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 be obvious after only a little thought – and it’s not just a problem with math.
Most colleges are unscrupulous. Here are two examples of how this is destroying education in America. From either of these, it should be obvious why teachers aren’t prepared to teach math – as this article points out.
In the first example, I saw faux-PhDs granted by unscrupulous professors who received large government grants to produce “American” math professors. (And when I say faux, I mean FAUX. Just look at the examples on my blog.) I don’t blame the students. They had no way of knowing what they were getting into.
Even worse, I saw some of these faux-PhDs become “professors” at state regional colleges, the colleges that train many of our future teachers. Thus, these future teachers did not have a chance to learn.
So, do college administration know what happens? I think so. Look at this example.
I personally was told at Washington U. in St. Louis to make a critical course for engineers a “cookbook” course; Engineering Deans wanted “retention”, even if that included cheating on homework, according to the Dean of Student Academic Integrity; and, the Chair of the Math Department laughed loudly when he told me that if he wanted to impart mathematical knowledge he wouldn’t start here. “Here” means with a second year course for the extremely gifted students that Wash. U. boasts about.
(I didn’t listen. I plunged ahead and taught a course where students regularly did MIT level homework, which A students from the cookbook course could not do. The story about Wash. U., can be found on my blog inside-higher-ed.com .)
Washington U. is not particularly special in this regard. It takes many school with such attitudes to produce a country that has fallen from one of the world’s most mathematically literate to one of the least literate.
For more see my blog inside-higher-ed (The documented details of the last example can be found there.)
Recent Comments