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Friday, December 3, 2010

Opus 7, The New Math

We have an after school program at our school.  I won’t mention its name but it is bigger than just our school. It has lots of activities but the closest it comes to education is some tutoring classes.

Recently they were co-sponsoring a food drive with a neighborhood charity.  That was fine.  I have no problem with that.  The problem comes with a flyer they sent out to all the homes touched by our school.  It had the following:

One 8 oz can is ½ a pound!
For a class of 25 students

25 students x 2 cans = 50 lbs.

In case you went to public school and are having a problem seeing why I have trouble, notice that each can is a half pound.  Two cans equals one pound.  25x1=25 not 50.  There are simple ways to explain the error but it is not a good way to teach math.

Your tax dollars at work.

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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.