purpose. THEY DON'T WANT TO PRODUCE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO THINK, JUST WHAT TO THINK!

Save your children, get them OUT of public schools as fast as you can.



Fanderal

 

The 'Ejucashun Sistum' here in sunny Florida blindly follows the Federal Pied Piper of "No Child Left Behind" - they all get trained to pass the FCAT and other tests, not to learn subject matter.
Once they get their diplomas, they promply forget all they were 'taught', and become the basic bloggers typing in Failed Third Grade English riddled with Text Speek. If they get hired on at the local Fast Food franchise, they don't need math - the POS terminals have simple names and product pictures on the keys.......

And folks wonder why the good jobs are being filled by Indians, Israelis and South Africans in IT......

 

As it captures the difference between a mathematician and the rest of us who apply "mathematics" as specialists in our area; that was the best explanation of the difference I've ever read; kudos!