By E-Mail
To the Chancellor and Members of the Board of
Education:
I am unable to attend tonight’s BOE calendar
meeting.
But I am in full support of Elizabeth Carson’s view that
the math grants that will be rubber-stamped tonight support a math program that
will reduce students to the lowest common denominator.
After five years of fighting a high school battle, I
am tired of the fiction that the BOE wants parental involvement; it certainly
didn’t want our middle-class input.
Regardless of the subject, we are dismissed as elitist. As a physician, I used math professionally. I, and all the physicians I know, view the
claim that what they teach is “real world” math as ridiculous. It is simply inferior mathematics. At the end of the day, two things count in
math: speed and accuracy. This “real
world” math devalues both. I cannot imagine a single adult who would welcome
the physician, pilot, engineer who supplanted accuracy with creativity in
math.
I have started to collect homework from other
parents at school who are appalled at this program. The following is an example:
“You would have gotten a 5 [a perfect score] because
all the math is correct. But you did not right [sic] complete
sentences.”
I think that sums it up.
Jeanne Kassler, MD
Co-Founder, Partnership for an