CSotD: Parceling out the blame
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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal touches on one of my most despised "clever comments" on social media, and puts it into very sharp focus.
There are any number of memes floating around about how people have never used algebra, and they'll flourish again, now that the election is over.
It's annoyingly stupid on one level, but, on another, it is an important critique of education, and hence I particularly like the "Why I Could Never Be a Math Teacher" hed on this.
I find it hard to believe that the person who "has never used algebra" since high school has, in fact, never doubled a recipe, never figured out how much paint to buy for the livingroom, never estimated how many cans of soda she could buy with the cash in her purse.
Obviously, you've used algebra. Often. Daily. Almost continuously.
But shouldn't a good math teacher begin algebra class at the start of the year by explaining what those x's and y's mean and what algebra is?
Granted, many of the same people who say they've never used algebra also complain about how impossible they found "word problems" about Farmer Brown's apples, indicating that they were immune to practical applications even of elementary arithmetic.
But wouldn't a good teacher know that, and find solutions? The term in teaching is "monitor and adjust" and means keeping track of how the kids are doing and changing your approach as required.
If you know that a disturbingly high percentage of your students, who seem perfectly capable in all other respects, can't seem to grasp the subject you teach, turn your eye inward.
My sense is that modern math teachers do more to teach why, rather than just teaching rules. Maybe people who post those "I've never used algebra" memes should be required to post their ages as well, so we can excuse the ones who took math in the "Because I said so" days and focus on those who, even with teachers making an effort, continue to trip over their own lack of perception.
As long as I'm handing out solutions to annoying problems, I think Walt needs to buy some almond milk. It's low-fat like skim, but tastes like whole milk. Try a couple brands, try soy, find what you like. Anything is better than skim milk.
Except for Social Justice Warriors, because raising plants requires that you water them, and watering crops is an eeeeevil waste of precious aquatic resources.
Which leaves perfect people in a quandry, since they don't approve of enslaving dairy animals and they also don't approve of crop irrigation. The obvious solution would be to put water on their corn flakes, but then they'd be the ones squandering our planetary fluids.
Eat'em dry, I guess. Try to ignore the fact that somebody wasted precious water growing the grains.
Which logically brings us to …
… Walt Handelsman's commentary on who fixed the election. Let me explain the connection, because it may not be obvious, but it is critical.
The latest SJW campaign is to abolish or sidestep the Electoral College, because, in guaranteeing that rural voters and small states have a voice in elections, it means that sometimes the popular vote, on a national level, is not the prevailing measure of who gets to be president.
Which it isn't supposed to be, since we're a republic and not a pure democracy.
In this latest election, people in small, rural states said they were sick and tired of being marginalized and voted for a candidate who attacked the big city elites.
If we had a system in which those people were forced to accept the decisions of their better educated, wiser and more worthwhile city cousins, well, we wouldn't have to listen to those worthless freakin' hayseeds.
Then we wouldn't be such a divided society.
One solution getting some media play is for all the states to agree to sidestep the College by giving their electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote nationally. That's easier than creating an amendment to abolish the College, just as it is easier to devise work-arounds to avoid having to amend the Constitution to rescind minority voting rights.
And just as transparently unconstitutional and undemocratic.
However, states could pass laws to divide their electoral votes proportionally by their own popular results. A very few states already do. I haven't crunched the numbers to see what it would have done this time, but it seems fair.
Meanwhile, I hope everyone watched Leslie Stahl's interview with Donald Trump on "60 Minutes" last night. (Or will watch highlights now)
Nate Beeler – hardly a flaming liberal — suggests that it's time for Trump to stop campaigning and get to work on real issues, and the President-Elect seemed, last night, to be processing the difference between flamboyant campaigning and actual governance.
His supporters may be equally disappointed by what he doesn't try to enact as his opponents are by what he does.
Granted, his naming of a policy advisor who makes Breitbart veterans nauseous is not promising, but, first, the guy is only an advisor and has no portfolio. Second, once it becomes obvious that his suggestions are worthless, well, you know Trump's signature phrase.
And his cabinet needs Senate confirmation. If he actually proposes Caribou Barbie, the Half-Term-Governor of Alaska, as Secretary of the Interior, and the GOP-controlled Senate votes to confirm, we can and should worry.
But it hasn't happened yet, and I'm not clear on what anyone gains by insulting his fan base, dwelling on the extremes of the worst of them, and criticizing him for what he might, but hasn't, done.
Not saying we shouldn't jump on him when he does make a stupid move.
But, as Bernie suggested, we should support him when he proposes things we want and oppose him when he proposes things we don't want.
Bernie and I are very old and remember when that was how things worked anyway.
And if you think that means "selling out," ask LBJ. Ask Nixon.
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