OT Is there any hope?

[Tyro 001]

Being the wild and crazy kind of guy I am, I tried to order four-tenths of a pound of meat at the local store. The girl behind the counter disappeared, coming back a few minutes later with a woman in her forties. The older woman asked me what a "fortenze" pound was. Was it a pound? No I said, "its four-tenths, 0.4 lb. They both asked me what that was. "Is it 5lbs?", they asked. No I said 0.4 lb. I told them to just start putting the meat on the scale until the digital read-out says 0.4 The girl put two slices on the scale which read 0.16 lb. Her response was "16 is more than 4, right"? "Did you just want one slice"? I told no, 0.4 lb. Again she asked, "is that 5lb"? "No" I said, "0.4 lb, it's just a little less than half a pound, which is equal to 0.5lb". Her face lit up. "Oh" she said. "Just under half a pound?" I said yes. She then proceeded to slice off almost exactly 0.4lb. I tried to explain what a tenth was and how 10 tenths would add up to 1 lb; and that 5 tenths were equal to half a pound, but gave up when all three of the women behind the counter just looked at me with blank stares.

[Evan]

Check my signature.

[radkins]

A few years ago at a mine where I worked a welding crew was building a manifold to reduce a single eight inch pipe from a large water pump into two smaller ones, they had built a metal box with the eight inch line going in and two four inch lines coming out. When one of the shop mechanics questioned the restriction that was going to occur he was informed that that two four inch lines make eight inches, okaaaay! When the pump was started the manifold immediately ruptured spraying water everywhere so the shop foreman was called in to decide what happened, of course it was decided the manifold was built from material that wasn't thick enough and would need to be reinforced and when the mechanic again mentioned the two small pipes he was again told that's not a problem, however he was just a by-stander and was not actually involved in the building of this thing. When the manifold ruptured after reinforcement it was then decided that it should have been built round and the ruptures were caused by it being a box shape so they set about building another one this time with a rounded shape. When it again ruptured the three guys working on it, the shop foreman and the head mechanic decided that the manifold would need to be a heavy casting and it was simply not practical to build one from welded plates! Out of the five people involved not any of them saw the obvious problem even after it was pointed out.

[michigan doug]

I try to not walk around feeling superior all the time, because I really think I am not especially gifted in the math department. But compared to what the present school system is cranking out, I'm starting to feel like a freaking genius.

I have a patient who is a very talented welder. He has worked for the best of the best, aerospace, NASA, nuke facility. He is also a very talented instructor and taught high school math and shop for a while. He retired a few years ago, but somebody talked into going back into teaching.

The first week he discovered that, high school kids were, for the most part, incapable of reading a tape measure or doing anything more complicated than 4th grade math. And some of them weren't too convincing with their 4th grade math skills either.

He was also instructed that he could not "harass" or question certain students if they didn't take notes, or didn't pay attention in class, since they had been been declared special needs for various reasons.

He didn't last a full semester.

A hundred years ago, if you graduated from the 8th grade, you walked out with a working knowledge of math through algebra and trigonometry, had read a lot of the classics including Shakespeare and scripture, and had good to excellent composition skills.

We've come a long way. Not the good way.

Finest regards,

doug

[Dr Stan]

Out of the five people involved not any of them saw the obvious problem even after it was pointed out.

I'll bet none of then could even calculate the sq area of a circle, let alone understand why two 4's does not equal one 8.

When I taught machining I had several students who could not apply the algebra, trig or geometry they "learned" in math class.

[Paul Alciatore]

And our teachers want big salaries and generous benefits.

I wouldn't mind as much if they actually did their jobs.

[redrich]

This is the USA. Our "leaders" need money the first thing to get funding cutes are the schools. In Texas big oil needed money so Perry takes the money from school. Let's let more teachers go. Lets get the money from the big guys for a change. Without good schools the USA becomes a third world country, an its well on the way. The government comes up with Billions for the big companies but cannot support our young people in school.

[tyrone shewlaces]

Is there any hope?

Honestly? No.
I believe we're way past the point of no return.
Lucky for me I'm old and have no heirs, so at the end it's just rest in peace and no worries.

[Dr Stan]

And our teachers want big salaries and generous benefits.

I wouldn't mind as much if they actually did their jobs.

If the politicians kept their noses out of a profession they do not understand and allowed teachers to teach, we'd be a lot better off. Instead way too much money is funneled off to fund entertainment in the form of "athletics".

[Weston Bye]

My son-in-law is a school board member. He is adamant that given the choice between math books and football helmets, he will always opt for math books. I agree. He takes a lot of heat for his stand. I hope to see him re-elected.

On the other side, when teachers ask for more money, I ask: "if I doubled your pay, would student grades improve?" Silence.

On the third hand, would any of us common sense geniuses spend time tutoring students? I doubt that I would conform to the "approved" curriculum, opting instead for practical applications and challenging the student to solve real problems. The Navy did it this way when I learned mathematics to understand electronics.

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