[Politics/Edumakashun] long depressing read on why this country's future is DOA

[Aske]

http://redtape.msnbc.com/...-fraud-al.html?ameritards

According to the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy, U.S. adults are terrible at solving real-world math problems, like calculating tips or comparing prices in grocery stores.  Some dismal results:

*Only 42 percent were able to pick out two items on a menu, add them, and calculate a tip.

*Only 1 in 5 could reliably calculate mortgage interest.

*1 in 5 could not calculate weekly salary when told an hourly pay rate.

*Only 13 percent were deemed “proficient.”  Worse yet, only 1 in 10 women, 1 in 25 Hispanics and 1 in 50 African Americans made the grade.

*Americans are terrified of numbers when it counts most: 20 million Americans pay someone to file their 1040EZ, a one-page tax form with around 10 blanks to fill out.

Also, these numbers show up in U.S. student math scores, which are abysmal:

*The U.S. ranks 25th among 30 industrialized nations in math scores, down near Serbia and Uruguay. U.S. students thought they had the highest grades of any nation in the study, however.

*Half of 17 year olds couldn't do enough math to work in an auto plant, according to President's National Mathematics Advisory Panel.

*Study after study shows U.S. achievement falls off the cliff during middle school, when subjects like fractions and percentages are introduced -- exactly the skills you need as a consumer or, for that matter, to move on to algebra, calculus and advanced sciences.

[birdymaker]

I blame calculators. Really. I can figure it out in my head before my 12 year old can punch it in to her magnificent hand held adding machine. I may have sucked at math in school but I learned it. The same is not true today, they only have to pass it not learn it.

[MFAWG]

I had a very revealing conversation at work the other day.

I had to explain to a college graduate that 144 would not divide by 30 5 times, no matter what she thought her claculator said.

[Spanky]

Reading this makes me feel like a genius.

[Blader]

teh math woe is just a symptom of a deeper, more pernicious embrace of the frivolous stupid

in a country where the presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin actually has to be taken seriously, you either know something is seriously, deeply wrong....or, it turns out, shockingly, you really don't

[gleek]

One of teh comments...

Who cares?......the Yankees are World Champions!
*8==>*, Sus****, NJ (Sent Dec 30, 2009 8:20:25 AM)

LMAO