Weirdly, the Leftwing Media Isn't Interested in Reporting That Red States Now Lead Blue States in Education and Student Achievement

Buh buh buh we're the Smart People who Love the Science (TM).

No, you're the blinkered, uneducated, little-read, provincial morons who believe in weird demonic cult dogmas.

Not long ago, blue states typically outperformed red ones when it came to education. That is changing. Blue states like Oregon and Washington experienced significant drops in reading and math scores for both fourth- and eighth-graders between 2015 and 2024, worse than the national declines during the same period. Mississippi, meantime, gained five points in fourth-grade reading and math and held steady in eighth-grade performance. Louisiana also maintained its scores, defying the negative national trends.
Whether you call it the "Mississippi Miracle" or the "Southern Surge," Republican-led states are rapidly improving student outcomes relative to blue states, thanks to a series of substantive reforms over the past decade.
Republican-led state governments have implemented evidence-based reading curricula, banned ineffective teaching methods, and improved school safety. In contrast, Democrat-led states have undermined school discipline, reduced academic standards, and embraced policies that deemphasize achievement in favor of ideological goals.

Wait -- you're saying that didn't work?

The most important factor driving this divide has been the progressive push for "equity." In practice, equity has meant eliminating honors classes, lowering grading standards, and loosening classroom discipline. Avoiding this ideological approach, red states have taken the lead on evidence-based reforms.
The divide is particularly striking in reading instruction. For decades, American schools steered clear of phonics--the instructional method that teaches students to connect letters with sounds--which progressive educators derided as a right-wing scheme (and some still do now). They favored the "whole language" approach, whereby students supposedly learned through a "holistic" process of immersion in literature and "sight reading." Even though this approach was exposed as a failure as early as the 1950s, when Rudolf Flesch's Why Johnny Can't Read warned of its ineffectiveness and championed phonics, the educational establishment stuck with the whole-language approach throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

In recent decades, however, red states have returned to phonics. In 2013, Mississippi, under unified Republican leadership in both the legislature and governor's mansion, was an early adopter of requiring that teachers be trained in evidence-based reading pedagogies. At the time, Mississippi rated second to last in reading scores nationally. But since then, the Magnolia State has steadily climbed the rankings. In fact, adjusted for demographics, it now stands among the top states in reading.

Liberals are always engaging in primitive cargo-cult thinking. Here's what these assholes thought: They saw that kids who were very good at reading did not use phonics to read words, but rather just recognized them in a glance.

So they reasoned: If the smart kids are just reading words "whole" at a glance, that must be what we must teach our slower-readers to do!

It apparently never occurred to them that fast readers had all gone through the phonics sounding-out process, but at an earlier age than their peers.

And then, after reading for a couple of years before even getting to first grade -- yes, they then were reading words by sight (at least the ones that were already stored in their memory's word-bank). They stopped using phonics not because phonics wasn't useful, but because they eventually outgrew it.

These geniuses similarly noticed that kids who were good at math sometimes didn't use the standard algorithms for doing multiplication and division, but instead used little tricks to manipulate the numbers to make calculation faster and easier.

Once again: These kids all used the standard techniques of memorization and long-form multiplication and division first, then, as they became proficient, they began realizing on their own that there were quick tricks for doing calculations. Like, if you want to divide by 10, just move the decimal point one place to the left.

But these geniuses again decided that because the smarter kids were figuring out these shortcuts, then we should skip teaching kids the standard algorithms for calculation and just teach them the tricks.

And that's why parents are unable to help their kids with math any longer-- Parents all know the standard algorithms, and are ready to teach it, but when their kids come home they're told do weird stuff the parents haven't seen before.

Which is another big thing stupid liberals don't realize: Teachers set the pace of learning in classrooms, but it's actually parents who do the bulk of the actual teaching at home. So if you make up random nonsense to "teach" kids math, you are cutting the main teachers of math, the parents, out of the equation.

I hate the Educrats. They are constantly churning out New and Stupid Techniques both to justify their phoney-baloney jobs and also to provide excuses for why low-performing teachers are unable to teach kids.

See, it's not the incompetent teachers' fault -- it's the fault of The System! We can fire The System and keep all the incompetent teachers on the payroll!

This is such a standard bureaucratic dodge it ought be be criminalized. They never want to fire incompetent bureaucrats, just fire the old "system" (or "procedures" or "trainings").

The old system (and procedures, and teachings) usually work.

But no system works in the hands of an incompetent.

Read the whole thing. Red states are also making it easier to remove disruptive students from the classroom, whereas blue states are making it impossible to do so, thus guaranteeing that those few disruptive students won't be the only ones leaving the school entirely uneducated. All the students they kept from learning will also graduate with a moron-level intellect.

(No slight to good Morons intended.)

Posted by: Ace at 05:20 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 No, I'm the Mary, you're the ? other one.

Pretty good movie, but that's what it's like talking with many of these Woke Karens.

Posted by: illiniwek at June 20, 2025 05:23 PM (vbXSk)

2 Aaaand I read the content! No phonics required.

Posted by: Darrell Harris at June 20, 2025 05:24 PM (7KTzQ)

3 Calling the others.

Posted by: Darrell Harris at June 20, 2025 05:24 PM (7KTzQ)

4 The simplest definition of conservatism is embracing what works and rejecting what doesn't. Progressivism is the opposite.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at June 20, 2025 05:26 PM (WnnlU)

5 hOoKeD oN dA FoNeKs

Posted by: Chicago School District Reading Specialist at June 20, 2025 05:27 PM (IifOV)

6 The notion that Rote Memorization isn't learning always annoys me.

It's Part of the Process of Learning. And it is necessary.

Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:28 PM (MmNOR)

7 Cargo Culting has been the fad in education my whole life. People who go to college make more money? Well then, as many as possible should go to college.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 05:28 PM (jc0TO)

8 Ace, I am saddened that you did not include this Hooked on Phonics commercial

youtu.be/OBJR03BORRQ?

Posted by: Kindltot at June 20, 2025 05:28 PM (D7oie)

9
The math skills aren't any better. They keep changing the way to do math so often you can't even help your kid do their homework anymore.

Posted by: Frank Barone at June 20, 2025 05:29 PM (IifOV)

10 The 24 year olds enrolled in high school to score girls probably aren't helping blue state test scores.

Posted by: Stateless.. 35I% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 20, 2025 05:29 PM (jvJvP)

11 The notion that Rote Memorization isn't learning always annoys me.

It's Part of the Process of Learning. And it is necessary.
Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:28 PM

If you can't do your 12X12s instinctively, you can't math.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 05:29 PM (jc0TO)

12 Of course, these are the same people who believe corporal punishment is bad parenting.

Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:29 PM (MmNOR)

13 These are the people who are baffled by "boys have a penis, girls have a vagina".

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM (ULPxl)

14
Schools are daycare centers now. Its difficult to fail a student. Everybody advances.

Posted by: Frank Barone at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM (IifOV)

15 Willowed:

So...

I've been watching "Murderbot" on AppleTV, which several morons seemed all excited about.

I gotta say it's pretty slow, boring and lame.

You can tell the books were written by a woman as the 'edgy" murderbot is mostly just a snarky lame-ass. Oh, the snark! It kills or something.

Anyway, I hate all of you who recommended it, and as penance you should all go watch DUNE: When Girls Wuz Bosses.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM (iJfKG)

16 Education has become an odd cult unto itself. Don't believe me? Talk to a teacher or even the spouse or child of a teacher about school choice or home schooling.

Zealots. Like looking Stonewall Jackson in the eyes.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:31 PM (zZu0s)

17 Proved fraudulent in the 50s, still in use in some states into the 80s, still in use in blue states.

That's modern education.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:31 PM (8avO+)

18 I've been watching "Murderbot" on AppleTV, which several morons seemed all excited about.

I gotta say it's pretty slow, boring and lame.

You can tell the books were written by a woman as the 'edgy" murderbot is mostly just a snarky lame-ass. Oh, the snark! It kills or something.

Anyway, I hate all of you who recommended it, and as penance you should all go watch DUNE: When Girls Wuz Bosses.
Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM

Aren't you amused by the feckless space hippies?

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 05:31 PM (jc0TO)

19 Education has become an odd cult unto itself. Don't believe me? Talk to a teacher or even the spouse or child of a teacher about school choice or home schooling.

Zealots. Like looking Stonewall Jackson in the eyes.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:31 PM (zZu0s)

That's not cultish. Its a gang defending its turf.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:32 PM (8avO+)

20 I shudder at the thought of what classrooms must be like now.

Posted by: eleven at June 20, 2025 05:32 PM (fV+MH)

21 Its difficult to fail a student. Everybody advances.
Posted by: Frank Barone at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM (IifOV)

If you can't fail a single student, you are failing ALL the students.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:32 PM (dGCAG)

22 My late mother was a teacher as a nun than later here in Canada.

There were often new things coming out. She'd close her door and teach phonics to her grade ones. Tried and true.

I often hear that Mom was their favorite teacher ever.

Posted by: Stateless.. 35I% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 20, 2025 05:32 PM (jvJvP)

23 I hated that Louisiana was ranked in the bottom tier for education when I was in HS. I have no doubt the rankings controlled by a Northeastern outfit at the time. I went to a public high school that was just as good as anything I've seen in the multiple states I've lived in.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:33 PM (rWvc2)

24 I've been watching "Murderbot" on AppleTV, which several morons seemed all excited about.

I gotta say it's pretty slow, boring and lame.

You can tell the books were written by a woman as the 'edgy" murderbot is mostly just a snarky lame-ass. Oh, the snark! It kills or something.

Anyway, I hate all of you who recommended it, and as penance you should all go watch DUNE: When Girls Wuz Bosses.
Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM

Aren't you amused by the feckless space hippies?
Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 05:31 PM (jc0TO)

If they were dying horribly, I might be.

Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:33 PM (iJfKG)

25
T - 05:20 'till solstice at 02:42:15Z. Astronomical Summer will soon begin. This is going to be a near perfect one. All the little wig-woggles of the earth-moon system are canceling out, and Sol is going be dead on the ecliptic relative to the geocenter down to less than a tenth of an arc-second.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at June 20, 2025 05:33 PM (w6EFb)

26 There is a middle ground somewhere between hippy dipping bullshit and the Roman model of education- which was ONLY rote memorization. I'd say it's toward rote memorization over what we have now.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:33 PM (zZu0s)

27 >>> 18 I've been watching "Murderbot" on AppleTV, which several morons seemed all excited about.

I gotta say it's pretty slow, boring and lame.
==
Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM

Aren't you amused by the feckless space hippies?
Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 05:31 PM (jc0TO)

Do the space Egyptians kick the space hippies out of their space station?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 20, 2025 05:33 PM (ULPxl)

28 I shudder at the thought of what classrooms must be like now.
Posted by: eleven at June 20, 2025 05:32 PM (fV+MH)

In the immortal words of Iggy Pop, a lot of sucking and licking.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:33 PM (dGCAG)

29 The notion that Rote Memorization isn't learning always annoys me.

It's Part of the Process of Learning. And it is necessary.
Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:28 PM (MmNOR)

Definitely can be.

But it can also be a part of lazy ass teachers with a god complex who want to imprint their bullshit on you.

Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 05:34 PM (3R4hO)

30 I live in one of those blue states.
I had a friend who taught math in an inner-city HS. He would openly tell people that his students didn't know enough math for him to be able to teach them anything. He said he felt his job now was to be a "father figure" to them. He completely gave up om trying to teach them anything.
During COVID, they gave all the kids laptops to do school from home, but the majority of the kids wouldn't hop online to attend class, so the school district sent busses with Wi-Fi around the area (because the problem was, obviously, that the kids homes didn't have Internet :eyeroll). Still, only about a half of his students would show up.
Eventually the school gave up, closed everything down for the year and told him to give all his students a 'C' and pass them to the next year. Even the kids who had got online for classes and did the work still got a 'C.'

So, yeah. Our schools are a joke.

Posted by: 29Victor at June 20, 2025 05:34 PM (zh37m)

31 14
Schools are daycare centers now. Its difficult to fail a student. Everybody advances.
Posted by: Frank Barone at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM (IifOV)

Dangerous ones.. We've had several stabbings lately at the local HS's....Of course the County removed police from being on campus a few years back and that has absolutely nothing to do with it...

Posted by: It's me donna at June 20, 2025 05:34 PM (VE6XX)

32 The notion that Rote Memorization isn't learning always annoys me.

Yeah... I get it, some people learn better with different methods, and a good teacher will work with their students to best effect, but -- and this is a BIG butt and I cannot lie -- memorization is key to learning. You gotta memorize or you have not learned.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 20, 2025 05:34 PM (VpV7B)

33 I'm so old that I can remember when Civics was taught. It has been displaced by 'Sociology'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (XeU6L)

34 Committing things to memory is a skill. It's an indispensable skill. You're not just memorizing times tables and cursive letters for the sake of the information itself. You're learning how to learn. It's like a muscle. It has to be exercised. No one is born able to throw a curve ball or run a double marathon. You have to learn how and train up to it. You have to learn how to learn how.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (BjH5D)

35 We used to teach Latin and Greek in high school.

Now we teach remedial English in college.

Posted by: Some pithy sayings really sum things up at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (1m82a)

36 There is a middle ground somewhere between hippy dipping bullshit and the Roman model of education- which was ONLY rote memorization.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:33 PM (zZu0s)

That isn't true. There were essays about the classics, and oratory as well. Pretty practical in a class that had careers speaking in public without microphones and speakers.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (8avO+)

37 Anyway, I hate all of you who recommended it, and as penance you should all go watch DUNE: When Girls Wuz Bosses.
Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM (iJfKG)

You mean Dune second part? First part was as good as the second part was bad.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (rWvc2)

38 (No slight to good Morons intended.)

Can you stretch that to cover not-quite-good? I'd be much obliged.

Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (wVcYX)

39 They're not teachers anymore, not since teachers got a very bad name during the plandemocrat.

Now they are "educators".

Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (3R4hO)

40 Hvae you gyus eevr hared aoubt how all you need is the frsit and lsat lteters of the wrod be rghit?

Posted by: eleven at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (fV+MH)

41 Why would the Democrats Propaganda Ministry report the Left fails at anything?

Posted by: Skip at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (+qU29)

42 I took Latin in high school with a teacher who resembled Mrs claus (and not a sexy one.)

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (zZu0s)

43 It's more malevolent than mistaken understandings about learning. It's purposeful: creating an obedient class on people by making them innumerate, illiterate, and incapable of independent analysis. just like drug legalization: create docile, apathetic robots who can be told and controlled.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (AUL7F)

44 These kids all used the standard techniques of memorization and long-form multiplication and division first, then, as they became proficient, they began realizing on their own that there were quick tricks for doing calculations. Like, if you want to divide by 10, just move the decimal point one place to the left.

My favorite math teacher was a woman who just loved numbers and she was so enthusiastic and interesting that you caught some of that as a student. She saw amazing and interesting patterns in everything and taught me to see them as well. I learned all kinds of tricks in her class like how the nines multiplication table is inverse first and second digit, and how to break 12 down in so many ways.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (VpV7B)

45 Hvae you gyus eevr hared aoubt how all you need is the frsit and lsat lteters of the wrod be rghit?
Posted by: eleven at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (fV+MH)

It's only sort of true.

Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (3R4hO)

46 I ended up being way ahead of my classmates learning math when I was 7 because of two things. 1st, I memorized my multiplication tables at night because my parents actually cared enough to make a game out of it. Secondly, I loved baseball and football and I asked a lot of questions so my dad taught me how to calculate yards per carry and batting average and things like that.

Posted by: Crusader at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (TN0g+)

47 >>>The notion that Rote Memorization isn't learning always annoys me.
It's Part of the Process of Learning. And it is necessary.
Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:28 PM (MmNOR)

Yup. You can't just intuit what 5 x 6 is, or what year the Boston Tea Party started. Kids in grade school are learning the most basic stuff. It's only later they can really start synthesizing it.

Posted by: ace at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (KRtlO)

48 Murderbot" on AppleTV, which several morons seemed all excited about.

I gotta say it's pretty slow,

How many 2 headed giant centipedes do you need?

Posted by: DaveA at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (FhXTo)

49 Also, we lived a couple blocks from a Jr. High that was so worthless at preparing kids for HS that the district planned to shut it down.
But the parents made too big a fuss (they would have had to drive their kids further if this school had closed) that, instead, the district kept the scool open and spent millions remodeling the school.
It sucks just as much now as it ever did, but now they have modern lighting, I guess.

Posted by: 29Victor at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (zh37m)

50 I'm so old that I can remember when Civics was taught. It has been displaced by 'Sociology'.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (XeU6L)

Which is itself appalling because sociology is not civics.

Civics is how *our* society works, and what its rules and conditions are. Whether you like it or not.

It's like teaching linguistics instead of English. Or teaching metamathematics instead of arithmetic.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (BjH5D)

51 I learned a few things in public school. I learned way more at home. My parents weren't that impressed with school grades, they had their own standards.

Posted by: JackStraw at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (viF8m)

52 Dangerous ones.. We've had several stabbings lately at the local HS's....Of course the County removed police from being on campus a few years back and that has absolutely nothing to do with it...

Posted by: It's me donna at June 20, 2025 05:34 PM

I had teachers that would throw stuff at us, yell, and rule their classrooms like a dictator. Best teachers we ever had. Kids actually respect adults who hold them to account. We completely ruled over the teachers who were pushovers.

Posted by: Frank Barone at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (IifOV)

53 Anyway, I hate all of you who recommended it, and as penance you should all go watch DUNE: When Girls Wuz Bosses.
Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:30 PM (iJfKG)

You mean Dune second part? First part was as good as the second part was bad.
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (rWvc2

I mean DUNE: The Streaming Series on MAX

Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (iJfKG)

54 i also love when teachers complain of "teaching to the test."

They claim they want to teach "critical thinking."

Um, how about your prove you're capable of teaching to the test first before we take off the shackles and let you teach what your version of "critical thinking" is?

Posted by: ace at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (KRtlO)

55 There is a middle ground somewhere between hippy dipping bullshit and the Roman model of education- which was ONLY rote memorization. I'd say it's toward rote memorization over what we have now.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:33 PM

Rote memorization works for me. I can still remember those times tables from 60+ years ago.

This common core math stuff seems to me to be a crutch that lets you come up with an answer without actually being able to remember the answer decades later. IOW they are just teaching to the test and not teaching actual math skills.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (e5NfL)

56 >>> 46 I ended up being way ahead of my classmates learning math when I was 7 because of two things. 1st, I memorized my multiplication tables at night because my parents actually cared enough to make a game out of it. Secondly, I loved baseball and football and I asked a lot of questions so my dad taught me how to calculate yards per carry and batting average and things like that.
Posted by: Crusader at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (TN0g+)

I had the multiplication uh, line? for 7s memorized early on because it's touchdowns.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (ULPxl)

57 >>I ended up being way ahead of my classmates learning math when I was 7 because of two things. 1st, I memorized my multiplication tables at night because my parents actually cared enough to make a game out of it. Secondly, I loved baseball and football and I asked a lot of questions so my dad taught me how to calculate yards per carry and batting average and things like that.

Dad always made us calculate discounts and sales tax at the register and made it a game from as early as I can remember.

Nail that 7.5% at the checkout and you were likely getting some ice cream on the way home.

Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (MmNOR)

58 Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (8avO+)

Rhetoric. Valid.

It was meant to be a slightly more nuanced comment including corporal punishment as well. Lot of beatings going on.

I am trying to comment on break.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (zZu0s)

59 I took Latin in high school with a teacher who resembled Mrs claus (and not a sexy one.)
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (zZu0s)

I had a Latin teacher who looked like Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movie.

And also not the sexy one.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (dGCAG)

60 How many 2 headed giant centipedes do you need?
Posted by: DaveA at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM

The casual mention of alien artifacts amused me. Something weird's going on, it's probably aliens.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (jc0TO)

61 >>a teacher who resembled Mrs claus (and not a sexy one.)

odd caveat

Posted by: ace at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (KRtlO)

62 I had a friend who taught math in an inner-city HS. He would openly tell people that his students didn't know enough math for him to be able to teach them anything. He said he felt his job now was to be a "father figure" to them. He completely gave up om trying to teach them anything.

So, yeah. Our schools are a joke.
Posted by: 29Victor at June 20, 2025 05:34 PM (zh37m)

In high school our Latin Class had a program for advanced students to teach Elementary School kids some Latin language and culture. We had the disadvantaged area kids, and they ate up the Latin like sponges, thought it was cool that other languages existed.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (8avO+)

63 Posted by: ace at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (KRtlO)

Knowing Historic dates are necessary to see the logical progression.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (rWvc2)

64 I had the multiplication uh, line? for 7s memorized early on because it's touchdowns.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (ULPxl)

'Merica

Posted by: 29Victor at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (zh37m)

65 As long as we can still have sex with them, it's all good.

Posted by: Unionized Govt Educators at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (6bxmr)

66 I bought the 4 CD series educational course "Ebonics: How To Speak Ghetto In 4 Easy Lessons" back in 1990, hoping it would come in handy one day.

Muthafuckers best be getting my monies back to my ass!

Posted by: Louis Winthorpe III at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (R/m4+)

67 I could have taken Latin or Typing.

So glad I chose Typing.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (rWvc2)

68 You mean Dune second part? First part was as good as the second part was bad.
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:35 PM (rWvc2

I mean DUNE: The Streaming Series on MAX
Posted by: naturalfake at June 20, 2025 05:37 PM (iJfKG)

I keep skipping over the movie, the two part version with M. Night Shalamay as the lead.

Or whatever his name is.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (dGCAG)

69 >> I took Latin in high school with a teacher who resembled Mrs claus (and not a sexy one.)

Did you go to my high school?

The saving grace with mine is she was a big Bruins fan with 2 seats right behind the bench. You had to really do something special to get those tickets.

I'm told. I have no firsthand knowledge.

Posted by: JackStraw at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (viF8m)

70 I ended up being way ahead of my classmates learning math when I was 7 because of two things. 1st, I memorized my multiplication tables at night because my parents actually cared enough to make a game out of it.

I was struggling badly in math until mom got some flash cards and spent a few hours with me getting me to memorize the answers and I started to figure out the patterns. I don't even like math much and did pretty badly on the math side of my SATs but these days I play games like Crossmath that's basically algebra for fun.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (VpV7B)

71 "They stopped using phonics not because phonics wasn't useful, but because they eventually outgrew it."

I think anyone who learned with phonics never stops using phonics. When I come across an unfamiliar word, I'm grateful that I have a framework to sound it out. And dictionaries use phonics to show us how it's pronounced.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (h7ZuX)

72 I had a Latin teacher who looked like Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movie.

And also not the sexy one.
Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (dGCAG)

Hah!

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (zZu0s)

73 >>Liberals are always engaging in primitive cargo-cult thinking. Here's what these assholes thought: They saw that kids who were very good at reading did not use phonics to read words, but rather just recognized them in a glance.

Ace, I believe there is another thing at work in continually changing teaching methods. Progressiveism! 'Progress' must always be made! Nothing we do or have today is adequate! We must continually march forward towards the perfect human condition! We Progressives will lead you to Utopia, you dumb-ass hicks! We KNOW BEST! Just get out of our way!

What's that old saying? "Progress went on for too long" or somthing like that. More like an old truism.

Hard-core progressives are extremely dangerous.

Posted by: Gref at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (aBgBM)

74 It was meant to be a slightly more nuanced comment including corporal punishment as well. Lot of beatings going on.

I am trying to comment on break.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (zZu0s)

I think a lot of that comes from the Emperor Hadrian's writings who apparently had a beef with someone, or was a narsty kid who needed to be hit.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (8avO+)

75 Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

https://youtu.be/A3Yh5LV7gto?t=98

Posted by: illiniwek at June 20, 2025 05:41 PM (vbXSk)

76 Teachers set the pace of learning in classrooms, but it's actually parents who do the bulk of the actual teaching at home.
---
True.

Because homework that requires the assistance of a parent, is a job failure from a teacher.
And 99% of teachers are failures.

What a f'ing scam the left convinced the taxpayers to accept:
1) We're going to force you to pay for teachers, but you're going to end up teaching your kids

2) and the schools system we use is designed for the factory system and no other--barely educated, compliant and conditioned to defer to authority and accustomed to "home work" outside of regular hours, if the boss demands it.

This is called "modern education."
And is defended even by many conservatives

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at June 20, 2025 05:41 PM (rOVb5)

77 odd caveat
Posted by: ace at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (KRtlO)

Rule 34 popped into my head while typing and I wanted no confusion.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:41 PM (zZu0s)

78 Of course, Dad was a Carpenter. And I learned the 3,4,5 Triangle before I learned not to shit in my pants.

Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:41 PM (MmNOR)

79 Bush gets a lot of crap for NCLB, and I don't think it is warranted.

I think NCLB was an attempt to end-run around this BS by requiring testing and ranking.

The problem is that it was a sub-lethal dose of antibiotic and the disease (the bureaucracy) adapted a resistance. They came back stronger and harder to kill.

The biggest complainers about NCLB (No Child Left Behind) was the teachers and unions. They said it would only case "teaching to the test," which is kind of the point. Testing math and reading skills.

Anyway, the solution now is to end public schools, period. Break it all up. Kill it with fire.

Posted by: bob (moron incognitus) at June 20, 2025 05:42 PM (QvGVF)

80 odd caveat
Posted by: ace at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (KRtlO)

Not if you have a hot wife and little kids at home.

Wait until the kids are in bed... time to come down the chimney!

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:42 PM (dGCAG)

81 I had the multiplication uh, line? for 7s memorized early on because it's touchdowns.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at June 20, 2025 05:38 PM (ULPxl)

'Merica
Posted by: 29Victor at June 20, 2025 05:39 PM (zh37

Or the drinking game Buzz. Any number with 7 in it or a multiple of 7 is substituted with the word buzz .

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:42 PM (rWvc2)

82 My father could do some amazing math in his head. He liked math. He used to say that you can argue about a lot of subjects but Math Is. Like it was god or something.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (jc0TO)

83
If you happen to look, you'll see the sun will set this evening as far north of west as it ever will, and rise tomorrow morning as far north of east as it can. For me here at ~35N, that's about 30 degrees north of east and west.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (w6EFb)

84 I ended up being way ahead of my classmates learning math when I was 7 because of two things. 1st, I memorized my multiplication tables at night because my parents actually cared enough to make a game out of it. Secondly, I loved baseball and football and I asked a lot of questions so my dad taught me how to calculate yards per carry and batting average and things like that.

Lots of boys learned more math from the baseball cards than you'd think.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (8avO+)

85 was a narsty kid who needed to be hit.
Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:40 PM (8avO+)

It's the fun thing about history. You KNOW Caesar is at least partly trying to get you to vote for him for Consul (even 2000 years after the fact) when you read his commentaries.

How reliable are sources? Another thing not taught much.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (zZu0s)

86 In high school our Latin Class had a program for advanced students to teach Elementary School kids some Latin language and culture.

Yes, yes, we do that, too. We start with tacos, but you make burritos by AP Latin.

Posted by: Elitism - Catch It! at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (d5iTI)

87 >>The notion that Rote Memorization isn't learning always annoys me.

It's Part of the Process of Learning. And it is necessary.
Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:28 PM

Especially with simple math. Numbers and what they do don't change and once you know them you don't have to think about them again. I learned multiplication tables up to 20 in 4th grade. I still know them.

Posted by: huerfano at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (n2swS)

88 Or the drinking game Buzz. Any number with 7 in it or a multiple of 7 is substituted with the word buzz .
Posted by: polynikes
----------
Forgotten about that. We did 7's and 11's drinking game. Because nerds.

Posted by: scampydog at June 20, 2025 05:44 PM (2bFN5)

89 The high school algebra class could at least learn 'em up on how to figger the grades/scores needed on upcoming tests / projects in a class to get to the desired grading period letter grade.

The AP kids could be taught how to cypher-predict their overall GPA.

Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 05:44 PM (wVcYX)

90 Home school.

Posted by: The most effective option at June 20, 2025 05:44 PM (hOyR5)

91 This is just like why black students score worse on standardized tests...it's because the questions are racist/white focused! Same with all the Blue states....National standardized tests haven't closed the gender identity science gap between Red and Blue states. Once they start adding more questions on modern sexual identity, queer theory, and kink, we'll see those scoring trends reverse!

The Blue state kids are TOO advanced!!!

Posted by: Admiral Ackbar at June 20, 2025 05:45 PM (ycI94)

92 Home school.
Posted by: The most effective option at June 20, 2025 05:44 PM (hOyR5)

Makes teachers having sex with their students even weirder.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:45 PM (dGCAG)

93 Like, if you want to divide by 10, just move the decimal point one place to the left.

That was suspiciously close to math.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 20, 2025 05:45 PM (sRoQh)

94 Trump needs to reconstitute the insane asylums that were shuttered during the 70's.

Involuntary commitment needs to come back too.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 20, 2025 05:45 PM (Q4IgG)

95 You see every single costume possible for girls but "sexy" so you have like "sexy mummy" and "sexy baseball player" for girls at Halloween. There isn't really anything like that for dudes, that I've seen so "Sexy Fat Bastard" isn't gonna be out there.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 20, 2025 05:46 PM (VpV7B)

96 94 Trump needs to reconstitute the insane asylums that were shuttered during the 70's.

Involuntary commitment needs to come back too.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 20, 2025 05:45 PM (Q4Ig

Have to build a whole lot of them.. The entire Dem party...

Posted by: It's me donna at June 20, 2025 05:46 PM (VE6XX)

97 I bet Georgia isn't improving. I know Savannah still was close to the bottom nation wide.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (cduTK)

98 The way I do math quickly in my head is every thing is based on ten. This is because I was in bowling leagues as a kid.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (rWvc2)

99 Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

Posted by: Scrooge at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (hOyR5)

100 What does bass mouthed Randi Weingarten say about this? We need more funding you Nazis

Posted by: Smell the Glove at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (IG2sK)

101 My father could do some amazing math in his head. He liked math. He used to say that you can argue about a lot of subjects but Math Is. Like it was god or something.
------------
I'd like a word with you about that...2+2....what does that total?

Posted by: O'Brien at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (TN0g+)

102
The notion that Rote Memorization isn't learning always annoys me.

Especially since virtually every E Asian country depends on Rote to churn out students who can actually communicate and do math. Their problem is that they often don't teach their kids any creativity in how they use that memorization. Hence, you get the Chinese, who can exactly copy the dimensions of a jet engine for their air force but they totally fail when it comes time to deal with the metallurgy and control code.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (y9nCu)

103 She said it in March, now she's saying it again.
He should fire her.

OSINTdefender@sentdefender 1h

Reporter: “Mr. President, what evidence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence community has said they have no evidence that they are at this point.”

President Trump: “Well then my intelligence community is wrong, who in the intelligence community said that?

Reporter: “Your Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.”

President Trump: “She’s wrong.”

https://tinyurl.com/mw8bz2j9

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at June 20, 2025 05:48 PM (K9XnW)

104 98 The way I do math quickly in my head is every thing is based on ten. This is because I was in bowling leagues as a kid.
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (rWvc2)

Me too... But not the bowling league...

Posted by: It's me donna at June 20, 2025 05:48 PM (VE6XX)

105 87 >>The notion that Rote Memorization isn't learning always annoys me.

It's Part of the Process of Learning. And it is necessary.
Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:28 PM

Especially with simple math. Numbers and what they do don't change and once you know them you don't have to think about them again. I learned multiplication tables up to 20 in 4th grade. I still know them.
Posted by: huerfano at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (n2swS)
I’m still working on the multiplication tables but I gave up on algebra in 1966.

Posted by: Eromero at June 20, 2025 05:48 PM (jgmnb)

106
The schools in my southern district are noticeably, palpably better than the ones in my Denver-are district. Beautiful facilities, way less creepy, I haven't met any unseemly teachers yet, etc. Higher standards, for sure. Also, more opportunities to do different stuff - my stepson's HS, for instance, has the coolest metal shop I've ever seen at a school, or anywhere really. And they even have a mobile one on a semi-truck. They still have a choir, too, and a band that performs concerts with the local symphony.

Schools back in Denver were worse in every single dimension.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at June 20, 2025 05:48 PM (BI5O2)

107 40 Hvae you gyus eevr hared aoubt how all you need is the frsit and lsat lteters of the wrod be rghit?
Posted by: eleven at June 20, 2025 05:36 PM (fV+MH)

Now you've done it . Your autocorrect is really going to screw with you now.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 20, 2025 05:48 PM (h7ZuX)

108 I talk about "sloganeering" a lot because we are victims of it a lot.

Even the word "progressive" is classic sloganeering. It doesn't tell you what they are for - only what they are "against". The implication is their enemies don't want "progress".

Just like BLM implies the enemy thinks black lives don't matter, or how No Kings implies the enemy wants a king.

Note how No Kings says nothing with regard to their feelings about an unelected secret cadre of perverted corruptocrats making decisions for a drooling empty figurehead while bleeding the country's rectum dry.

Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 05:48 PM (3R4hO)

109 I hate the Educrats. They are constantly churning out New and Stupid Techniques both to justify their phoney-baloney jobs and also to provide excuses for why low-performing teachers are unable to teach kids.

--

So true

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 20, 2025 05:48 PM (Splbu)

110 Once again: These kids all used the standard techniques of memorization and long-form multiplication and division first, then, as they became proficient, they began realizing on their own that there were quick tricks for doing calculations.

Negative. I skipped memorization and went straight to "counting by x". It made algebra infinitely easier as a bonus.

Posted by: John Rooney at June 20, 2025 05:49 PM (EL2O4)

111 Trump needs to reconstitute the insane asylums that were shuttered during the 70's.

Involuntary commitment needs to come back too.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 20, 2025 05:45 PM (Q4IgG)

Rather than harumphing this comment, I'll just say once upon a time the "funny farm" was a much more humane way to isolate the crazies from the rest of the poopulace.

Open grounds, with walls and gates, where the goofies could roam around, family could come visit, and staff didn't have to do much more than just keep them from hurting themselves.

Locked buildings are the thing of real life horrors.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:49 PM (dGCAG)

112 A lot of those kids that can't do math in school do incredible math when selling dime and nickel bags on the street corners.

Posted by: garrett at June 20, 2025 05:49 PM (MmNOR)

113 Going to college won’t allow you to earn more money unless you have a serious and obtainable goal in mind when you go. If you are there for four (or six) years of partying, you might be better off going to trade school and learning marketable skills you can get well paid for early on.

Posted by: NemoMeImpuneLacessit at June 20, 2025 05:49 PM (qgNn3)

114 94 Trump needs to reconstitute the insane asylums that were shuttered during the 70's.

Involuntary commitment needs to come back too.
Posted by: Martini Farmer
-------------
I've brought insane asylums/mental hospitals up in conversation outside of the grey boxes. Always interesting reactions.

Posted by: scampydog at June 20, 2025 05:49 PM (2bFN5)

115 You have to rote memorize and/or learn the rules before you can move up in any learning. Some do it much faster than others, but still has to be done.

After that, people can look for better ways to teach but should gravitate to what has worked before until they discover something.

I don't want an electrician for instance that skipped the first dozen classes of safety by just being given a good grade. Learn the f'ing basics.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at June 20, 2025 05:49 PM (rvwwT)

116 This one time, at bowling camp...

Posted by: Fantasy letter at June 20, 2025 05:50 PM (hOyR5)

117 This is just like why black students score worse on standardized tests...it's because the questions are racist/white focused! Same with all the Blue states....National standardized tests haven't closed the gender identity science gap between Red and Blue states. Once they start adding more questions on modern sexual identity, queer theory, and kink, we'll see those scoring trends reverse!

The Blue state kids are TOO advanced!!!
Posted by: Admiral Ackbar at June 20, 2025 05:45 PM (ycI94)

there's a bit of that, or was. The tests given to blacks for induction to the army in WWI had lots of questions that were culturally slanted to urban areas. These days these differences are a lot smaller than a sharecropper was to a university kid.

The main explanation of the gulfs on standardized tests is that taking these tests is a skill that needs to be learned by everyone. And those with no schooling never had that.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:50 PM (8avO+)

118
One of my mathematician cousins, going on about something we were talking about, mentioned the Banach-Tarski paradox, which I hadn't heard of.

It's an absurdity of sorts due to nature of uncountably infinite sets, such as the set of points on the real line, or a set of points in 3D space.

You can take a sphere of unit radius, and split it up into pieces, and then reassemble in two unit spheres. This also implies you can take a sphere the size of the Sun and reassemble into a pea, and vice versa.

This is pure math and has no real physical meaning at all, because the pieces there are "unmeasurable", meaning the volume isn't defined. But's it's a crazy thing.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at June 20, 2025 05:50 PM (w6EFb)

119 My father could do some amazing math in his head. He liked math. He used to say that you can argue about a lot of subjects but Math Is. Like it was god or something.
------------
I'd like a word with you about that...2+2....what does that total?
Posted by: O'Brien at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (TN0g+)

Whatever you need it to total, sir.

Posted by: Count de Monet, Highly Employable CPA at June 20, 2025 05:50 PM (wVcYX)

120 You have to rote memorize and/or learn the rules before you can move up in any learning. Some do it much faster than others, but still has to be done.

Yeah mom helped calm my chaotically creative mind by teaching me that I had to learn the rules and get good at it before I can start changing things. That was a tough lesson to learn. Probably still not great at it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 20, 2025 05:51 PM (VpV7B)

121 I hated that Louisiana was ranked in the bottom tier for education when I was in HS. I have no doubt the rankings controlled by a Northeastern outfit at the time. I went to a public high school that was just as good as anything I've seen in the multiple states I've lived in.
---
I suspect, like "it's who counts the votes that matters" it's who decided what was measured that matters.

I'll bet good money that the measurements of achievement were not post-education or results-based.

But, rather, heavily skewed toward self-reported or easily manipulated measurements.

One lament at school reform that only sounded smart to the highly-credentialed was, regarding standardized testing, "but then teachers will just teach to the test!"

Um, yeah? Standard, universal achievement metrics?

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at June 20, 2025 05:51 PM (rOVb5)

122 Washington experienced significant drops in reading and math scores for both fourth- and eighth-graders between 2015 and 2024, worse than the national declines during the same period.

I will add some depth to that. In Washington, home schooled kids can opt out of the standardized tests, but the majority do take them. Over 90% of the kids in my wife's program take them. A significant majority of those kids score well above the score set as acceptable. The second part is that the home school population in Washington has increased significantly over that time period. Remove home schooled kids from the data set and the scores become significantly worse.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * sporting my Andrew Breitbart attitude at June 20, 2025 05:52 PM (F31MH)

123 I've brought insane asylums/mental hospitals up in conversation outside of the grey boxes. Always interesting reactions.
Posted by: scampydog at June 20, 2025 05:49 PM (2bFN5)

Me too! Whenever I go home for Thanksgiving, by the time the turkey and stuffing are all gone, I'm telling all my family "YOU PEOPLE BELONG IN THE NUTHOUSE!"

Makes for interesting after-dinner conversation.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:52 PM (dGCAG)

124 No, you're the hero!

Posted by: Norm MacDonald at June 20, 2025 05:53 PM (wbowN)

125 Imagine what could be accomplished, socially, if instead of pissing away $400B on AI, which I think is being mulled over by the administration, on mental care.

Not mental health. Care. Institutions. Long term. Like for the rest of some people's natural lives.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 20, 2025 05:53 PM (Q4IgG)

126 This one time, at bowling camp...
Posted by: Fantasy letter at June 20, 2025 05:50 PM (hOyR5)

I don't want to hear what you and two friends did to the ball.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 05:53 PM (dGCAG)

127 My father could do some amazing math in his head. He liked math. He used to say that you can argue about a lot of subjects but Math Is. Like it was god or something.
------------
I'd like a word with you about that...2+2....what does that total?
Posted by: O'Brien at June 20, 2025 05:47 PM (TN0g+)

Whatever you need it to total, sir.
-------------
Its amazing that we all lived long enough to see the Democrats embrace 1984 as a how-to guide.

Posted by: Crusader at June 20, 2025 05:54 PM (TN0g+)

128 Chinese, who can exactly copy the dimensions of a jet engine for their air force but they totally fail when it comes time to deal with the metallurgy and control code.
Posted by: IllTemperedCur
--------------------------------------

And freedom to tinker. Just like the pre-school kids that learned phonics. Kids with dad in the garage fixing things, or puzzles, or models. You see youtubes of Russians out in the shop turning old Vespa type scooters into ice boat racers or what not. The kids are there learning and Russian assembly is improving on a natural because putting things together accurately is intuitive.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at June 20, 2025 05:54 PM (K9XnW)

129 It apparently never occurred to them that fast readers had all gone through the phonics sounding-out process, but at an earlier age than their peers.

I'm not sure if I agree with this assessment.

The Tennessee Pre-K studies from Vanderbilt tend to disagree. If you have a moment, I'll explain.

Leftists (and some RINOs) in Tennessee wanted universal Pre-K (read that as "mandatory") and used this logic as their reasoning. Start kids earlier, they'll do better later.

But some Tennessee parents didn't want to have to send their 4 year olds to leftist training camps all day, 5 days a week, and preferred state run Pre-K be optional. Of course the state wanted more school jobs and more growth, so they commissioned a study by Vanderbilt to track children from both Pre-K and non Pre-K households,

Vanderbilt, being leftist, was inclined to get the results that the leftists desired, however when the numbers came in, it did not bear out the "Head Start" theory, and instead showed complete convergence in testing by the 2nd grade, and in most subjects by the 1st grade.

So the state ran the study again, unhappy with the first .This time: complete convergence by first grade.

Posted by: Something to Consider at June 20, 2025 05:54 PM (H+njS)

130 In contrast, Democrat-led states have undermined school discipline, reduced academic standards, and embraced policies that deemphasize achievement in favor of ideological goals.

----------------

"EVERYONE MUST BE TRANSGENDER AND EQUAL IN IMBECILITY ... BUT MOSTLY EQUAL IN IMBECILITY, H8RS!"

Posted by: ShainS -- Busy Organizing 'Make Trump King' Protests at June 20, 2025 05:55 PM (Woe03)

131 Math be racist, yo

Posted by: Smell the Glove at June 20, 2025 05:56 PM (IG2sK)

132 Blue States are totes interested in teachers unions, not students, illegal alien care and feeding, gender mutilation, lawfare against anyone who disagrees with them, courts weaponized to do their bidding, not provide justice, taking away your First, Second and I dunno, maybe the whole Bill of Rights, etc., etc.

Gee I don’t know why they’re all failing.

Posted by: Vengeance at June 20, 2025 05:56 PM (8bQ1C)

133 All your kids belong to us

Posted by: Tik Tok at June 20, 2025 05:57 PM (iGK7y)

134 I have been having interesting conversations with colleagues at work about the role AI will play in education.

We've noted that people who use AI *well* in their careers right now already KNOW how to get the answer, they are just using a tool to get to the right answer *faster.* In other words, they can evaluate the correctness of an AI-generated response and provide feedback that will increase the accuracy of the result as needed.

Students using AI for the first time to "learn" material lack that necessary discernment and will use AI to give them the answer, without even knowing if it is right or wrong.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 05:57 PM (IBQGV)

135 The modern school model is obsolete and ineffective.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at June 20, 2025 05:57 PM (Splbu)

136
Once again: These kids all used the standard techniques of memorization and long-form multiplication and division first, then, as they became proficient, they began realizing on their own that there were quick tricks for doing calculations. Like, if you want to divide by 10, just move the decimal point one place to the left.

————

This did this to my kids. My daughter was fully traumatized by math. They taught all these tricks, sometimes three of four different methods AT THE SAME TIME. She was thoroughly confused.

Bill Gates can go to Hell

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at June 20, 2025 05:57 PM (yTAax)

137 Imagine what could be accomplished, socially, if instead of pissing away $400B on AI, which I think is being mulled over by the administration, on mental care.

Yeah, I'm sure you can trust the government to be well-intentioned and thoughtful about due process.

It would be a Soviet-style program for incarcerating people who made the state unhappy within a decade of funding, if not sooner.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at June 20, 2025 05:57 PM (AUL7F)

138 The youngest person to build a nuclear reactor is from TN. He broke the previous record of the kid from AR.

Stupid southerners !

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 05:58 PM (rWvc2)

139 F u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd job!

Posted by: NYC Subway Ad 1978 at June 20, 2025 05:58 PM (G5+As)

140 It's the fun thing about history. You KNOW Caesar is at least partly trying to get you to vote for him for Consul (even 2000 years after the fact) when you read his commentaries.

How reliable are sources? Another thing not taught much.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (zZu0s)

Julius' are probably the best vetted ever. He had the sons and cousins of his political rivals in as officers and aides. He published them in the city square so everyone could read them out (or have them read) and call him a liar or not. It was before nearly all the troops and officers were from the outer provinces. And we have them written by the general himself, at the time it happened.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:58 PM (8avO+)

141
It's the fun thing about history. You KNOW Caesar is at least partly trying to get you to vote for him for Consul (even 2000 years after the fact) when you read his commentaries.

How reliable are sources? Another thing not taught much.
Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 05:43 PM (zZu0s)

Machiavelli's The Prince was written largely as a job application to the Medici rulers of Florence, even though when they overthrew the Florentine Republic, they arrested Nick and tortured him with the strappado after he was suspected of plotting against the Medici.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at June 20, 2025 05:58 PM (y9nCu)

142 It's because Blue States are striving for Equality of Outcome instead of Equality of Opportunity. They don't believe a POC can make it without a thumb on the scale. But you're the racist...

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 05:59 PM (iGK7y)

143 I've never been strong at math. in the 4th grade we learned the multiplication table. Twice a week we would take a test, and you had to have a 100%. It took me a bit, but I passed in the middle of my class, so I learned I wasn't dumb, just not as quick as some. 7s and 9s took me the longest.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 20, 2025 06:00 PM (0aYVJ)

144 We've noted that people who use AI *well* in their careers right now already KNOW how to get the answer, they are just using a tool to get to the right answer *faster.* In other words, they can evaluate the correctness of an AI-generated response and provide feedback that will increase the accuracy of the result as needed.

Students using AI for the first time to "learn" material lack that necessary discernment and will use AI to give them the answer, without even knowing if it is right or wrong.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel
------------
Been going down this rabbit hole too. Spent an evening with my nephew - law school student discussing AI and how generations are using it differently.
Catch you all later - couples golf night. Thanks Ace, for a great week of content.

Posted by: scampydog at June 20, 2025 06:00 PM (2bFN5)

145 I'm old enough to remember when the AFT was better because it was less commie than the NEA.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:00 PM (jc0TO)

146 You have to rote memorize and/or learn the rules before you can move up in any learning. Some do it much faster than others, but still has to be done.
---
This is something I teach my students in my freshman composition class. I point out that the grammar quizzes are designed to give them basic practice in grammar and reinforce skills they should already know.

Once they've mastered the rules of written communication, only then will they be ready to bend or even break them. It takes years for successful writers to master that level of writing.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 06:01 PM (IBQGV)

147 > Imagine what could be accomplished, socially, if instead of pissing away $400B on AI, which I think is being mulled over by the administration, on mental care.

Yeah, I'm sure you can trust the government to be well-intentioned and thoughtful about due process.

It would be a Soviet-style program for incarcerating people who made the state unhappy within a decade of funding, if not sooner.
---------
It doesn't, necessarily, need to be government run. Just the possibility of being institutionalized would probably tame a lot of the attention whores.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 20, 2025 06:01 PM (Q4IgG)

148 I read a piece yesterday about states and school districts mandating no cell phones in classrooms, and the wonderfully good effect it has on learning and engagement.

What I didn't get from the article is who is doing this? I asked our daughter who is in a suburban Pittsburgh school district and she said yes, no phones.

Do the deep blue cities say OK to cell phones?

Posted by: Mr Gaga at June 20, 2025 06:01 PM (zeLd4)

149 I was one of those "whole word" kids in Kindergarten (measured at 4/5th grade level that year). I learned to read so early in life -at home- I don't remember *not* being able to read, so I don't remember using phonics at all, except as a fallback for unfamiliar words as I came upon them.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at June 20, 2025 06:01 PM (0Jl9j)

150 Addendum: School House Rock was a huge help!

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 20, 2025 06:02 PM (0aYVJ)

151 I'm no math whiz.

But, the ability to convert between fractions, decimals and percentages without a calculator is like practicing magic to most current high school graduates.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at June 20, 2025 06:02 PM (rOVb5)

152 131 Math be racist, yo

Posted by: Smell the Glove at June 20, 2025 05:56 PM (IG2sK)

Maybe Ebonics is too...

Posted by: Stateless.. 35I% - mental state clawing up from 10%, shit happened, clawing back now at June 20, 2025 06:02 PM (jvJvP)

153 The Left doesn't want equality of outcome they just want to be able to disadvantage or discriminate against anyone any time for any reason.

Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 06:03 PM (3R4hO)

154 Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 20, 2025 06:00 PM (0aYVJ)

I remember times tables in 1st grade.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at June 20, 2025 06:03 PM (0Jl9j)

155 The interesting things about the Tennessee Pre-K, is it tracked children across all demographics and compared like to like.

Children that went to nursery schools vs state pre-k. Two parent pre-k vs two parent no pre-k. Educations level of parents. Income level of parents. One parent household pre-k bs one parent household no pre-k.

All aspects. Because many interested parties wanted to at least show that low-income households needed the program, and it could then be used to apply the needs of the poor across the entire population.

It turns out that regardless of any demographic factor, pre-K schooling had zero lasting results.

Posted by: Something to Consider at June 20, 2025 06:03 PM (H+njS)

156 I'm just a Bill...

Posted by: Capitol Hill Bill at June 20, 2025 06:03 PM (iGK7y)

157 We have insane asylums now.

They're called prisons.

This is not what the prison system is set up to handle but they've been trying to handle it for over 40 years now.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:04 PM (rWvc2)

158 This did this to my kids. My daughter was fully traumatized by math. They taught all these tricks, sometimes three of four different methods AT THE SAME TIME. She was thoroughly confused.

Again ... and on this I will argue until the sun goes down. TO HELL with those damn flash cards and times tables.

You teach a kid to count by twos to twenty. The you teach them to count by twos six times. The you get them to do it backward. Then you go to threes to thirty. Up to the nines to 90 and back

And then they have multiplication, division, and basic algebra.

Posted by: John Rooney at June 20, 2025 06:04 PM (EL2O4)

159 9
'The math skills aren't any better. They keep changing the way to do math so often you can't even help your kid do their homework anymore.'

Hooray for New Math! New-hew-hew Math!

Posted by: Dr. Claw at June 20, 2025 06:04 PM (3wi/L)

160 Vanderbilt, being leftist, was inclined to get the results that the leftists desired, however when the numbers came in, it did not bear out the "Head Start" theory, and instead showed complete convergence in testing by the 2nd grade, and in most subjects by the 1st grade.

So the state ran the study again, unhappy with the first .This time: complete convergence by first grade.
Posted by: Something to Consider at June 20, 2025 05:54 PM (H+njS)

My mother, an ex college teacher, taught all the kids to read long before kindergarten. Also other things, and we went to libraries for books on any subject we liked. Self defense in a small house alone with 6 kids.

Most of my lessons in elementary were redundant in public school.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:04 PM (8avO+)

161 Do the deep blue cities say OK to cell phones?
Posted by: Mr Gaga at June 20, 2025 06:01 PM (zeLd4)

How else are boys going to send dick pics to the girls (or boys... or teachers).

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 06:04 PM (dGCAG)

162 I was one of those "whole word" kids in Kindergarten (measured at 4/5th grade level that year). I learned to read so early in life -at home- I don't remember *not* being able to read, so I don't remember using phonics at all, except as a fallback for unfamiliar words as I came upon them.
Posted by: Jeff Weimer at June 20, 2025 06:01 PM (0Jl9j)
---
I did both, I think. I remember seeing report cards from my childhood that evaluated me on my "whole word" reading ability. I also remember going through phonics workbooks at a phenomenal rate. Of course, I moved around a lot when I was a kid, so that may have had something to do with it.

I also watched a lot of "The Electric Company" on PBS....

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 06:04 PM (IBQGV)

163 I always thought that Sight Reading was like The Think Method in the Music Man.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:04 PM (jc0TO)

164 One of the things they use on how well a state educated their students is the amount money the state spends on education. This of course is unfair to states that have non union teachers. A child can get just as good of an education without union involvement. It really boils down to the teachers themselves and discipline. Also discipline at home.
But it also involves common sense, something the teachers and parents can help a child with. It's not just about money.

Posted by: Case at June 20, 2025 06:05 PM (ilX37)

165 >>I've never been strong at math. in the 4th grade we learned the multiplication table. Twice a week we would take a test, and you had to have a 100%. It took me a bit, but I passed in the middle of my class, so I learned I wasn't dumb, just not as quick as some. 7s and 9s took me the longest.

It's practice not brains. My dad loved math sexually. He got a job teaching math for a year before my mom graduated.

He would drill me with multiplication tables at dinner. Every frigging night. When foods on the line you learn fast. It just becomes 2nd nature.

Posted by: JackStraw at June 20, 2025 06:06 PM (viF8m)

166 153 The Left doesn't want equality of outcome they just want to be able to disadvantage or discriminate against anyone any time for any reason.
Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 06:03 PM (3R4hO)

They absolutely do want Equality of Outcome.

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:06 PM (iGK7y)

167 I learned to read from comic books before I started school.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:06 PM (rWvc2)

168 They absolutely do want Equality of Outcome.
Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:06 PM

Levelers always level down.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:07 PM (jc0TO)

169
I also watched a lot of "The Electric Company" on PBS....
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 06:04 PM (IBQGV)

Easy Reader was the shiznit. And then he narrated a movie about penguins.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at June 20, 2025 06:08 PM (y9nCu)

170 I learned to read from comic books before I started school.
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:06 PM

Boy928 learned to read from Leisure Suit Larry.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:08 PM (jc0TO)

171 It doesn't, necessarily, need to be government run. Just the possibility of being institutionalized would probably tame a lot of the attention whores.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at June 20, 2025 06:01 PM (Q4IgG)

So we are going to set up a parallel private system of involuntary confinement?

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at June 20, 2025 06:08 PM (AUL7F)

172 I would say Rooney that "skip counting" is generally a pre-requisite to the times tables in any good school.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at June 20, 2025 06:08 PM (rvwwT)

173 They absolutely do want Equality of Outcome.
Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:06 PM (iGK7y)

I always go back the ol' Orwell thing when it comes to these topics: All Pigs Are Equal... Some Pigs Are More Equal Than Others.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 06:08 PM (dGCAG)

174 I learned to read from comic books before I started school.

Same here. And I learned "good grammar" from shit like Mark Twain. Look - English is extremely subjective. Its all about writing in whatever style pleases the screw in charge.

Posted by: John Rooney at June 20, 2025 06:09 PM (EL2O4)

175 We only went up to tens. Not sure why they stopped there, as the 11's only have one hard one to memorize, and the 12's are just dozens (or inches per foot). 13's are cards in a suit, but I have to think pretty past 4*13.

Posted by: t-bird at June 20, 2025 06:10 PM (VfMZK)

176 If they possessed critical thinking skills they wouldn't be teachers.

Posted by: Boss Moss at June 20, 2025 06:10 PM (5xNsa)

177 I think the lesson learned from the studies is this:
Learning isn't linear.

All those "Teach Your Baby to Read" programs did not create a generation of super-literate Doogie Howsers.

Because concept recognition in early childhood development come in fits and spurts, with different cognitive levels developing at various age levels.

Are there outliers, sharp minds that can grasp advanced concepts at early ages? Sure there are.

But that works the other way, as well. There are people that should be able to understand concepts at a mature age, but still can't.

Just talk with a woman for 20 minutes and you will see this in action.

Posted by: Something to Consider at June 20, 2025 06:11 PM (H+njS)

178 What's that saying? Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach. Those than can neither teach nor do, administrate.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:12 PM (jc0TO)

179 Same here. And I learned "good grammar" from shit like Mark Twain. Look - English is extremely subjective. Its all about writing in whatever style pleases the screw in charge.
Posted by: John Rooney at June 20, 2025 06:09 PM (EL2O4)

I learned me some talk goodery when I was younger, so I could goof around with it when I got older.

Sorta like how you're going to teach a kid how to hold a bat when he's a tot, but if he grows up to be Rod Carew or Stan Musial, he can hold the damn thing any way he wants.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 06:12 PM (dGCAG)

180 I'll say predict it again:

In about 5 years, you'll be able to buy a suite or la carte AI teaching programs:

Interactive avatars to teach either whole grade levels or single subjects.
The more complex ones will have the ability to gauge comprehension and engagement via the camera (plus other feedback), and adjust the program.

There's going to be a massive--and losing battle--by the teachers to prevent them from being accredited by the states.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at June 20, 2025 06:12 PM (rOVb5)

181 A passenger train leaves Chicago at 4pm headed east at 40 mph. A freight train leaves Chicago at 5:30 pm headed south at 60 mph. At what time will they both be the same distance from Chicago?

Bonus points: What is the name of the geometric shape formed by the two trains at that moment if you draw an imaginary straight line connecting the two train's engines?

Double Bonus points: By what geometric name is that imaginary straight line called?

Government Dependent points: How much in gubmint subsidies are required?

Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:12 PM (wVcYX)

182 As much as I watched TV as a kid I never watched Romper Room and only Captain Kangaroo occasionally. In Louisiana we had a show hosted by Polycarp . He mostly showed cartoons.

I was too old when Sesame Street debuted in 1969.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:12 PM (rWvc2)

183 You can take a sphere of unit radius, and split it up into pieces, and then reassemble in two unit spheres. This also implies you can take a sphere the size of the Sun and reassemble into a pea, and vice versa.

This is pure math and has no real physical meaning at all, because the pieces there are "unmeasurable", meaning the volume isn't defined. But's it's a crazy thing.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at June 20, 2025 05:50 PM (w6EFb)

Well, sure there's always more numbers. The numbers divisible by a million are equivalent to regular numbers because they can be paired up, one for one with none missing or left out. But set theory stuff was always miscast for basic math for kids.

interestingly the number of points on a number line is larger than the set of integers, provably, tho both are infinite.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:13 PM (8avO+)

184 Here's the Last Presidential Candidate talking about Equality of Outcomes

https://tinyurl.com/24xxxeju

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:13 PM (iGK7y)

185 They absolutely do want Equality of Outcome.
Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:06 PM (iGK7y

No. That's provable. When have you ever seen them want anything you can measure or prove?

You think they want their sons and daughters with the same "outcome" as some black person? Or you? Nope.

Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 06:13 PM (3R4hO)

186 My kindergarten teacher didn't believe I could read because how could a child possibly learn how to read without going to school?

These are people who got college credit for learning how to fingerpaint.

Posted by: PabloD at June 20, 2025 06:14 PM (jnp64)

187 Sorry, Tweeting not talking.

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:14 PM (iGK7y)

188 The educational system is designed to crank out compliant obedient cogs for the machine, whether that be a cube farmer, factory worker, or street activist, not informed, rational, independent critical thinkers. It's about being ground down and homogenized, pressed into the lowest common denominator. Actually learning anything is coincidental.

Posted by: Sausage factories for the mind at June 20, 2025 06:14 PM (TbWk/)

189 We only went up to tens. Not sure why they stopped there, as the 11's only have one hard one to memorize, and the 12's are just dozens (or inches per foot).

With you on 12s. I often break the rest up.

13x7 is 10x7 + 3x7. 91.

Posted by: John Rooney at June 20, 2025 06:14 PM (EL2O4)

190 We wen't up to 12s. I don't know why in base 10.

Posted by: Boss Moss at June 20, 2025 06:14 PM (5xNsa)

191 >I've never been strong at math. in the 4th grade we learned the multiplication table. Twice a week we would take a test, and you had to have a 100%.

I was always the last to finish. Nobody else got to do anything else until everyone was done. The pressure was immense, and did not help me to like it more or get faster.

Sorry, former classmates.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (h7ZuX)

192 My favorite math teacher was a woman who just loved numbers and she was so enthusiastic and interesting that you caught some of that as a student.

My favorite math teacher was in nuclear power school. She was enthusiastic and interesting and covered the topics with great examples. The fact that she was a redhead as hot as the surface of the sun was just a bonus.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (ExV1e)

193 >>This also implies you can take a sphere the size of the Sun and reassemble into a pea, and vice versa.

whoa ....

Posted by: JackStraw at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (viF8m)

194 A passenger train leaves Chicago at 4pm headed east at 40 mph. A freight train leaves Chicago at 5:30 pm headed south at 60 mph. At what time will they both be the same distance from Chicago?

Bonus points: What is the name of the geometric shape formed by the two trains at that moment if you draw an imaginary straight line connecting the two train's engines?

Double Bonus points: By what geometric name is that imaginary straight line called?

Government Dependent points: How much in gubmint subsidies are required?
Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:12 PM (wVcYX)

The train heading east from Union Station drowns in Lake Michigan in a few blocks.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (8avO+)

195 188 The educational system is designed to crank out compliant obedient cogs for the machine, whether that be a cube farmer, factory worker, or street activist, not informed, rational, independent critical thinkers. It's about being ground down and homogenized, pressed into the lowest common denominator. Actually learning anything is coincidental.
Posted by: Sausage factories for the mind at June 20, 2025 06:14 PM (TbWk/)

An instance of: the purpose of a system is what it does.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (AUL7F)

196 No. That's provable. When have you ever seen them want anything you can measure or prove?

You think they want their sons and daughters with the same "outcome" as some black person? Or you? Nope.
Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 06:13 PM (3R4hO)

Believe what you want. The lefties talk about it.

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:16 PM (iGK7y)

197 It turns out that regardless of any demographic factor, pre-K schooling had zero lasting results.
---
How about the whole "Baby Einstein" series?

LOL, how are parents that gullible?

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at June 20, 2025 06:16 PM (rOVb5)

198 In about 5 years, you'll be able to buy a suite or la carte AI teaching programs:

Interactive avatars to teach either whole grade levels or single subjects.
The more complex ones will have the ability to gauge comprehension and engagement via the camera (plus other feedback), and adjust the program.

There's going to be a massive--and losing battle--by the teachers to prevent them from being accredited by the states.
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at June 20, 2025 06:12 PM (rOVb5)
----
It's already happening. I was in a meeting today with a textbook company that is rolling out Student AI Assistants this fall. These are designed to guide students through the assigned textbook/exercises and remediate as needed to help students with comprehension using a Socratic method of instruction.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 06:16 PM (IBQGV)

199 Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 05:58 PM (8avO+)

But as ItC says in the following comment you know they are also trying to manipulate you.

Posted by: Aetius451AD work phone at June 20, 2025 06:16 PM (YUL+W)

200 was always the last to finish. Nobody else got to do anything else until everyone was done. The pressure was immense, and did not help me to like it more or get faster.

Sorry, former classmates.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (h7ZuX)

I liked when I was done. Gave me time to draw tanks, guns and planes in my notebook. I hated school.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (0aYVJ)

201 This also implies you can take a sphere the size of the Sun and reassemble into a pea, and vice versa.

whoa ....
Posted by: JackStraw at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (viF8m)

Not in real life since neutrons have a essentially fixed size. A neutron star the size of 1 solar mass is larger than a pea, maybe a mile or two across IIRC.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (8avO+)

202 Believe what you want. The lefties talk about it.
Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:16 PM (iGK7y)

And we all know how honest they are!!

Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (3R4hO)

203 Two cars are heading toward each other starting a 10 miles apart. One car is going 2mph, the other going 8mph. One the hood ornament of one is a fly. At the instant the cars start to move the fly takes off and flies toward the other car at 37mph, when he gets to the car he turns around and heads back repeating the trip between each car in shorter and shorter jaunts until they collide. How far will the fly have flow when the cars collide?

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (jc0TO)

204 My kindergarten teacher didn't believe I could read because how could a child possibly learn how to read without going to school?

These are people who got college credit for learning how to fingerpaint.
Posted by: PabloD at June 20, 2025 06:14 PM (jnp64)

I got a doctorate in education for classroom bulletin boards!

Posted by: Dr. Jill at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (wVcYX)

205 Like math like geometry. Algebra I found tiresome did not apply myself to it.

Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:18 PM (PCK5/)

206 194 A passenger train leaves Chicago at 4pm headed east at 40 mph. A freight train leaves Chicago at 5:30 pm headed south at 60 mph. At what time will they both be the same distance from Chicago?

Bonus points: What is the name of the geometric shape formed by the two trains at that moment if you draw an imaginary straight line connecting the two train's engines?

Double Bonus points: By what geometric name is that imaginary straight line called?

Government Dependent points: How much in gubmint subsidies are required?
Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:12 PM (wVcYX)

FUCK YOUR WORD PROBLEMS!!!!
*knocks over the desk*

Posted by: I hated these goddamn things. Still do. at June 20, 2025 06:18 PM (TbWk/)

207 In my head 15 x 13 is

150 + 45

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:18 PM (rWvc2)

208 And we all know how honest they are!!
Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (3R4hO)

184

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:19 PM (iGK7y)

209 It's already happening. I was in a meeting today with a textbook company that is rolling out Student AI Assistants this fall. These are designed to guide students through the assigned textbook/exercises and remediate as needed to help students with comprehension using a Socratic method of instruction.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 06:16 PM (IBQGV)

I have done true AI in real life for a major project. I have no idea how this would be used in education in any meaningful sense. It was used to analyze results of scanned x ray images of trucks to see if they were empty or full on the border.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:19 PM (8avO+)

210 207 In my head 15 x 13 is

150 + 45
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:18 PM (rWvc2)

I was told there would be no math

Posted by: It's me donna at June 20, 2025 06:19 PM (VE6XX)

211 Bear in mind that bluer states also burden themselves with educating a lot of non-English speaking pupils, often of illiterate parents, with their sanctuary laws.

Posted by: logprof at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (jo6FO)

212 The train heading east from Union Station drowns in Lake Michigan in a few blocks.
Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (8avO+)

This is math class, not geography class.

Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (wVcYX)

213 >>How far will the fly have flow when the cars collide?

It was shit like this that got me Saturday detention.

Posted by: JackStraw at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (viF8m)

214 Same here... I stare at nothing and visualize my math in my head, seriously.

Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (PCK5/)

215 I hate the Educrats. They are constantly churning out New and Stupid Techniques both to justify their phoney-baloney jobs and also to provide excuses for why low-performing teachers are unable to teach kids.

---------------

Hey, those PHDs in Imaginary Anal Additive Transgender String White Supremacy Number Theory aren't gonna earn themselves, you know?

Posted by: ShainS -- Busy Organizing 'Make Trump King' Protests at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (f7ucq)

216 The train heading east from Union Station drowns in Lake Michigan in a few blocks.
Posted by: Oldcat at Jun

They need to stop using that darn GPS! Soooo unreliable!

Posted by: runner at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (nQcpu)

217 Believe what you want. The lefties talk about it.
Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:16 PM (iGK7y)

And we all know how honest they are!!
Posted by: ... at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (3R4hO)

I saw a clip a year or two ago. Bernie was on some panel, and it was not a hostile setting by any means.

Someone asked him the difference between equality and equity, and he just shrugged and said "I dunno."

As if he didn't care. Because he doesn't.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (dGCAG)

218 > You can take a sphere of unit radius, and split it up into pieces, and then reassemble in two unit spheres.

Banach-Tarski paradox. It's a bizarre result of the Axiom of Choice when the sets are infinite.

Posted by: bonhomme at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (lIio7)

219 Same here... I stare at nothing and visualize my math in my head, seriously.
Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM

I roll my eyes back like fucking Charlie-X.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (jc0TO)

220 It must be the end of the world.

Louisiana and Mississippi are up and Oregon is down?

Posted by: no one of any consequence at June 20, 2025 06:21 PM (ZmEVT)

221 Two cars are heading toward each other starting a 10 miles apart. One car is going 2mph, the other going 8mph. One the hood ornament of one is a fly. At the instant the cars start to move the fly takes off and flies toward the other car at 37mph, when he gets to the car he turns around and heads back repeating the trip between each car in shorter and shorter jaunts until they collide. How far will the fly have flow when the cars collide?
Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (jc0TO)

The fly files for an hour, since the closing speed of the cars is 10 mph. Thus fly flew 37 miles.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:21 PM (8avO+)

222 Same here... I stare at nothing and visualize my math in my head, seriously.
Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (PCK5/)

I do the same thing.

With boobs and ass.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 20, 2025 06:21 PM (dGCAG)

223 219 Same here... I stare at nothing and visualize my math in my head, seriously.
Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM

I roll my eyes back like fucking Charlie-X.
Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (jc0TO)

Right before you tear the surfer in half?

Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:21 PM (PCK5/)

224 Still think about that girl who graduated with honors from Hartford High and was accepted to UConn even though she is illiterate.

Posted by: Field Marshal Zhukov at June 20, 2025 06:22 PM (wBaIH)

225 Two cars are heading toward each other starting a 10 miles apart. One car is going 2mph, the other going 8mph. One the hood ornament of one is a fly. At the instant the cars start to move the fly takes off and flies toward the other car at 37mph, when he gets to the car he turns around and heads back repeating the trip between each car in shorter and shorter jaunts until they collide. How far will the fly have flow when the cars collide?
Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (jc0TO)

The fly files for an hour, since the closing speed of the cars is 10 mph. Thus fly flew 37 miles.
Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:21 PM (8avO+)
----
Is it an African or European fly? And is a coconut involved?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 06:23 PM (IBQGV)

226 218 > You can take a sphere of unit radius, and split it up into pieces, and then reassemble in two unit spheres.

Banach-Tarski paradox. It's a bizarre result of the Axiom of Choice when the sets are infinite.
Posted by: bonhomme at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (lIio7)

Now you're just making shit up to try to sound smarter.

Posted by: More like Banach-Tardski! at June 20, 2025 06:23 PM (TbWk/)

227 The train heading east from Union Station drowns in Lake Michigan in a few blocks.
Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (8avO+)

This is math class, not geography class.
Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (wVcYX)

Then don't mention Chicago, just featureless plains. Kansas.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:23 PM (8avO+)

228 203 Two cars are heading toward each other starting a 10 miles apart. One car is going 2mph, the other going 8mph. One the hood ornament of one is a fly. At the instant the cars start to move the fly takes off and flies toward the other car at 37mph, when he gets to the car he turns around and heads back repeating the trip between each car in shorter and shorter jaunts until they collide. How far will the fly have flow when the cars collide?
Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:17 PM (jc0TO)

10 miles

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:23 PM (iGK7y)

229 The fly files for an hour, since the closing speed of the cars is 10 mph. Thus fly flew 37 miles.
Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:21 PM (8avO+)

Yeah no math really needed in that one.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:24 PM (rWvc2)

230 >>How much in gubmint subsidies are required?

DOGE: Zero!

Lefty: All of them!

Biden: I like trains!

Schumer: Kickbacks!

Newsome: We need another 30 billion before either train goes anywhere!

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at June 20, 2025 06:24 PM (rvwwT)

231 So if you make up random nonsense to "teach" kids math, you are cutting the main teachers of math, the parents, out of the equation.

—

By design. Eliminate the competition.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at June 20, 2025 06:24 PM (/CkK4)

232 218 > You can take a sphere of unit radius, and split it up into pieces, and then reassemble in two unit spheres.

Banach-Tarski paradox. It's a bizarre result of the Axiom of Choice when the sets are infinite.
Posted by: bonhomme at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (lIio7)

But what was the Sphere's " motivation" to split in half??

Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:25 PM (PCK5/)

233 ----
Is it an African or European fly? And is a coconut involved?
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 06:23 PM (IBQGV)

Its a standard trick you learn with these impossible problems, is to convert from distance to time units. Then all the details become irrelevant.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:25 PM (8avO+)

234 Yeah no math really needed in that one.
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:24 PM

I think it's a question in problem solving rather than a math problem.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:25 PM (jc0TO)

235 I killed 17 flies at work today.

I have a scorecard

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:26 PM (iGK7y)

236 > Now you're just making shit up to try to sound smarter.

Not in this case.

Posted by: bonhomme at June 20, 2025 06:26 PM (lIio7)

237 Yeah no math really needed in that one.
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:24 PM

I think it's a question in problem solving rather than a math problem.
Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:25 PM (jc0TO

Yes and a good one imo.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:26 PM (rWvc2)

238 Preach it.

The one thing I'm suspicious of is that I suspect the real gap is greater than that recognized above. After all, who is testing the results? Does anyone trust Randi Weingarten to give out faithful and accurate numbers? Like the way that "gender" expert was so quick to release an inconvenient study?

Posted by: Eeyore at June 20, 2025 06:26 PM (od0dV)

239 Phonics! It may a HUGE difference between myself and my younger sister. Just 4 grades separated us. But I was exposed to phonics starting in Kindergarten. When my younger sister came through, the curriculum had changed (to whole language).

She struggled up through 2nd grade. The big thing that changed for her was a traveling salesman who was selling a phonics based teaching kit. My parents bought it for her, and the 3 of us (Mom, Dad, and myself) helped her with it. I was REQUIRED to spend an hour every school day with her doing flashcards, reading, listening to the records (yes, they were all on vinyl).

Now, I think she can out read me when she wants to. And she is an ICU nurse (3 Masters Degrees), so I think she's done pretty good!

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at June 20, 2025 06:26 PM (e/Osv)

240 Yes and a good one imo.
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:26 PM

It made my children go Whoa and forever more try to see a problem from different angles.

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:27 PM (jc0TO)

241 If you're in a vehicle traveling at the speed of light and you turned your headlights on, what would happen?

[h/t Steven Wright]

BTW, I think I read where Einstein had a lot of breakthroughs using his visual imagination -- and one of them was this scenario where he pictured a particle oscillating in place, giving him the idea that light behaved as both a particle AND a wave.

Posted by: ShainS -- Busy Organizing 'Make Trump King' Protests at June 20, 2025 06:27 PM (2o3HN)

242 Sigh.....Whistlepig

Posted by: jsg at June 20, 2025 06:27 PM (iGK7y)

243 I've heard that one can get Hooked on Phonics... so be careful!

Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:28 PM (PCK5/)

244 My guess is if you compare like for like racial/demographic groups there’s no significant difference between the states. Whites in Oregon and whites in Alabama are no different.

What makes the difference is the state’s racial breakdown. OR and WA used to be Lilly white. So they had high scores. In the past decade they have both been diversified bigly. And now their tests are shit.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at June 20, 2025 06:28 PM (/CkK4)

245 111
'Open grounds, with walls and gates, where the goofies could roam around, family could come visit, and staff didn't have to do much more than just keep them from hurting themselves.'

And if they gave safari tours like in nature preserves, I bet it would pay for itself.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at June 20, 2025 06:28 PM (3wi/L)

246 "I hate the Educrats. They are constantly churning out New and Stupid Techniques both to justify their phoney-baloney jobs and also to provide excuses for why low-performing teachers are unable to teach kids."

I feel the same way about the guys writing building codes. They never declare victory and move on to another job.

Posted by: Dad of Six at June 20, 2025 06:28 PM (/Ya3c)

247 I've heard that one can get Hooked on Phonics... so be careful!
Posted by: tubal at June 20, 2025 06:28 PM (PCK5/)
====
Phonics is a helluva drug...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 20, 2025 06:29 PM (IBQGV)

248 And if they gave safari tours like in nature preserves, I bet it would pay for itself.
Posted by: Dr. Claw at June 20, 2025 06:28 PM

[ Bedlam has entered the chat ]

Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:29 PM (jc0TO)

249 > But what was the Sphere's " motivation" to split in half??

It's vanity. The sphere thinks it's so great, the world is blessed to have two.

Posted by: bonhomme at June 20, 2025 06:29 PM (lIio7)

250 HIFI left The Luau.

Posted by: Boss Moss at June 20, 2025 06:29 PM (5xNsa)

251 Yes and a good one imo.
Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:26 PM

It made my children go Whoa and forever more try to see a problem from different angles.
Posted by: toby928 at June 20, 2025 06:27 PM (jc0TO)

My uncle loved to do the yes or no logic problems with me when I was a kid. Definitely made me think out of the box and use progressional reasoning to solve a problem.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:29 PM (rWvc2)

252 I killed 17 flies at work today.

I have a scorecard
Posted by: jsg

Do you work in the kitchen?

Posted by: t-bird at June 20, 2025 06:30 PM (VfMZK)

253
I feel the same way about the guys writing building codes. They never declare victory and move on to another job.
Posted by: Dad of Six at June 20, 2025 06:28 PM (/Ya3c)

If you’ve never heard it find Adam Carolla’s rant on building codes. It’s magnificent.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at June 20, 2025 06:30 PM (/CkK4)

254 BTW, I think I read where Einstein had a lot of breakthroughs using his visual imagination -- and one of them was this scenario where he pictured a particle oscillating in place, giving him the idea that light behaved as both a particle AND a wave.
Posted by: ShainS -- Busy Organizing 'Make Trump King' Protests at June 20, 2025 06:27 PM (2o3HN)

He also imagined the bending of time like a trampoline IIRC.

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:31 PM (rWvc2)

255 Your commuter bus has 5 open seats left when it pulls up to the last downtown stop before heading nonstop to the suburbs. One open seat is next to you. Three people board. What are the odds that Big Bertha will make a beeline to the seat next to you and crush you against the window?

Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:31 PM (wVcYX)

256 255 Your commuter bus has 5 open seats left when it pulls up to the last downtown stop before heading nonstop to the suburbs. One open seat is next to you. Three people board. What are the odds that Big Bertha will make a beeline to the seat next to you and crush you against the window?
Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:31 PM (wVcYX)

The correct answer is why the fuck are you taking the bus?

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at June 20, 2025 06:32 PM (/CkK4)

257 Liberals are always engaging in primitive cargo-cult thinking. Here's what these assholes thought: They saw that kids who were very good at reading did not use phonics to read words, but rather just recognized them in a glance.

So they reasoned: If the smart kids are just reading words "whole" at a glance, that must be what we must teach our slower-readers to do!

Bingo. This matches my observations.

Posted by: Emmie celebrates the Audacity of Trump! at June 20, 2025 06:33 PM (rF2iL)

258 Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:31 PM (wVcYX)

The story of my airline business trips. I'm 0 for 100 that a good looking woman sits next to me .

Posted by: polynikes at June 20, 2025 06:33 PM (rWvc2)

259 From Gateway:

Chaos once again erupted at a New York City courthouse on Friday as ICE agents arrested an illegal alien at the Ted Weiss Federal Building.

A Democrat city councilwoman tried to block ICE agents from taking an illegal alien into custody.

Far-left ‘queer’ Councilwoman Tiffany Caban was almost arrested after she tried to block federal agents from removing an illegal alien.

Tiffany Caban was pushed back by federal agents as they escorted an illegal alien out of the courthouse.

Posted by: Crusader at June 20, 2025 06:34 PM (TN0g+)

260 The train heading east from Union Station drowns in Lake Michigan in a few blocks.
Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:15 PM (8avO+)

This is math class, not geography class.
Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:20 PM (wVcYX)

well I'll skip the size part, since there is none on the blog but the shape is a right triangle with equal legs since the largest angle is 90 degrees and the other diagonal line is the hypotenuse.

Of course since the actual surface is on a sphere the geometry is a bit different from Euclidean rules but not much. On a globe you can have a triangle with three right angles.

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:35 PM (8avO+)

261 Huh, there's a Nood. Wonder how long that's been going on?

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 20, 2025 06:36 PM (h7ZuX)

262 polynikes, what was the rate for an interesting woman sitting next to you?

Posted by: Ben Had at June 20, 2025 06:36 PM (ZIggv)

263 Your commuter bus has 5 open seats left when it pulls up to the last downtown stop before heading nonstop to the suburbs. One open seat is next to you. Three people board. What are the odds that Big Bertha will make a beeline to the seat next to you and crush you against the window?
Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:31 PM (wVcYX)

You offer Bertha your seat, like a gentleman and make one of the others take the other, while you stand

Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:37 PM (8avO+)

264 Of course I can recognize words at a glance, but I learned to read using phonics, because that’s how it used to be taught. I still use the sounding out method today when I run across an unfamiliar foreign word. It came in handy when I had to interact with foreign students with multisyllabic names.

Posted by: RebeccaH at June 20, 2025 06:37 PM (nnkjY)

265 #259^^^ They're straight-up the party of grifters and liars. "Tiffany" had a campaign poster that included the phrases "Safer Streets" and "Lower Costs"...like any Democrat minted after the year 2000 or so ever gave a damn about public safety or lowering the cost to taxpayers.

Posted by: Crusader at June 20, 2025 06:38 PM (TN0g+)

266 News to me, guess better head upstairs

Posted by: Skip at June 20, 2025 06:38 PM (+qU29)

267 You offer Bertha your seat, like a gentleman and make one of the others take the other, while you stand
Posted by: Oldcat at June 20, 2025 06:37 PM (8avO+)

Congratulations! I award you a Masters in Mathematics.

Posted by: Count de Monet at June 20, 2025 06:39 PM (wVcYX)

268 My favorite - rich school districts churn out well educated kids. So, we'll dump money into poor school districts.

Didn't work. Money isn't the problem.

Okay then, we'll take poor performing kids from poor schools and put them into rich schools.

Didn't work. The school is poor, and the kids not doing well, because the parenting and culture of the kids was not conducive to learning.

The successful strategy was make the schools hardcore, with uniforms, and strict rules. And toss out disruptive kids.

Posted by: El Mariachi - Attorney at Law at June 20, 2025 06:40 PM (D1vbu)

269 Educrats (I'm using that from now on) are like a kid with ADD. They bounce from one educational fad to another.

Posted by: Joefrombako at June 20, 2025 06:44 PM (tAiFZ)

270 In some red states only 1% of high school grads take SATs
Tossing out disruptive kids?
Prison costs more than good schooling.

Posted by: Aliassmithsmith at June 20, 2025 08:13 PM (gVnlU)

271 "So they reasoned: If the smart kids are just reading words "whole" at a glance, that must be what we must teach our slower-readers to do!"

Robert Heinlein (PBUH), in the 80s, in his book Friday, mentioned this cargo-cultism. His example was, someone in California noticed that people with college degrees earned more than people without, so they gave everyone in the state a Bachelor's degree.

This happened during The Crazy Years.

Posted by: Rick C at June 20, 2025 08:55 PM (1zWbY)

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