The Political Hat

     One of the problems with Common Core and the Standardized testing, is badly written questions.  But a bigger problem are teachers and principals who stand by that idiocy no matter how wrong it is.

     A case in point demonstrating the problem with teachers relying on standardized testing materials rather than using their own brains.

     A parent of a grade school student was brought in because the student was being “disruptive” in class.  What was the disruption?  The student claimed the teacher was wrong.  The teacher claimed the answer to the question “what was the largest number that can be represented with 3 digits” was “999”.  The teacher was wrong.

Pictured: A number larger than 999

     Of course, the authoritarian strain in modern edukashun would not allow that to stand, and so called in the parent.

     Nine to the power of Nine to the Nine is a much, much larger number than 999.  The teacher claimed that that was not the correct answer because the students hadn’t been taught exponents yet.  That most the students hadn’t been taught that yet does not mean that the answer is incorrect.

     The problem was with the poor wording of the question, with the teacher and principal acknowledging the provided answer was indeed incorrect, but that they would follow the incorrect answer anyway.

     Therein lies the biggest concern: Teachers are just going through the motions and regurgitating what they are told to do.  This isn’t even peddling pedagogy; this is automata in action.

     A little mood music:

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