Here's the thing, though. Look at the exam. (http://fcat.fldoe.org/pdf/releasepdf/06/FL06_Rel_G10M_TB_Cwf001.pdf) It's really not all that complicated. Most of these problems require very basic reasoning skills that someone with a 10th grade education should have no issue with. The article sounds so persuasive? I was so persuaded by it! But then I actually looked at one of the FCAT exams (this guy's school district has kids take a variant on this test).
IMHO, this is really not a case of kids being forced to memorize useless and obscure minutiae to regurgitate it on an unreasonable test. It is rather a case of someone having somehow acquired a position of significant power - and two post-graduate degrees - without being able to use simple arithmetic or reasoning.
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On Math: Still Irrelevant
Here's the thing, though. Look at the exam. (http://fcat.fldoe.org/pdf/releasepdf/06/FL06_Rel_G10M_TB_Cwf001.pdf) It's really not all that complicated. Most of these problems require very basic reasoning skills that someone with a 10th grade education should have no issue with. The article sounds so persuasive? I was so persuaded by it! But then I actually looked at one of the FCAT exams (this guy's school district has kids take a variant on this test).
IMHO, this is really not a case of kids being forced to memorize useless and obscure minutiae to regurgitate it on an unreasonable test. It is rather a case of someone having somehow acquired a position of significant power - and two post-graduate degrees - without being able to use simple arithmetic or reasoning.