Professors: US "In Denial" Over Poor Maths Standards

thephydes (727739) writes "The maths skills of teenagers in parts of the deep south of the United States are worse than in countries such as Turkey and barely above South American countries such as Chile and Mexico. From the article: '"There is a denial phenomenon," says Prof Peterson. He said the tendency to make internal comparisons between different groups within the US had shielded the country from recognising how much they are being overtaken by international rivals. "The American public has been trained to think about white versus minority, urban versus suburban, rich versus poor," he said.'"

Comments

There is no such thing as "maths"

[The Other White Meat]

The abbreviation of the word mathematics is not "maths". Mathematics is not a plural word, rather, it is plurale tantum, which is Latin for in plural form only. The reason for this is that the root word mathematic is not a singular noun, but an adjective. To create the noun, an "s" is added, resulting in the noun mathematics. However, when a word which is plural tantum is abbreviated, the "s" does not come along for the ride.

In short "maths" is the British equivalent of "nucular" and should be avoided by anyone who knows better.

Not very coded Bigotry on your part

[SuperKendall]

It's completely unfair to compare outcomes from private schools, which would never accept a student who barely spoke English or a sullen, resentful product of the foster care system

How do you know that? That's a pretty damn big assumption on your part.

And in a safer environment perhaps her glasses would not tend to get broken...

Re:danger will robinson

[Phreakiture]

Your view is offensive and unfounded, and clearly you lack testicular fortitude, because you are hiding your identity. It is this manner of classism that will keep us, as a society, divided, thus enabling The Powers That Be to continue their conquest. Kindly extract you cranium from your rectum.