Friday, May 11, 2007

Teaching 'Old' Math to Children - Where'd It Go?

Has anybody been confronted by the new, reformed math being pushed by schools these days? You know, the kid brings home his math homework, and it makes you shy away from it's... strangeness. Even if you are comfortable coaching your child on simple things, like arithmetic, you are lost. If so, you may have been perplexed on a couple of levels. One, why are the schools pushing this arcane kind of problem-solving on children, when the old algorithms serve admirably?

Not surprisingly, I have an opinion on this, shall we say, subterfuge. Right off the bat, the first noticeable thing it does, is it creates a void of comprehension between the the parents and the child, which takes parents, as coaches, out of the equation. They haven't a clue what the book is talking about. They simply can't help their children with math. Why do that? Consider this: It is a way of driving yet another wedge between parents and their children, which for those who have been paying attention, is a major goal of the NEA.

The second thing it does, is it replaces simple math and arithmetic methods with a clumsy, inefficient system. Again, why? If you strip away all the BS about the "flexibility" of the new, reformed math (In her video Madeline gives the lie to that argument), one makes the startling conclusion: it is to make them stupid. I believe it is no exaggeration to say that the goal of public schools today is not to educate your children, but to prepare their minds for the UN mandate of a One World Government.

That seems a shocking conclusion.

But if you look at the curricula and the textbooks being foisted on children today, with it's emphasis on "language arts", instead of grammar and spelling; politicized science, instead of hard science using the Scientific Method; and diversity-based social studies, instead of history and geography, the conclusion seems unavoidable: America's children are doing poorly by design. The globalists don't want, indeed don't need, a thoughtful, informed populace capable of distinguishing reasoned argument from political indoctrination. What they do need is a powerless,
confused citizenry, who believe what they are told. Everything political is arguably smoke-and-mirrors these days.

In a 1993 pamphlet to teachers, the NEA had this to say:

Allegiance to a nation is the biggest stumbling block to the creation of international government. National boundaries and the concept of sovereignty must be abolished. The quickest way to do this is to condition the young to another and broader alliance. Opinion favorable to international government will be developed in the social studies curriculum in the public schools.”

We've come a long way from the old red brick schoolhouse.


Watch the videos, when you have 20 minutes. They are very refreshing, and encouraging.

MJ McDermott's 15 min. video which contrasts teaching math to children using the "new, reformed methods", with that of the old tried-and-true algorithms some of us who are a little longer in tooth grew up learning. No doubt, you remember this:

Using the divergence theorem, what is tex2html_wrap_inline95 if tex2html_wrap_inline97 and S is the surface of the region bounded by the planes tex2html_wrap_inline101 ?

Just kidding! I mean like long division, addition, subtraction, multiplication of simple digits (without the use of a calculator).

McDermott tries and, I think, succeeds in showing the weakness and danger of this new, reformed math curriculum, which seems designed to make you and your children stupid and confused. Have a look. See if you agree.



Finally, in another short video, Madeline - a 10-year old - gives us her charming perspective on the new, reformed math, and shows us several examples of how she solves simple math problems using the "Singapore method", which McDermott talks about in her video. Old school. And I'm sure you will notice how Madeline and her mother went about finding a way out of her dilemma.



Once the Corporate Elite and our Government completes its metamorphosis into the most powerful alliance ever witnessed on earth, there will be little we can do, but dance to their tune, and pay the piper. Because it will have happened on our watch.

And our children will not thank us.