WAYT: The math is wrong

While the state of Illinois languishes in debt up to its eyeballs, the Illinois General Assembly is busy debating whether or not high school students should be required to take more math classes. 

Our Lieutenant Governor has been on a grand tour of all of the state’s community colleges, and the most important thing she learned was that students are not good enough at math.  The next logical step is to get high schoolers to take MORE math.  In the eyes of our humble politicians, practice WILL make perfect. 

What are they thinking?  I mean, really, what is the thought process behind this push, at this particular moment in Illinois history?  Get some perspective!

I object to this four year plan because I am terrible at math.  Just today, I realized that I can’t even record numbers correctly, let alone calculate them.  I wrote a check for $56 but recorded it as $65 in my register.  Genius!  And I took the four years of high school math the GA now recommends – how could I still be this stupid? 

Sixty six percent of my high school math teachers were terrible at teaching math.  I remember I had a tiny Asian geometry teacher who was amazing.  She had songs and illustrations and maybe it makes her sound juvenile, that she was so enthusiastic, but I learned from her.  The old guy who taught me two sections of algebra and the old woman who taught me trigonometry were horrible teachers.  They may have been complete geniuses but they had no clue how to pass that genius on to me.  The words “lost in translation” come to mind. 

When I went to college, I was seriously at a loss when it came to math class.  I tested into the lowest possible section but luckily got a sympathetic teacher who miraculously made my calculator and brain work together for the first time.  He understood that I was never going to be a math whiz and he helped me get through it and on to where I belonged without further damaging my self-esteem or GPA. 

But let me assure you, I did not need four years of math in high school.  What I needed was therapy for my random dyslexia (clearly) and more emphasis on basic math skills before high school.  I still cannot recall a single thing related to fractions and trust me, I’ve really tried to remember.  To do basic multiplication, I use the same rhymes I learned in fourth grade and a hand trick for all the multiples of the number nine. 

I really don’t want the General Assembly legislating that my son will have to take four years of math.  I suffered through that trigonometry class trying to smarten myself up for my ACT test, and I guarantee all that I really accomplished was to take four months off of my expected life span from all the angst and tears.  If Auggie is no good at math, I am going to feel horrible, watching him beat himself up the way that I did.  There was nothing more demoralizing than math.  Truly, I have the most traumatizing memories and I just can’t stomach the idea of him suffering the same fate. 

Future generations would really benefit from APPLIED math, if they have to up the required minimum.  What good does it do a student like me to sit in a high school classroom and be talked to about equations when I could have been learning how to translate measurements in the kitchen or how to quickly figure out that I wrote $65 instead of $56 in my checkbook?  For the smarties who excel at math, PLEASE, put them in four years of math.  Leave me to what I can handle and those other kids can go on to do great things. 

Obviously the General Assembly didn’t take four years of high school math.  They can’t balance a budget to save their lives.  It’s really the pot calling the kettle, especially considering the work they should be doing.  I’m sure they think that talking about math classes has something to do with jobs in Illinois and overall American competitiveness in the global market, but I’m telling you, they’re totally off base on this and they’re wasting our money while they’re at it.  Even a mathematical moron like me can see that! 

I’ve brought up a lot of topics here: government mandates on education practices and requirements, teacher quality, career preparedness, future workforce, etc.  This is why the GA can’t just go spouting off about four years of math.  They need to look at the bigger picture.  Our problems are about more than math.  Stepping into the middle of this issue is ignoring a whole host of other issues that are just as important.  They cannot simply address shortcomings in math; there are many other areas that affect this one subject in school and that affect any given child’s future.