As a professor I have seen how the corrupted values in higher education have sent destructive waves throughout all of American education; and thus against the bulwark of our economy, our politics, and our society. Here is the process in a nutshell. ● It starts with poor undergraduate education for all but a very small […]
James Madison on Education and Democracy
February 1, 2021 by
Sadly, in today’s world of higher education, the institutions that Madison trusted to “diffuse knowledge” have used that trust to take knowledge, money and fame for themselves. Of course, when I say institutions, I don’t mean every institution, or every member of any particular institution. But everyone does bear some responsibility for stopping this. It […]
“…if the teacher doesn’t know enough mathematics, she will answer the simple question and shut down the other, more difficult one…”
March 9, 2016 by
Source: The Math Revolution The quote I posted here is the most important one from the article above. That is because, it is not hard to teach teachers; it’s hard to stop scoundrels. Anyway, here is my comment. I’m a retired math professor. Here is the problem with most math in America and it should […]
Tenured Professor Confused By Negative Cube Roots?
January 21, 2016 by
I received this comment on a previous post. I thought it important enough to make it a post. “I routinely deal with college-level mathematics faculty that often have serious trouble with simple high-school mathematics. For example. I once had to explain that the domain of a cube root function is all reals and the faculty […]
Nationwide Test Shows Dip in Students’ Math Abilities (NY Times) I Say, It’s Not Going to Stop Until It’s Stopped
October 28, 2015 by
Education officials said the decline in scores was unexpected, but could be related to changes ushered in by the Common Core standards. Source: Nationwide Test Shows Dip in Students’ Math Abilities – The New York Times I commented as follows. The major reason for poor math performance is clear to me. It’s due to unscrupulous […]
Teacher recruitment: High-fliers in the classroom | The Economist
February 14, 2015 by
Teacher recruitment: High-fliers in the classroom | The Economist. My comment: I’m a former math professor and have seen how the corrupted American system of higher education has caused so much of high school education to be a sham. That’s right, higher ed dumbs down lower ed. Here is one important way. For decades, […]
Are You a College With a “Low-Performing” or “At-Risk” Teacher Preparation Program? Want a Grant For Programs with “High-Quality Teacher” Programs? No Problem.
December 16, 2014 by
I’m reading about the new proposed Federal Teacher Preparation Rules. (They look ok to me, so far.) In any case, I came across this. It is reminiscent of the program I wrote about here. (See Note below.) “…a teacher preparation program must provide high-quality teacher preparation in order to be eligible to award TEACH Grants. […]
Mystery? What Mystery?
Opinion | The Mystery of White Rural Rage – The New York Times (nytimes.com) In this piece Prof. Krugman admits that he is confused. He says he just doesn’t get it. I doubt if he will ever read my comment, but here is what I posted. Prof. Krugman doesn’t get it because it is beyond […]