If you need further reason for giving parents greater choice in where they get to send their kids for an education, get a load of this load of flapdoodle from Cliff Ferry, President of the Nevada State Board of Education.
It’s from a memo he sent on May 16th to members of the Nevada state Assembly with regard to Senate Bill 184. Ferry advises in the memo that his position, unbelievably, is “supported by the State Board of Education.
“Math is difficult and uninteresting to many young people and adults,” writes Ferry. “I believe that requiring 4 years of math will cause more dropouts. I believe there’s some evidence that credit deficiency rather than failing the high school proficiency test is a major cause of dropouts.”
Get it? Math is hard and boring…so the president of the State Board of EDUCATION wants to eliminate it as a four-year requirement for obtaining a regular high school diploma.
Ferry goes on to rationalize eliminating the four-year math requirement because, well, it’s just too hard to find good math teachers. “I don’t think the supply (of math teachers) will increase significantly and the demand will increase as students in the program approach the 12th grade.”
Get it? Math teachers are hard to find, so rather than do the hard work of finding them, let’s just get rid of math. Problem solved!
But Ferry wasn’t finished. Requiring four years of math, the education chief explained to legislators, “could very well diminish programs in career and technical education, the arts, music, drama, etc. These are programs that engage high school students in significant ways,” Ferry added.
Yes, by all means. Let’s forget about reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. The important thing about getting a solid education isn’t about getting a solid education; it’s about “engaging high school students in significant ways.”
And some folks still wonder why so many of our public schools suck?
Fortunately, Mr. Ferry was very helpful in his concluding paragraph…just in case you feel the urge to express YOUR opinion on this matter: “If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at 775-738-3278 or cfferry@frontiernet.net.”
Posted on May 23rd, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
I haven’t always like Mr. Ferry. Yep, I know him. However, it helps to put things in perspective. Mr. Ferry has worked on the “school to work” program for years and he has been involved in developing “vocational” type programs at the college up in Elko. Of course he has seen alot of young people go through those programs who hate math and will always hate math.
I believe in “vocational” type programs. We are missing out on doing something effective by not supporting programs like those for high school students who don’t fit into the “classroom” like robots model of eduction.
Chuck,
Have you taken the HS proficiency exam? I have. There is alot of non-essential mathmatics in the test…I mean really, who cares what the answer is to the question “what is the sum of 1/32 x 4/15″? Is that something you run into in your everyday life? I don’t. Who cares? I agree with NVMojo. 4 years of math? Who gives a shit? What is important, is that many different different disciplines are available to those who wish to pursue those courses, and the rest get a basic exposure to mathmatics.