Re: Math (in)competence (was: weight vs. mass (was: Units and Conversions))

[Michael Bowen <fizzbowen@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 20:41 2002/07/02, Herb Gottlieb wrote:
> It's hard to believe that the college students in Tina's
> math class have such difficulty doing the most simple
> arithmetic problems. Since college is not compulsory
> I was wondering about the ability of those high school
> graduates who are not accepted into any college.

Believe it. Remember, Tina is teaching at a community college, which means
they have to take everyone, including "those high school graduates who are
not accepted into any [other] college."

The students are most likely not accepted into any other college precisely
because they lack math skills (and often academic skills of any flavor).
For low- to mid-achieving students, too many high schools no longer demand
that their graduates acquire any significant knowledge of math. At least
one student has told me, point-blank, that high school counselors routinely
advise self-declared non-college-bound students not to take any more math
than absolutely necessary, even the rare few that show a degree of talent
for (and interest in) the subject. Of course, after spending four or five
years in stultifying, dead-end jobs at minimum wage, guess where a
significant number of "non-college-bound" students end up? Our doorstep, of
course, which they see as a portal to bigger and better things.

To give you an anecdotal sense of how bad things are, even outside the
schools, read on:

===== Begin true story =====

Several years ago I went to a music/video store in my area that was having
a sale on audio tapes: 4 for $10.00. I found only three tapes that I liked,
and (not knowing whether the sale price was to reward volume purchases
only), asked a very young store clerk whether he would sell me just the
three tapes for $7.50. He eyed me suspiciously, as if I were trying to pull
something over on him. He then asked me, somewhat cautiously, how I had
come up with the $7.50 figure. Clicking almost unconsciously into
office-hours mode, I patiently told him that if 4 tapes cost $10.00, then
in effect each tape cost $2.50, and that multiplying this amount by 3 would
give a total of $7.50 for the entire purchase.

The clerk, eyes somewhat wider than originally, asked me to wait a moment,
then quickly disappeared into the employees-only section of the store. Just
seconds later, he brought out his manager, who came to me directly without
delay. The very first thing the manager said to me was, "Would you like a
job working at our store? You can start today if you'd like." Momentarily
nonplussed by the man's forthrightness, I had to politely decline,
explaining that I already had a job teaching physics and math at the local
community college.

(By the way, they did give me the tapes for the price I had asked. After
bagging my purchase, the young clerk asked me whether I had used a
calculator to come up with the $7.50 price. His eyes went wide once again
when I answered in the negative.)

===== End true story =====

The moral of this sad but frighteningly true tale? In cases such as this,
it is clear that as far as mathematics is concerned, high school is not
compulsory either. This is not a condemnation of all high schools or all
high school teachers, because obviously some students do learn a great deal
of math during their high school years. But in far too many schools, it is
not expected for the average student to learn even the most basic
calculations. This may explain why our college, with a total enrollment
(day and evening) of about 7000, routinely teaches basic math (fractions,
decimals, percents) to nearly 300 students _every semester_, in courses
that are predictably oversubscribed (we would gladly open more sections,
but have no instructors to spare; the entire department is on full
overload). Alas, only 60% to 75% of our students pass this class the first
time they take it. The ones that do pass face two additional classes
(culminating in elementary algebra), which they must pass in order to
qualify for a two-year degree.

--Michael Bowen from southern California
(where knowing even a little math can be one's passport to a dynamic,
high-paying job in the exciting, fast-paced recording industry).