From The Education Gadfly comes a link to a report by Mass Insight on the "surprising" lack of math phobia in Massachusetts and Washington:
While the survey reported here did not (and could not) probe the public’s real capacity to do math, we found that adult residents of Massachusetts and Washington states have strong, well-formed opinions on math’s strategic importance to the health of their state economies, the rigor of the expectations we should set for high school graduates’ math skills, and the gap currently
separating American high school graduates’ math capacities from those of their counterparts in other countries.
Those opinions being that math skills are important for anyone who wants to succeed in today's technology-driven culture, and that today's public schools aren't doing a great job of teaching those skills. This will come as a surprise only to those educators who hate math and try to downplay its importance (presumably in favor of "self-esteem").
Oh, and it'll be a surprise to the pro-choice group March For Women, who apparently think math and science majors are minority groups. Their link isn't working, so I'll just quote Best of the Web on this:
Check out the very end of the description of "qualifications" for applicants to be interns at that March for Women's Lives, the group that organized a large rally for legal abortion in Washington yesterday:
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Undergraduate and graduate feminist women and men in all majors are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be passionate about a woman's right to choose and will have some experience in activism. The March for Women's Lives is committed to diversity and encourages applications from people of color, people from the GLBT community, people with disabilities, and math/science majors.
Won't the pro-life math and science majors be happy to find out that they're considered protected minorities?
Posted by kswygert at April 26, 2004 01:53 PM