The Dumbing Down of Baltimore

From Jeb Bush we get an indictment of the educational system. Jeb Bush: Our public schools are failing. Give parents a choice.

And it isn't only Baltimore, but this story concentrates on that city.

Nationally, we know math scores have significantly dropped, and in Baltimore, there are 23 schools (out of 150 in the district that administered the state test) where not a single student is proficient in math at their grade level.

According to an analysis by Project Baltimore that examined student math test scores in the city, 93% of third through eighth graders in Baltimore City Public Schools are unable to do math on grade level.

This is not because the students in Baltimore less intelligent than they were 50 years ago, or less intelligent than students in other places, it is because of the way math is taught. If you want to learn math, you need to do worksheets, you need to memorize the basic multiplication tables, but teachers don't like grading worksheets, especially if they need to check the students work to see that they didn't copy the answer from a neighbor. And so we have a generation who, mostly can't do math.

See the video You're Not Bad At Math, You're Just Lazy. Well, and your teachers were probably lazy as well.

It doesn't help that teachers today are more interested in teaching kids about their sex lives, instead of teaching stuff that really matters.

According to a new poll released by yes. every kid., 7 in 10 Black families support education savings accounts – an education funding model that allows parents to have the flexibility to use education funds to pay for a variety of education expenses ranging from private tuition to tutoring, online courses or a blend of options.

I'm sorry but math is critical to everything from carpentry to engineering. So if you want a world where no new products are made, no homes get built, etc. go right on ignoring math. (Hat tip to Maggie's Farm.)