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Re: grades, pass/fail etc.




The worse-case scenario is where requirements are set,
textbooks are written, and courses are taught, all by
people who have no idea what's really important. That
happens all too often. I remember in high school we
had a substitute geometry teacher who actually made
light of his own subject, saying in all candor that
he didn't know what the geometry formulas were useful
for. He said he'd never needed to paint a
parallelogram-shaped wall, nor ever bought a
parallelogram-shaped carpet. That shocked me. I'm
still shocked. IMHO a teacher's first duty is to
explain why the subject is important.

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC,
NAU or the AAPT.
I agree with this.^^^^^^


Unfortunately this it is all too common that teachers do not really know the
importance of their courses. Also teachers often have an inflated opinion
of the importance of their courses. Indeed the geometry sub. was correct
when one considers how much geometry the average adult needs to know. It
turns out that it is a bit more than the amount of algebra the average adult
needs to know. While engineers and scientists use these subject frequently
I doubt that any HS teacher outside of math and science or any librarian,
lawyer, clergyman, ... the list goes on has actually used any of those
subjects after leaving school. I would estimate that less than 5% of the
population really uses the algebra and geometry they learned in HS or
college.

What really shocked me was one of my daughter's regular HS math teachers who
tried to say that a good example of an ellipse in nature was the sun going
around the earth. She was serious.

For all the math that my students have had when they enter their senior year
the majority cannot:
1. Reliably write the equation of a straight line

2. Say that the work is F 2 Pi Diameter when a father pushes a
merry-go-round twice around. They usually come up with 4 x diameter for the
distance around and have to be convinced by a physical demo that it is
incorrect.

3. Read a problem and correctly identify the constants that are presented
in the problem. They just hunt for numbers and randomly put them into
variables.

4. Use symbols rather than numbers. They will complain they can't give a
solution because there are not numbers.

...

Essentially their math really is useless because it is completely
inaccessible outside math class. And the math classes do not seem to be
improving their ability to think.

One problem is that math HS teachers love math and admire it for its beauty,
but really have never used it for any practical calculations. The math
beauty never gets across to students. When students see this attitude they
think it is stupid. Our country has a very strong anti-intellectual streak
which is shared by parents and students alike. I try to communicate that my
course is actually improving their ability to reason, and that I have proof
that this is happening. I consider that HS courses should really be used
for that purpose with content being somewhat subordinate to that purpose.
Many of my students seem to be buying into this, but I always have the ones
who say "Why should I do this? This is stupid!". I try to point out the
utility of some of my tasks, but the idea does not seem to get through.
Attitudes are even more resistant to change than ideas about acceleration
and force.

I suspect if one were to have an MPEX for math that it would show similar
declines to that in physics. Each math course probably just increases the
dislike of math and turns students into math-phobes.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.