Old Math

I visited a 6th grade classroom on Friday. These kids are just out of elementary school, about 11 years old.

One young lady had a shirt with the following message in very large print, "This might be your lucky day". Now this could be some sort of walking pink fortune cookie, or it might be something less innocent. I asked some adult female friends if they would allow their daughter to wear this shirt, the resounding answer was "No". Which leads to the question what was this girl's mother thinking? In this classroom there was a very good chance said mother does not speak or read English.

There is a lot to be said for school uniforms.

The tax increase arguments have been quite a disappointment so far. The pro crowd is all platitudes ("It's for the children"), jumping from the premise that "we all want good schools" to the conclusion "therefore we need a tax hike", without ever touching logical ground.

The anti arguments are even worse, venom laced diatribes against public education in general and this school district in particular.

I am hoping that the rhetoric will improve, but I am not planning on it.

It has been a busy summer. I worked with three Algebra I students, rescued them from the horrors of district summer school. Then a few weeks with elementary school severe needs kids. That was a blast, great kids, great teacher and paras. Finally a three week program to get high risk middle school students up to speed for the regular school year.

School starts next week. Looks like I will be doing a repeat of last year’s “Topics in Mathematics” for the academic top kids in 6th grade. Plus a new class; try to squeeze Algebra I into two days a week for the bright 7th graders. And a classroom of my own! – just big enough for eight students. No more trying to teach in the library with story time and various other distractions going on.

The rest of my time will be in the severe needs classroom. We have more room there as well; the home economics classroom next door is now ours. So we can move the kitchen out of the changing room.

So a very optimistic start to the school year. The political nonsense from last year is mostly behind us, a much less crowded school, and the new IB program. I am established as “super volunteer” and have a program to run.
More to follow.

"Half of the world's population has below average intelligence."

The school district where I live is putting a mill levy override (tax increase) on the November ballot. The increase is equivalent to $625 per pupil, to give you an idea of how much money is involved. The voters rejected a smaller increase last year.

The major change to last year's ballot is that a much larger portion of this year's increased revenue is slated to go to teacher's salaries. This change was the result of some politicking between the school district and the union - no salary bump, no support. Smoke-filled rooms are gone but the deals remain.

This leaves me in a quandary. I know a few hardworking, dedicated teachers whom I would like to give a raise to. But I don't have that option; teachers' salaries in this district (like almost all school districts) follow a dreary formula - enter your years' experience in the district on the rows, enter your education level on the columns, presto -- out pops your paycheck, to the penny.

So by voting for this increase, you are voting to give all teachers -- good, great and terrible -- the same raise.

The argument I expect to hear soon is that our teachers deserve a raise. Maybe, but do you know anyone who doesn't think they should get more money? People that get up on rooftops to nail down shingles in the summer sun - there is a collection of people who deserve a raise. How about nurses who work 12-hour shifts? "Deserve" becomes meaningless when everyone deserves a larger salary.

Will teachers from nearby districts flock to mine under the stimulus of higher pay? No, because the contract in place only rewards experience in the district. It is a system best described as medieval.

Will engineers and scientists start a new career as a teacher, motivated by a higher salary? No, the teacher certification process will prevent that.

So what exactly do taxpayers get for their investment in the school district? We will see what arguments are presented.

I have a theory why primary education in the US does such a poor job. It is the fault of the kindergarten teachers.

Consider. The average high school teacher does a pretty good job educating his charges, considering the poor preparation of the incoming students in his class. Likewise, any middle school teacher will tell you that the kids coming into her classroom do not know the material they should -- otherwise, things would go much better. By induction, the problem starts at the beginning of the chain -- the kindergarten teachers.

This obviously facetious theory points out what I think is a real problem in mathematics education -- the failure of lower grades to impart basic arithmetic facts to the students. Many middle school students struggle with any sort of arithmetical algorithm -- for example, finding LCD, or prime factors, or long division -- not because they have trouble learning the steps, but because they are constantly getting stuck on simple facts. Ask them what 6 times 7 is. Long pause, long pause…. 42? Often you can see fingers moving under the table, counting the same way a Babylonian might have 3000 years ago.

I have another theory, this one in earnest. Years ago, we learned math facts by rote; endless drilling in addition tables and times tables. We chanted facts every day. And for the most part learned them.

At some point some educators (probably math morons themselves) decided since they hated all this rote they would replace it with a "better" way to teach math. Children would organically learn using flashcards. Guess what? That way works even less well than rote. And children rise through the academic system, crippled by the inability to add or multiply two single-digit numbers instantly and instinctively.

But we don't chant times tables anymore.