If you are a supervisor, manager, or any other businessperson who hires and directs others, you may already know what follows. If not, I am about to scare you.
American students, by age 15, have fallen behind their peers in many countries. In fact, only 10% are considered to fall in the top two most proficient groups, despite the fact that 72% say they get good grades in math. We aren’t talking about esoteric problems involving mathematical minutia, either; the test the students were given “assesses the abilities of 15-year-old students from 41 countries to apply what they have learned in school to real-life problems.” Problems much like those adults face on the job and in their lives. A calculator won’t help with these problems unless you know what to calculate.
One expert excuses the poor performance of American teenagers by pointing out that our classes focus on “analytical and theoretical” issues, saying “You could have American kids knowing more math, it’s just that they may test lower than other countries because their learning is not geared toward practical application.” Call me old fashioned, but practical application of math is what most adults will do when they balance their checkbook. I think little of “analysis” that does not result in accurate “application.” This explanation is akin to saying we shouldn’t be expected to read newspapers, but we studied Shakespeare in High School!
Apparently, there is no great secret for how to prepare students to do well on this type of test. Throwing money at schools was not the answer, instead the critical factors were “a good relationship between students and teachers, pupils eager to learn, an environment in which mathematics classes do not provoke anxiety, and constructive rules to enforce discipline.”
Let me say that again: it is well known how to teach math to students, yet American students are not learning.
In general, effective teaching methods are no great secret, just sometimes ignored, derided as the stuffy, boring old way things used to be done. It is as true for reading or any other subject as it is for math.
And, no surprise, we have a crisis of language skills in the United States too. We are a nation that can’t tell the difference between s and ‘s, that can’t put together a coherent memo, that can’t read instruction manuals. Even some college educated professionals have problems when it comes to written English. The addition of e-mail to the workplace has made this all the more obvious to employers.
Some people are under the delusion that public education does not effect them. They think that because their kids are grown up, or they have no kids, that schools are none of their business. The truth of the matter is that unless you live in a cave, every day you interact with and depend upon people who were educated in public schools. Your doctor, lawyer, hairdresser, landscaper, the cashier at the grocery store, the FedEx delivery guy, all very likely went to public schools. You even depend on public schools to teach enough reading that the guy in the next car understands “No Left Turn” and doesn’t crash into you.
The history and usage of the word “dude” is probably more interesting than the rules of grammar, punctuation, and mathematics. All things considered, I’d rather have an employee who understands how to solve everyday problems using math to one who understands the proper use of the term “Dude.”