A history of Math(s)

[Ron Attwood]

1. Teaching Maths In 1950...

A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.

What is his profit? $____


2 Teaching Maths In 1970..

A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100.

His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80.

What is his profit? $___


3 Teaching Maths In 1990..

A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100.

His cost of production is $80.

Did he make a profit?

__Yes or __No


4. Teaching Maths In 2000..

A logger sells a truckload of timber for $100.

His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20.

Your assignment: Underline the number 20.


5. Teaching Maths In 2015..

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish

and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals

or the preservation of our woodlands.

He does this so he can make a profit of $20.

What do you think of this way of making a living?

Topic for class participation after answering the question:

How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut

down their homes

6. Teaching Maths in 2021

Math is Racist. Students no longer need any math skills to Graduate school.

2+2 = 4, or 22 what ever you feel is correct.

There are no wrong answers, feel free to express your

feelings e.g., anger, anxiety, inadequacy, helplessness etc.

Should you require debriefing at the conclusion of the exam there are

Counsellors available to assist you to adjust back into the real world.


How many of us remember the whole class chanting the 'times tables'? Even better, how many of us still resort to them?

[Killratio]

So true!

I resort to times tables EVERY day, in fact, most HOURS. Never once felt that I was victimised, marginalised or brutalised (despite being subject to ALL three by the Dog Collars). It was called life.

I refuse to employ people these days in the greater part because I can no longer tell them "toughen the f**** up" when things don't quite go their way... and outside educational institutions things actually do go against them from time to time (and there are no free gold stars ). So at least two and probably three young people do not have a job that otherwise could have. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm perfectly happy not to have employees. But I do wonder what the hell these people are going to do for a living in the long term.

As I often say, "I'd far rather be 60 than 16 nowadays".

[ClipperLuna]

The tale is truer than we would like. Where I work we teach students to properly read glassware and instruments the old-fashioned way, by interpolating between the markings to the correct number of significant figures. Not that long ago I actually had a student tell me this was irrelevant because "numbers are a social construct."

[Ron Attwood]

The tale is truer than we would like. Where I work we teach students to properly read glassware and instruments the old-fashioned way, by interpolating between the markings to the correct number of significant figures. Not that long ago I actually had a student tell me this was irrelevant because "numbers are a social construct."

I trust you told said student to make himself pregnant.

[jeepinforfun]

How about this test question from a Missouri high school on an assignment question given to students in an advanced placement government class.

“Teresa has heard in the news about the fatal shootings of unarmed African American men by police officers but does not think it is necessarily due to racism. Teresa is MOST likely a :…”

1. Democrat
2. Black woman
3. Republican
4. Democrat-leaning woman.

The correct answer, according to the assignment, was Republican.

I do not remember any questions like this when I went to school.

[Killratio]

Did they just assume a gender for those shooting victims?????????

[Dogsbody55]

So true!

I resort to times tables EVERY day, in fact, most HOURS. Never once felt that I was victimised, marginalised or brutalised (despite being subject to ALL three by the Dog Collars). It was called life.

I refuse to employ people these days in the greater part because I can no longer tell them "toughen the f**** up" when things don't quite go their way... and outside educational institutions things actually do go against them from time to time (and there are no free gold stars ). So at least two and probably three young people do not have a job that otherwise could have. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm perfectly happy not to have employees. But I do wonder what the hell these people are going to do for a living in the long term.

As I often say, "I'd far rather be 60 than 16 nowadays".

If you went to to a school in rural England like I did in 1962 when you were seven, you definitely would feel victimised, marginalised and brutalised while learning said tables. It was that sort of a school. Dickensian.

But I still remember those tables too. As to what "these people are going to do for a living in the long term", I'd suggest a career in the HR or PR departments. Or some other non-job.....


Cheers,
Mike

[Killratio]

Mike

Christian Brothers mid 70's and as said, was all three just didn't feel like it because that was just the way things were. We had one Brother who gave "Kentucky Fried Chicken" for spelling mistakes. He called it that because it was "finger licking good". Basically you held out your fingers, palms down on the desk and he bent back a steel ruler to almost vertical and let it go across your knuckles, once for each spelling mistake. One of many similar "teaching methods". The Dog Collars were brutal.

As to "non jobs" I can only agree!!!!

[Mickel]

I know there is a degree of urine extraction going on here, however… the words my (single digit aged) kids are learning to spell is way beyond what I was expected to know at that age.

And the other thing to remember… who sets the curriculum? Their grandparents.

[bladerunner900]

How many of us remember the whole class chanting the 'times tables'? Even better, how many of us still resort to them?

I started school in the 60's so yes, I was brainwashed chanting those tables. Even now I have to sometimes recite them in my head to get an answer. Also, because I got the spelling on some words wrong, I was forced to write them out 100 times. Even now I spell them in my head as I type, or write them down. B. E. C. A. U. S. E. is a prime example. Poems too. "Crows crowd croaking overhead." AARRGHHH!


Steve.

[dvm]

“The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

[Ron Attwood]

How many of us remember the whole class chanting the 'times tables'? Even better, how many of us still resort to them?

I started school in the 60's so yes, I was brainwashed chanting those tables. Even now I have to sometimes recite them in my head to get an answer. Also, because I got the spelling on some words wrong, I was forced to write them out 100 times. Even now I spell them in my head as I type, or write them down. B. E. C. A. U. S. E. is a prime example. Poems too. "Crows crowd croaking overhead." AARRGHHH!
Steve.

Oh dear! You're bringing floods of memories back.

I started school in 1946 aged five. I remember being late one morning and reported, snivelling, to my teacher and tried to explain though the tears why. She wasn't impressed and gave me a rap across the knuckles with a ruler...The EDGE of a ruler.
Mrs Wright, I still hate you.
No wonder I'm so f**ked up.

[bladerunner900]

Oh dear! You're bringing floods of memories back.

I started school in 1946 aged five. I remember being late one morning and reported, snivelling, to my teacher and tried to explain though the tears why. She wasn't impressed and gave me a rap across the knuckles with a ruler...The EDGE of a ruler.
Mrs Wright, I still hate you.
No wonder I'm so f**ked up.

In primary, we had a sadist of a teacher in year 3. He would give you 'the dap' (one of his trainers across the butt) if he thought you weren't performing well enough in written tests. Needless to say that was most of us. So... yeah.
Even in the high school there were two sadists. They are all dead now and I can tell you, there was much rejoicing. My brother, who was 5 years behind me, tells me there was none of that when he went through the system. In fact I heard of some teachers getting beaten-up by some of the 5th form in high school.

Steve.

[RonnieDuck]

The earth is flat!

[Dogsbody55]

Mike

Christian Brothers mid 70's and as said, was all three just didn't feel like it because that was just the way things were. We had one Brother who gave "Kentucky Fried Chicken" for spelling mistakes. He called it that because it was "finger licking good". Basically you held out your fingers, palms down on the desk and he bent back a steel ruler to almost vertical and let it go across your knuckles, once for each spelling mistake. One of many similar "teaching methods". The Dog Collars were brutal.

As to "non jobs" I can only agree!!!!

I know what you mean about the "Dog Collars" and recall that Christian Brothers didn't have much to do with God as far as their treatment of the kids in their care were concerned. My next school was worse still than the primary school I mentioned above. I next went to a Grammar School in Stroud, Gloucestershire. 1966 had been an absolutely horrific year for my family and "graduating" to this school starting at the beginning of September that year did nothing to help that. The lower school was run by a Lancastrian monk, well known for his use of the cane and the lesser punishment of a rulers edge over fingers, He also kept a battered looking trainer on his desk and we all knew what that was for every time we entered his office. My form master was a vicar who was very Old Testament. It truly looked like something from a Monty Python sketch about British public schools complete with the black capes and mortar board head gear. Yet somehow we survived it all and we got an education. Like Ron, all their names are indelibly etched in my memory.

I was fortunate though. A couple of months after I started, Dad stuck his head into my room and said "How would you like to live in Australia?" I responded with great alacrity and positivity. This was late September 1966 and we boarded our ship to Australia on 17th May 1967, and anniversary I never forget for all the right reasons. The two schools I went to in Sydney were so much nicer and even though one or two teachers liked similar punishments, none were as bad as those in rural England. And I graduated from those schools too with an even better education.


Cheers,
Mike