The New, New Math

This news is not from The Onion:

The path to high school graduation for Minnesota's next few graduating classes got significantly easier this month.

The Class of 2010 was going to be the first required to pass a new series of high-stakes state graduation tests before students were awarded their diplomas next spring.

But the Legislature recently decided that students no longer have to pass the 11th-grade math test -- many educators think it's too difficult -- and would have caused a precipitous drop in graduation rates next year.

I started studying in an American high school when I was in grade 11. The school had three levels of math for each grade: basic, accelerated and honors.

The school put me in a basic grade 10 course. After a few months, they bumped me up to accelerated grade 11. I wanted to take calculus in grade 12 but for that I needed honors grade 11 math -- basically pre-calculus. So, I studied it on my own in the summer. It's not like I had anything better to do in Saudi Arabia.

Not once did it ever occur to me to drop math. That's why it's amazing to see so many students who don't want to take math; who, in essence, want to get the least education as possible.

Back to the atrocity in Minnesota:

The solution passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, however, could raise a few eyebrows: Students either have to pass the test once, or fail it three times, to graduate.

The high school diplomas in that state are now worthless, assuming they weren't already.

Link via Vox Popoli.

Comments

[Mike T]

That's one of the problems with modern America. People don't want to get the education needed to make good money without back-breaking work, but they act like it's their God-given right to have a fancy new car and house regardless of their choices.

[Cafe Alpha]

I guess that means that GEDs are now officially more meaningful than diplomas in Minnesota, because you actually have to pass your tests to get a GED.

[Cafe Alpha]

Lol, I stalked Apostate's blog. One of her latest, she's happy that someone torched a strip joint. Why? Because the owner used un-PC language and referred to his former employees as "girls".

I'm boggling. She wants to be a stripper, but only if everyone in the sex industry avoids all non-PC language. Otherwise she wants the establishments burned down. O.o

Also, what's she gonna do the the first man who gropes her during a lap dance, you know? Keep her away from knives, hell keep her away from sporks.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

Cafe Alpha: I do remember that the Apostate called a guy "a boy" among other things because she disagreed with him. She has yet to set herself on fire.

"Keep her away from sporks!"

Ha! I agree; patriarchal oppression FTW!

By the way, she'll only give lap dances to feminist men who think of a woman as a human and not some man-pleasuring sex object.