California Students Are Struggling in Math. Will Reforms Make the Problem Worse?

newyorker.com

9 points·mitchbob··6 comments

It's hilarious to me that you have this incredibly long article about all these internecine squabbles designing the CMF. And you know what the conclusion is? Holy shit just spend more money on teaching the kids you idiots. Sure, if you really want to have a fight about whether to offer "Data science" as an option fine (it's called Statistics genius and you should already be teaching it), but it's not going to make anything like the difference that a decent school budget will.

That old story that marijuana impairs maths capability until you stop smoking, while alcohol impairs judgement coordination etc. I wonder if all those science articles were accurate, and whether it applies in this case.

I think your assumption -- that so many 1st to 12th graders in California are doing marijuana to affect the statistics of the state's maths score -- is unbelievably off the mark, that maybe you should see what substances you yourself are being exposed to.

I think a more realistic assumption would involve the parents. Unfortunately, I know a few kids with mental problems from prenatal exposure to pot, in California actually.

And just as a little FYI, it's "cannabis" these days. "Marijuana" has been deemed racist/culturally insensitive [1]/negative [2]/whatever.

1. https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/nov/08/dont-call-it-mariju... https://www.kuow.org/stories/stop-using-the-word-marijuana-s...

2. https://sespe.org/a-rose-by-any-other-name-or-why-we-dont-ca...

Archived: https://archive.ph/USSUt

Reply on news.ycombinator.com