This Week’s Posts
Monday, April 25th- The Politics of Pure Affiliation Has Driven Everyone Absolutely Insane
When politics is purely about teams and not at all about principle, things get very whacky and very broken very fast.
Tuesday, April 26th - Just Keep It Off My Timeline!
People don’t really think they can stop extremism online. They just don’t want to have to read it themselves, and they like playacting as antifascist warriors.
Wednesday, April 27th - Nobody Walks Around Feeling "Valid"
Telling people they’re supposed to feel “valid” all the time is pretty cruel.
Thursday, April 28th - It’s All Grift, It’s All Brands
There’s no point in arguing about the relative popularity of heterodoxy because it implies some sort of Platonic space outside of the scrum.
Friday, April 29th - Drug Review: Dextroamphetamine (subscriber only)
speed speed speed
From the Archives
Song of the Week
Book Recommendation
The Math Myth, Andrew Hacker, 2015
Though its statistics are now somewhat out of date, The Math Myth remains an essential text for understanding our current educational woes. Hacker demonstrates, to truly depressing effect, that American kids are struggling in math at an almost unbelievable level. (In Arizona in the year cited here, 67% of high school students failed their math requirement.) Hacker proceeds from there to make a controversial argument: most students don’t actually need high-level abstract math, and while we must retain a track for those who can flourish in that path, the humane and efficient thing to do is to exempt most student from higher-order mathematics. Those who have read my own book will be well aware that I think Hacker is right. Even if you don’t agree, it’s a sharp, lively argument, and Hacker is entertainingly irascible.
Comment of the Week
When you take care of something else--a child, a pet, a garden--you don't feel valid so much as connected to more than yourself. I never worried about my validity while changing a diaper. I never worried about my validity when caring for an old dog. I never worried about my validity when planting flowers. When these thoughts--about my validity-- arise in my brain I try to do a task for someone/something else. That said, I walk my dogs a lot. - Kathleen McCook
That’s it. Domani.
What is considered higher-level math?
I take it that arithmetic's basic functions (division, fractions, percentages,etc) would be taught to all. But I take it that calculus is where the higher level math starts?
Alas, likely the equity groupies would not permit that....and the more talented math students would be tracked-down.
Is book club over?