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0 pointsburfog6y ago0 comments

You want to talk about math now? OK...

My coworker's wife was a math major. She volunteered to help at her child's public school. (kind of surprised that this is allowed, actually) The teacher gave a math problem, "BLANK - 9 = 9", accepting both 9 and 0 as the only valid answers. My coworker's wife tried to correct this, claiming that 18 should be the only valid answer. The teacher insisted that 18 was incorrect because they hadn't covered 2-digit math yet!!!

This is not any sort of impoverished school, nor is it rural or urban, nor is it significantly non-white or immigrant or anything of the sort. It is borderline wealthy. Statistically, you'd expect it to be nearly the best America has to offer.

Nobody should want an equivalent to that.

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rayiner6y ago

My story. Our “science” teacher in sixth grade was trying to teach us how to convert between Celsius and Fahrenheit. She taught us: “the freezing point of water is 0C and 32F. So what is the boiling point?” She called on me, and I answered: “212F.” She says “no, 132F!” Class laughed. My ears burned and I mumbled something about getting it mixed up with the melting point of lead.

I’ve never been able to forget that one. Okay, so people make mistakes. But temperatures are like a basic fact of everyday life. Do you really think water boils at 30 degrees hotter than it gets in a hot day? And do you trust these same people to teach your kids about World War II, the Constitution, evolution, climate change, etc?

thrower1236y ago

What? That's a doozy. But I think most of us here have probably seen the same kind of thing. It's always fun when you realize that the person you are obligated to respect and are purportedly supposed to be learning from is dumber than a bag of hammers.

Most of them get nasty when they are proven incorrect as well.

notacoward6y ago

That seems like a pretty big topic jump, doesn't it?

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