Live data from Hacker News

California needs real math education, not gimmicks

noahpinion.blog

331–340 of 386 posts

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you incentivize IQ?

Do you really think that American kids are stupider than kids in other countries?

No but unlike many peer countries we actually test all of them rather than a select few.

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Capitalism is a heluva lot older than 1549. Huh? No, it's not. The first step may be learning what "capitalism" means. It's a specific economic system that developed in early modernity. It's not some "natural state of man" any more than feudalism was before it.

I provided a cite. Maybe have a look at it.

I've read Stark, and he goes way out in front of the actual documents we have. The high middle ages contained elements of a market economy that eventually developed into mercantilism and thence capitalism, which is very different from your claim that capitalism is a lot older than 1549. (You also seem to be conflating mercantilism and capitalism, incidentally, but either way the result is the same.)

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also an increased distance between those doing the actual work and those making decisions about how it should be done. Bureaucratic depth keeps any real change from taking place, instead leaving those on the ground level to try and work within a set growing rules. Any attempt to affect change has to be filtered through so many levels and takes so long. As a longtime teacher, I don't think there are any soluti…

The one solution that will work (and is vehemently resisted) is to pay teachers a base salary plus a bonus for each student that meets grade level expectations at the end of the year.

That seems like more of an incentive to get a job at an already high-performing school than it is to do a better job of teaching.

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Korea's economic growth came from export discipline, a kind of industrial policy where the dictator threw businessmen in prison if they didn't manage to get overseas customers. (See How Asia Works.) That's not a free market, it's more like heading from communism towards free markets and then continuing over the other end of the horseshoe. It has the problem that everyone in the country is now working themselves to de…

Free markets are a spectrum, not an absolute. There's never been a perfect free market, just like there's never been a perfect apple.

Using "free" in a situation where there's literally a dictator stretches it though.

Japan didn't have this, but the chaebol/zaibatsu systems are unnatural too, and Samsung seems to own like half the Korean economy.

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then after another 6 doubling periods it'd get to 10%, will it? Exponential till it's not isn't exponential, it's logistic.

I had to look up "logistic" in that context. Almost anything that is described as "exponential" isn't really exponential, if the curve is describing a real-world quantity. Real-world quantities tend to be subject to limits. I'm an annoying pedant regarding the word "exponential", which is commonly used (especially by journalists) simply to mean "grows fast". I think it's fair to call a curve "exponential" if the rele…

It's odd to say you're a pedant about "exponential" when you don't know what a logistic curve is!

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like teachers giving answers to students because higher grades / more passing means more money...

Have a third party do the testing.

What will be their incentive? Bonuses for the number of tests graded?

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is laughably optimistic. There are plenty of things companies do, pretty pervasively, that have been proven both scientifically and empirically to be detrimental.

I'm interested in hearing about your success running a company scientifically.

Ah, yes; because no one is allowed to disagree with you about something they haven't personally done.

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a better, older, phrase that would be great to promote over that tired saying: “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.” — Aristotle

You are a contrarian in the best sense, thanks for sharing this!

As a true 'jack of all trades' I feel that it's my duty to share these quotes, or the full version of widely used quotes.

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also an increased distance between those doing the actual work and those making decisions about how it should be done. Bureaucratic depth keeps any real change from taking place, instead leaving those on the ground level to try and work within a set growing rules. Any attempt to affect change has to be filtered through so many levels and takes so long. As a longtime teacher, I don't think there are any soluti…

My solution to the education attitude issue in the us, which is very real: pay the families that perform best in school districts. Take the top grades on each years final tests and give the family money. The entire society will change overnight, as people will suddenly be asking kids why they aren’t studying.

[deleted]

Re: California needs real math education, not gimmicks

#340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like teachers giving answers to students because higher grades / more passing means more money...

Have a third party do the testing.

While that might (or might not) mitigate one perverse incentive, there are lots more. It's important for policy proposals to take unintended consequences into account. What others can you foresee and how would you mitigate them?
Post reply on HN