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Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1998 21:17:03 -0500
Reply-to: phys-l@mailer.uwf.edu
From: Jerome Epstein <jerepst@worldnet.att.net>
To: phys-l@atlantis.uwf.edu
Subject: Re: Ideocosmology
In response to Richard Hake's comments:
As I'm sure he knows, Arnold Arons commented 25 years ago
that we in the universities have "trained" the elementary
teachers who are so utterly deficient in math and science.
As I have reported here before, my diagnostic test has
shown a lot of university students with the math and
cognitive level of 10 year olds. I include in that some
testing of IN-SERVICE elementary teachers (this is not
shown in the report I have been sending out to some of
you). In a "Teacher Opportunity Core" (TOC)program at City
University of New York, I tested 16 inservice teachers
working in the 4th through 7th grades. Not a single one
scored as competent or even marginal on the ARITHMETIC
portion of the test. All these questions should be
answerable by a competent 8th grader. The average score on
the arithmetic portion was 25%.
When they are faced with a simple cognitive task involving
fractions (using the Cuisenaire rods) they go through the
same anguished struggle, at the same painfully slow pace
as students I have seen in the 6th grade (and in
universities). As Arons said so long ago, this is the only
place where the vicious cycle can be broken. And it is OUR
responsibility (in the teacher training programs) to do
this.
I spoke to a supervisor at City College in this TOC
program, saying that we wouldn't dream of sending someone
with a 4th grade reading level in to teach elementary
school, but we send teachers with a fourth grade math
level in to teach elementary school all the time. The
supervisor replied (roughly) as follows: That is because
large parts of the education establishment, from the
Ph.D.'s on down, are math phobic.
At Dowling College, in taching a "college algebra" course
I had two students who were graduating senior education
majors about to enter student teaching, and who had of
course postponed their math requirements as long as they
could. They had no idea what the first place past the
decimal point meant. I had students there in a statistics
course(!) who had PASSED TWO previous math courses and who
could not multiply (1/2)x(1/2). How had they passed two
previous college math courses? It wasn't done by
elementary school people. "We" did it.
Finally: last semester I taught a math course required of
elementary teachers at another branch of CUNY. I found
there some quite gtood students, but a significant
fraction who were not competent in 6th grade math. So I
did some of the same material from my program that I do
for any entering students who test as stuck "way back
there". Five students clearly failed the course and should
not have been passed into student teaching, but the Acting
Dean of Ed. seemed to me to go into a panic. "What if the
math department found out I was teaching them models of
the arithmetic of fractions?" The empire would crumble.
"We must find a way to give these students extra
opportunities in January so that they can all pass." And
on, and on . .
It is so easy to say that these students should not be in
college. Are we, every one of us, really ready to face
this issue? I doubt it. What I have seen repeatedly is
that as soon as the testing shows the reality, both
faculty and administration simply throw up their hands and
walk away, preferring business as usual.
Here are the facts as I see them: At the most selective
colleges, if students whose quantitative comprehension is
at the elemntary school level were not admitted, they
would lose about 10% of their students. Manageable no
doubt. But for schools in the lower half of the
selectivity scale, trying, desparately often, to maintain
enough bodies in the seats, if they were to eliminate such
students from their pool, they would lose A MAJORITY of
their students. Will they go that route? Not on your life!
At Bloomfield College (NJ) where my program began, had
they eliminated such students, I believe they would have
lost at least 80% of their student body.
It's not a pretty picture. The reality is so hard to face.
I think the only hope for any progress, especially for
schools in the lower half, is to face the reality of what
they are getting and make a real attempt to repair this
damage. It can be done. I believe I have proved that it
can be done. But it requires a serious commitment to
education not just looking good on paper. Beginning with
some sort of "remedial algebra" will not make a dent in
this problem, as countless billions spent on remedial
programs has proved.
Sorry to be so negative, but I've been in this for a long
time, and I have paid a high price but letting people know
that the emperor has no clothes.
Jerry Epstein