Do the Math

Joanne Jacobs:

Columnist Richard Cohen isn't the first to advise young people not to bother about learning math. In 2003, WOAI in San Antonio asked a selection of adults -- a radio DJ, a school board president, a councilman and a former judge -- to take Texas' new TAKS test, a graduation requirement. The school board president got an A in English and a B in math. Everyone else flunked the math. DJ Jamie Martin tells students not to worry.

"Kids did you hear me? You don't need to learn math like me. You can still be successful and do bad on math."
Despite the grammatical error, she scored a B in English.
More than half of San Antonio's 11th graders failed on their first try.

Educators say they saw the same kind of failure rates and complaints when they introduced the TAAS test. By the time it was retired, those teachers say, the TAAS test was considered too easy.
Adults who've been away from the classroom for years are bound to be rusty on their "vertices and vortexes," not to mention "the little numbers." If they needed to pass the test to get ahead, they'd study and learn. San Antonio students can do that too. They're more likely to be successful if they can do the math. Not everybody can grow up to work in the innumerate media.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 1, 2006 2:26 PM
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