the_dunk_tank
It's the dunk tank.
This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.
Rule 1: All posts must include links to the subject matter, and no identifying information should be redacted.
Rule 2: If your source is a reactionary website, please use archive.is instead of linking directly.
Rule 3: No sectarianism.
Rule 4: TERF/SWERFs Not Welcome
Rule 5: No ableism of any kind (that includes stuff like libt*rd)
Rule 6: Do not post fellow hexbears.
Rule 7: Do not individually target other instances' admins or moderators.
Rule 8: The subject of a post cannot be low hanging fruit, that is comments/posts made by a private person that have low amount of upvotes/likes/views. Comments/Posts made on other instances that are accessible from hexbear are an exception to this.
Rule 9: if you post ironic rage bait im going to make a personal visit to your house to make sure you never make this mistake again
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You joke but maybe this amorphous reactionary movement is just anti-enlightenment, ultimately
Reactionaries fucking hate math education and are always freaking out that they dont understand their kid's homework.
I'm probably not the best person to judge, but what's changed with kids maths homework? Were these parents good at maths when they were in school?
AFAIK it's basically just that math education has been moving more advanced concepts earlier and earlier at least as an optional course. Like calculus has gone from a post-grad level thing to a normal college course to something people can elect to take in high school, algebra went from college level material to normal high school level stuff that people start getting introduced to in middle school, etc.
But also a lot of people struggle with the most basic things in high school, graduate, then forget all of the incomplete-understanding they had by the time they have kids. It's very likely that adults who are baffled and enraged at seeing some basic algebra problem also struggled with math in school and are embarrassed and frustrated that their skills have only gotten worse since then, on top of the possibility that they never even got to algebra when they were in school and instead went through the remedial math track that maybe reaches basic pre-algebra material in their senior year.
We should be teaching linear algebra before calculus, because the concepts are genuinely more relevant and teach you how to see systems of equations differently.
I'd argue that stats should come before either of those. A basic course in statistics would be enormously helpful to most people in navigating and understanding the modern world. It's much more likely to be relevant to daily life for the average person than calculus or linear algebra. Basic calculus--especially differential equations--is certainly enormously useful for understanding the natural world, but statistics is relevant everywhere, and even a lot of math/science people never get any instruction on it.
100% agree
Ideally, they should be proud their kids know more than them. But that ain't parents (at least these ones).