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Discouraging Students from Taking Math

Posted by Zonk on from the every-child-left-behind dept.

Coryoth writes "Following on from a previous story about UK schools encouraging students to drop mathematics, an article in The Age accuses Australian schools of much the same. The claim is that Australian schools are actively discouraging students from taking upper level math courses to boost their academic results on school league tables. How widespread is this phenomenon? Are schools taking similar measures in the US and Canada?"

4 of 509 comments (clear)

  1. It'll all work out by SomeJoel · · Score: 5, Funny

    After a few generations of not taking any math, administrators won't be able to figure out why not taking math increased their average scores in the first place. At that point, they'll re-institute a math program, probably cutting out history, since that's over and done with.

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  2. I dropped my math course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was sweet. I went from six classes to four.

  3. Isn't this a good thing? by glindsey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh... wait... I thought it read "discouraging students from taking meth."

    My mistake.

  4. True story: by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 5, Funny

    I worked in a lumber yard one summer when I was in college. I worked on the end of line that spit out two by fours cut from logs. The pallets were always of different height, but always the same width - 10 units. At the end, you had to paint the total on the side. So if it was 14 units high, you'd have 140 pieces. Me being "just a kid" wasn't trusted to paint the number. The "senior" person busted out a calculator every fucking time. To multiply a number under 20 (the max) by 10.