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GOP senator attempts to ax Algebra II requirement for Minnesota high school students
(minnesotareformer.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2024
203 points (97.7% liked)
Minnesota
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Keep em stupid and voting R.
This is always the plan. Ignorant people hate better.
Defense industry along with many others will crater
That’s the thing with fascists, they don’t care that their policies will ultimately hinder the country.
They only care that right now they need a group of undereducated, newly minted voters that they can manipulate into voting for them.
If this kills off a vital industry in 10 or 20 years, it won’t matter because they got what they wanted.
It’s the same thing the nazis did with “Jewish physics” that made them so far behind on the atom bomb that the Americans where able to catch up despite Germany having a 2 year head start on the research.
Or how Pol Pot arrested and murdered anyone who was vaguely academic, to the point that wearing glasses could get you arrested.
Dictators and fascists fear educated citizens.
Our world dominance and stranglehold as the reserve currency will disappear in a matter of days if the yeehawdists win. Not just America on the line here, the world economy will collapse
They are threatening their profits. The defense industry has met much more formidable opponents than some hillbilly rednecks.
That’s the most anti-intellectual, dumb shit I’ve heard all week. Of course it’s a Republican. “Hey kids, we’re only gonna teach you how to work in a McDonald’s for paltry minimum wage because that’s all you’re gonna do!”. Fucking asshole
Looking at the curriculum, this is all things that I covered in middle school. I think the more advanced parts may have been touched on in my first year of high school. What are students in the US studying where middle school math is a graduation requirement?
High schools in many states are gearing towards various individuated pathways that cater to college and career readiness, rather than one-size-fits-all set of universal requirements. If your chosen pathway includes advanced maths, then they are required. Otherwise, not.
Hello, American here.
The answer is nothing. High school students are studying nothing.
Hope that helps!
"He’s talked about how I probably never experienced that rush of completing an algebra problem, and I probably shouldn’t say this on the Senate floor, but no I didn’t … because I wasn’t a nerd,” Farnsworth said."
Getting rid of algebra is a bad idea, but that's hilarious.
I can see where he's coming from. Going to a credit system as opposed to a set course would allow for more flexibility in what students learn. You could offer things like stats, finance, etc. It's just probably a bad idea to do it when scientific literacy is so low that a large fraction of people aren't convinced climate change is real.
Motherfucker used algebra to figure out how long it's been since he learned algebra, then claims he doesn't use algebra.
No, he totally just searched "how many days since june 1 1996".
Subcontracting algebra is still using it.
You keep using that word algebra, I do not think it means what you think it means.
X years, Y weeks, Z days.
X = 365Z
Y = 7Z
Should be division but you make a good point
probably the reason math gets so much hate in school is because it’s taught so poorly. it’s all just about memorizing some dumb formulas and plugging things into preselected equations. math is so much more than that, and it’s really a shame that it’s not taught in a way that encourages more creativity.
here’s a paper written by a mathematician on this very subject (i promise it’s readable): https://maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
Sure, but when we try to teach actual number sense all the other adults while and complain about how they’re “an eNGiNeER aNd evEn tHey caN’T do thIS NEw MatH, The Old waY waS FinE!!!1!!eleven!!”
We need to ban public officials from sending their children to private schools.
Not sure whether you're being down voted because they think you agree algebra needs to go or because you're implying that algebra is cool.
Either way it's amusing to me.
That’s great LOL.
My thinking was:
“… I have not used algebra”
“It’d be a lot cooler if you did [use algebra].”
But I am an also not sure if the downvoters misunderstood or just don’t like algebra.
I think math is really supremely interesting, but I'm fairly sure I'm in the minority.
This crowd, however, just might tilt nerdy enough to agree with me that algebra is indeed cool.
I'm all for that. Replace the classtime with civics.
Or probability & statistics
Introduction to logic, including: logical fallacies, types of logic, building a logical argument, and identifying logical inconsistencies.
That'd be great, too, but I'd prefer rhetoric or debate, which could include a unit on some of that. People put too much emphasis on logic, especially logical fallacies, as being important to understanding the world or thinking well. It's possible to construct logical arguments that "prove" things that are untrue, because your logical model does not actually map to the real world. And it's also possible to make a reasonable conclusion that is technically logically fallacious. "If Donald Trump says it, it's not true" is ad hominem, but it's also a really good heuristic.
The problem with debate in the US is that it always devolves in gish gallop nonsense because everyone does L-D in the US which is about overwhelming the other person with too many things for them to respond to, meaning you win on a technicality. It's like teaching to a standardized test. Did you learn something? Yes. Is it useful outside of the context of that standardized test? Eh kind of maybe sometimes, generally not.
Seriously talk to someone who did debate in high school. It's wildly frustrating. The goal isn't even a "debate." It's submission.
I’d be interested to see what an example of constructing a logical argument that proves something that isn’t true. In my experience the logic is sound, but the assumptions going into it (often unstated assumptions) are garbage. The other thing I see ALL the time is people using inductive as opposed to deductive reasoning to prove that something is “true”.
When I mentioned the model not matching reality, that's basically the same thing as saying your assumptions are incorrect. That's the fatal flaw of logic: you can't really use it to model the real world without making tons of assumptions about how the world works. For instance, technically speaking, science as a whole is illogical. If 9 people who jump off a roof fall to their death, there is no purely logical reason that the 10th person to jump won't fly instead.
As to "an example of constructing a logical argument that proves something that isn’t true" I'm going to be a bit pedantic here and point out that I said
It’s possible to construct logical arguments that “prove” things that are untrue
And draw attention to those quotes. You can construct a logical proof, but that doesn't mean that actually says anything about the world. What I'm meaning is when someone uses a logical proof to claim something untrue is true.
Part of developing a logic an argument is stating your assumptions.
Also, the example you pointed out is actually something I see all the time. You’ve tried to draw a deductive conclusion by using inductive logic. This is why we need ACTUAL logic training in schools. Most schools don’t even teach the difference.
You’ve tried to draw a deductive conclusion by using inductive logic
No I didn't. Did you read my comment?