math in these united states

help. the quality of math education in this country is abysmal. I have been reading math teacher blogs in preparation to go back and get certified, then teach high school math. this has been a goal of mine for some time. However the more I read, the more discouraged I get. Teaching is hard, and our standards are so low, children are not challenged. My 3rd grader is top of his class, working at a very high level, and yet, is probably behind compared to kids his age from any other country.
This summer I am engaging in an intensive three-month long math discovery summer boot camp for my kids. I do want to teach math to all children, improve the abilities of kids everywhere, but for now I am teaching my own children. The best learning is done when children build the math concepts themselves. This is difficult to implement in a classroom, but I hope to achieve this with a series of hands on activities and projects this summer.

I am also doing other projects too, here is the master summer school plan;

personal weather station;
we will record the daily weather on the weather underground and become an official station.

Probability and statistics; ratios
figure out most common letters in the language by finding them in print
collect data and graph it in various ways collect info from the weather station, track growth of grass vs. amount of rain.

learn the bones of the body and Muscles via anatomy coloring book.

geometry-
learn shapes, polygons, platonic solids, types of triangles, why shapes work the way they do, measuring angles, area and circumference.

greedy us....

If I were a person of all seasons, then I would not live in this house. As an american I am by definition using up way more than my share of world resources. I cringe when I hear people plan to build bigger homes, or to build, especially when these new housing developments are green-washed so that if the buyers don't look too closely they might actually think that they are helping the planet by building a 35,000 sq foor house on 1/2 acre of former prairie.

I criticize, yet I am guilty of the same crime. I had a comfortable apartment, and chose quite against all efficency arguments, to move into a large lovely home and I would have chosen a larger home If I had had more money at the time.
If I were a person of my social justice convictions, I would use my time and abilities to enrich the lives of others. I would send money to the poor and those who are in need, and I would do a lot of volunteerism.


I will be a teacher, and through this career I will bless the lives of my students by preparing them for the world and their future employment. I plan to teach math, which is a vital skill and can really make a difference in a young person's life.

Right now I am the mom to 4 lovely children and I hope that spending my time on their upbringing is good enough.

castle---- it just doesn't work.

I have been watchign Castle, a crime/ writing drama starring Nathan Fillion (from FIREFLY) adn some other girl, anyways, the story line is that Kaet Becket is a crime fighting detective, and RICHARD Castle follows her around supposedly to get ideas for his crime themed detective novels. He also helps to solve crimes.

The sub themes are; Kate Becket and Castle sexual tension and secret jealousy. Richard Castle has a teenage daughter and lives with his Mother and there are some occasional firefly relicts sitting around the living room.

The problems with the show are;
1. Kate Becket is supposed to be a detective, an employee of the police department. She dresses like a teenager even when she is supposedly investigating crime scenes and interviewing witnesses. totally unprofessional and unbelievable.
2. Richard Castle is the comic relief, and the comedy factor leans too heavily on his facial expressions and reactions. I used to think that he wasn't a good actor, but I think that the writing is just really off. There is no way anyone could pull off his role well. He is just put in weird positions that make little sense. The character is not consistent.
e.g. There was an episode where they were looking for poisonous spiders that where part of a murder. Apparently Castle was scared of spiders. He was made to scream and be scared of spiders like 6 times. It was funny the first time.
3. The premise of a writer helping a real life detective is not super believable to begin with. I might be able to look past the shaky premise if the writing were middling. I might be able to excuse the writing if the characters were believable and consistent. Taken together its just not that great.

You know, Nathan Fillian starred in a nice show a couple of years ago that I really enjoyed, and watching the train wreck that is Castle begs the question
"WHY does junk like this get on Television while FIREFLY was cancelled??????"

I guess I'll just have to watch some episodes, work on my ZOE costume, and try to move on.

antiscience movement

So there was/is a movement to deny the existence of Aids, apparently soem people think that it is a government conspiracy.

http://denyingaids.blogspot.com/2010/04/another-tragic-case-of-aids-denialism.html

And these people are slowly dying, when their lives could have been made longer and more comfortable with the use of treatment and modern drugs.
This is absurd, of course, and these people are clearly a case of denialism in the extreme.

Let us compare them to parents who do not vaccinate their children for diseases.
There is clear science that vaccines are beneficial. There are some cases like extreme allegies, or a history of bad reactions in which a child should not be vaccinated, barring these exceptions, The analogy stands.

The negative effects of not vaccinating are not so great for any one individual, but the potential effect of a largely less vaccinated public are tremendous.

The anti-science movement is so bad in so many ways.
I am going to be a teacher just so I can work to promote science and the responsible reading of statistics and sound critical thinking skills. Seriously, when I see stuff like this it just make me angry, and all I can do is rage during playgroup (hence alienateing the homeopathic/homebirth moms) or write this silly blog that no one reads (except for YOU!). So, as soon as my youngest child gets off to school, I get certified and become a math teacher. I am sure that this will not lessen my frustration level in general, but at least it has the potential for making a difference in the world.

The emancipation of women

I am currently reading a people's history of the United States by Howard Zinn, It is extremely interesting and well written. It is easy to decry, to poke holes in history, but Zinn does a great job explaining why the history of this country unfolded the way it did.

And though it is 60o+ pages of deep material, I feel that he does it in a concise to the point way. He refrains from presentism while at the same time pointing out what forces shaped policy. I like that certain people at all times seemed to fight against evil and resist things that today seem wrong. For instance, many people resisted the unfair treatment of blacks from the founding of the country. There was marked resistance to the expelling of Indians from their lands. This seems to me evidence that our country has been good, that the people in general are good and though our leaders are largely driven by money and misguided by the religion of consumerism, there has consistently been an independent fair-minded populace to check and question the actions of the elite.

yeats

william butler yeats;

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Why do I just love to read stuff like this aloud? I mean for a person who claims to not like poetry I sure think, memorize, and quote it a lot.
Yesterday I was reciting the 'songs of innocence' and thought 'hey, maybe if I enjoy reciting poetry then that means I like poetry' nah.
Perhaps I like Poetry like I like running races; I like to be done, but in the moment it is hard work.

I am learning this, then its on to the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.