Minority population grows into California majority

[forsale_2007]

This trend of "studying what you like" is as cute as the dodo bird. Soon it will bring down the whole country as we lose ground to every other nation on earth. I am talking this as a father of a 4 year old who I dont believe will ever get the education he needs in high school to work his way through an engineering program if things dont change.

 

The way we teach math here is so wrong in so many ways. The bane of why we suck at math in practice imho

1)The concept of "show your work" for calculations

2)The use of calculators.

My wife who was raised overseas can compute most everything in her head instead of on paper. Long division, long multiplication, etc,etc,etc. I can't get beyond a couple of digits without being either too slow or too inaccurate. Given a sales tax of 7.75%, she can tell me exactly how much any amount is within a few seconds.

 

[forsale_2007]

This trend of "studying what you like" is as cute as the dodo bird. Soon it will bring down the whole country as we lose ground to every other nation on earth. I am talking this as a father of a 4 year old who I dont believe will ever get the education he needs in high school to work his way through an engineering program if things dont change.

 

The way we teach math here is so wrong in so many ways. The bane of why we suck at math in practice imho

1)The concept of "show your work" for calculations

2)The use of calculators.

My wife who was raised overseas can compute most everything in her head instead of on paper. Long division, long multiplication, etc,etc,etc. I can't get beyond a couple of digits without being either too slow or too inaccurate. Given a sales tax of 7.75%, she can tell me exactly how much any amount is within a few seconds.

 

[an]

I totally agree with you forsale_2007. When you don’t have to do it on paper, you think very differently. Lets use the 7.75% tax you’re talking about. If I would have to do it on paper, I would have to calculate one number at a time. But if you do it in your head, you’ll find short cuts that allow you to get the same result faster. Such as multiplying 7.75 by 2 will give you 15.5%. You know what 1% is quickly so you can divide that by 2 to get the .5%, and you know what 10% is quickly, so if you divide that in 1/2 and add it to the 10%, you get 15.5% quite quickly with very simple math. Take that # and divide by 2 and you get your 7.75% tax with very simple math. I think that’s what I think is the difference between showing your work on paper learning method and doing it in your head learning method.

[an]

I totally agree with you forsale_2007. When you don’t have to do it on paper, you think very differently. Lets use the 7.75% tax you’re talking about. If I would have to do it on paper, I would have to calculate one number at a time. But if you do it in your head, you’ll find short cuts that allow you to get the same result faster. Such as multiplying 7.75 by 2 will give you 15.5%. You know what 1% is quickly so you can divide that by 2 to get the .5%, and you know what 10% is quickly, so if you divide that in 1/2 and add it to the 10%, you get 15.5% quite quickly with very simple math. Take that # and divide by 2 and you get your 7.75% tax with very simple math. I think that’s what I think is the difference between showing your work on paper learning method and doing it in your head learning method.

[SDowner]

It is true that high school education in asian countries is more diverse and packed than American system, but it is also true that the method of teaching in the US is superior to many countries, at least at the graduate and post graduate levels. You really learn to think “on your feet” with all the available data.

The best combination is to study up to high school in Asia and do your college course in the US, which advantage many 1st gen asian immigrants have.

SDowner

[SDowner]

It is true that high school education in asian countries is more diverse and packed than American system, but it is also true that the method of teaching in the US is superior to many countries, at least at the graduate and post graduate levels. You really learn to think “on your feet” with all the available data.

The best combination is to study up to high school in Asia and do your college course in the US, which advantage many 1st gen asian immigrants have.

SDowner

[bobby]

Fat_Lazy, There have not been a quota for Asians for 30+ years now, if ever. Asians have the highest average GPA and test score of any group, Caucasians included.

[bobby]

Fat_Lazy, There have not been a quota for Asians for 30+ years now, if ever. Asians have the highest average GPA and test score of any group, Caucasians included.

[speedingpullet]

I taught basic math at both middle school and junior college level, and (gasp) didn’t allow calcuators in my class.

Its amazing the amount of panic you can engender by saying ‘put that away, you won’t need it’ – calculators have become a crutch for almost everybody.

OK – I was nice -once we got to the part where we used real numbers in decimal fractions, I let them use calculators.

Call me a push-over 😉

[speedingpullet]

I taught basic math at both middle school and junior college level, and (gasp) didn’t allow calcuators in my class.

Its amazing the amount of panic you can engender by saying ‘put that away, you won’t need it’ – calculators have become a crutch for almost everybody.

OK – I was nice -once we got to the part where we used real numbers in decimal fractions, I let them use calculators.

Call me a push-over 😉

[kewp]

The beautiful irony of all this is that the over-educated Asian’s will all end up working for some lazy caucasian with an MBA.

That makes 3x as much!

[kewp]

The beautiful irony of all this is that the over-educated Asian’s will all end up working for some lazy caucasian with an MBA.

That makes 3x as much!

[forsale_2007]

The beautiful irony of all this is that the over-educated Asian's will all end up working for some lazy caucasian with an MBA. That makes 3x as much!

Actually the irony is that those MBA's ultimately drive the company into the ground, only to be overrun by a company overseas in asia. Can you say Huawei?

Meanwhile those MBA’s also piss all their money out the door anyway. I can’t believe how many folks make more than me, but can’t even afford a house….I noticed just because you have an MBA doesn’t mean squat. Idiots are still idiots…BTW: i wouldn't be too happy if I were you with an MBA. They're a dime a dozen these days, and unless you are from top 10, it's pretty useless.

 

[forsale_2007]

The beautiful irony of all this is that the over-educated Asian's will all end up working for some lazy caucasian with an MBA. That makes 3x as much!

Actually the irony is that those MBA's ultimately drive the company into the ground, only to be overrun by a company overseas in asia. Can you say Huawei?

Meanwhile those MBA’s also piss all their money out the door anyway. I can’t believe how many folks make more than me, but can’t even afford a house….I noticed just because you have an MBA doesn’t mean squat. Idiots are still idiots…BTW: i wouldn't be too happy if I were you with an MBA. They're a dime a dozen these days, and unless you are from top 10, it's pretty useless.

 

[blahblahblah]

The beautiful irony of all this is that the over-educated Asian’s will all end up working for some lazy caucasian with an MBA.

If only. Many management positions are headed overseas as well. Many MBAs (especially the ones working for big companies) aren’t creative enough to think of any way to grow a business, so they just implement “cost-cutting” measures (outsourcing to China & India, etc…) to increase profit and grow the share price instead. As a result, the heart of many companies has relocated overseas, and guess what — the head is soon to follow. American managers can’t manage foreign assets effectively because of timezone problems, communication issues, etc… Is the solution to hire more Americans then? Of course not, the solution is to move management to India and China and limit American operations to marketing and sales.

[Author]

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