California's Attempt to 'Close the Gap' in Math Education

Taken from JRE #1732 w/Ben Shapiro:

[DGP]

I struggled with math for pretty much all my school life, mostly due bad teachers and my dad constantly saying that I had bad grades on math because I had no talent for it. All it took was a single teacher in HS (Mr. Anthony Haswell, God bless you wherever you are right now) to change all that. I finally started leaning math, and did so well I got into Engineering school.

[jopo]

Ben talks to Joe like there's an elevator door starting to close between them, and he still has a bunch of stuff to tell him

[ScottyGMusic]

Whenever I drive across an interstate bridge over a river, I hope to the Lord that the structural engineer was objectively good at math.

[ChadWinters]

Started with “No Child Left Behind” the only way that works in actual practice is to make sure no child gets ahead

[williamtaylor]

It's amazing how far people will go, how much money, time and energy they will waste, to avoid admitting that their beliefs are flawed.

[uchibenkei]

I teach math overseas. The key to doing well in math is practice. The more you practice, the better you'll do. The kids who do homework on their own honestly, will always outperform those who don't. end of story.

[dannyk]

"Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles" - Dostoievski

[daveb]

It boggles the mind that this needs to be a serious discussion. It's amazing how much damage a small minority of well organized weirdos can do.

[Ultimatenightvision]

Instead of diplomas, students will now receive participation certificates

[theidiotwithawrench]

This doesn't make sense. The idea of telling someone that they're wrong is one of the fundamental things that teaches someone

[felicia]

Thank you for mentioning Thomas Sowell. I love that man. He needs to be on Joe's Podcast. Also as someone who has struggled with math before, I'd like to mention that sometimes studying more isn't the solution. Sometimes the solution is to have it explained to you in a different way by a different person. The way in which math is taught in most schools is ridiculous. There are better methods out there.

[j.w.matney]

I was never a gifted student and math was difficult. After high school I went into the Navy and they sent me to learn how to be a radar operator. The course was difficult but those Chiefs taught me how to learn and how to study. A Senior Chief explained to me that people can learn in two ways by listening or by reading. So I figured out that I better take good notes because I sucked at learning something by listening to someone. I developed study habits in the Navy and when I went to College on the GI Bill, I did pretty well (3.4 GPA) with an economics degree. Thank God for those Chiefs and the Navy, changed my life for the better. I think that people who majored in liberal arts always avoided math and weren't good at it so now that they are in power they want to turn an objective subject-math-into a subjective subject like sociology where there isn't one correct answer. I don't want the engineers who build things or doctors to believe that there is more than one correct answer to a math problem.

[wolflarson]

The more people who know about Thomas Sowell, the better. A national treasure.

[JBPVFL]

Math, above all other schoolings, is based off of right and wrong.

[SaadKhan-usvt]

I struggled with math my entire standard education from pre-k to 12th grade, even when I got to college and took college algebra and precalculus I was struggling and hating every second of it. However, that all changed when I took calculus with a certain professor who was able to so precisely and eloquently explain the topics and present them and make them understandable, now all of a sudden I understand everything, it all starts to make sense and I enjoy math, the subject I struggled with and hated for years, and the best part is that now I want to know more and I don't care that it'll be difficult I just want to learn even more Calculus and related concepts. Sometimes all you need is the right teacher. Also I'm Indian so I was smashing that stereotype all throughout school lol.

[JasonSmith-pnch]

"Knowledge is power" The fact people are lowering standards to keep the masses powerless should alarm everyone.

[niklasholgerson]

Good luck competing with engineers from other countries after applying this approach! :D

[hermitcard]

Anytime you lower the standards you get mediocre people. Some things are RIGHT to be hard and crash people into reality.

[bryankerr]

"getting rid of objective standards in math" just means getting rid of math. Math is objective standards.

[laughingbull]

I work for the school district in Burbank California and I can tell you it's much much worse than what Ben is talking about.