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Putting his Math Where His Mouth Is
seedmagazine.com — A billionaire ex-mathematician believes he has a simple formula for improving math education and making America more competitive.
DigiDave- 510 diggs
- digg it
- NinjAlt, on 10/12/2007, -18/+61I have a formula to make America better.
America - Stupid people - Religion + Smaller Government = Win- captinherb, on 10/12/2007, -4/+66I would think just getting rid of stupid people would shrink the government quite a bit.
- MrZop, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3This Equals True.
- MrZop, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3My Previous Comment was in reply to captinherb. sorry about the confusion.
- nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -21/+27why exactly do we have to get rid of religion? Are you implying that anyone that believes in God and or organized religion is stupid? The smartest mathematician I know is an orthodox Jew and he's a ***** genius.
- TheSaladMan, on 10/12/2007, -28/+41"Are you implying that anyone that believes in God and or organized religion is stupid?"
I'd say that if you're willing to believe a book that's thousands of years old just because it's the way you were brought up instead of questioning your existence then that says alot about your intelligence. - Tricky, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24Step 1. remove stupid people
Step 2. ?????
Step 3. PROFIT! - nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -9/+22@ thesaladman
well if you're believing a religion because that's how you were "brought up" then I would agree with you. But there are plenty of intelligent people that make their own decision to believe what they choose to believe.
the most important part is a little thing called "freedom of religion." I can't remember where I heard that (/sarcasm) but I think it was in some old written document. Oh, but you said believing in an old book was stupid, so why wouldn't believing the in the constitution be stupid?
btw, i don't believe in the bible and I do question my existence. I also completely believe in God. - bitsyboffin, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9@nreynolds
On the contrary, as NinjAtt has differentiated stupid from religion he is infact saying that not all religious people are stupid, and as such religion must be removed separately.
I however agree with NinjAtt's point that America and the world in general would be better if the forumla was followed as written. - nosmelc, on 10/12/2007, -9/+14"I'd say that if you're willing to believe a book that's thousands of years old just because it's the way you were brought up instead of questioning your existence then that says alot about your intelligence."
I'd say that if you think that everyone who believes in religion does so because that's the way they were brought up that says alot about your lack of intelligence. - Tricky, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9Jesus saves at Digg.
- TheSaladMan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8@nreynolds
I'm not saying that people shouldn't be allowed to believe whatever they want, but I believe that same document said something about free speech, which entitles me to express how stupid I believe following a fairy tale as a way of life is. It would be like people thousands of years from now thinking that we all lived in Narnia. - BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9"It would be like people thousands of years from now thinking that we all lived in Narnia."
QFT, the problem with the bible, koran, and torah is that people take it to damn seriously. They belive every single word of it has absoulute truth. The problem is that those words can be manipulated witch can in turn manipulate humans to do horrible things like attack innocent people. - FluffyArmada, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Given : Bush = President
Prove : Government ≅ Stupid
Hmm.. this shouldn't take long. - kalisphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Anyone who has read the Bible carefully* and still believes that it might be the eternal truth of an omnipotent and wholly benevolent deity is a complete imbecile, no matter how good they might be at multiplying two-digit numbers together in their heads.
* ie, the parts where it talks about murdering anyone who works on the Sabbath, rebellious teenagers, and homosexuals... - kalisphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8"The problem is that those words can be manipulated witch can in turn manipulate humans to do horrible things like attack innocent people."
The words don't have to be manipulated. The Old Testament, New Testament, and Koran are abhorrent, repulsive books (and this coming from a person who reads William S. Burroughs often). People have to get over this "religion is a beautiful thing, just misused" diplomatic ***** and accept the truth: these books advocate what any reasonable, enlightened human being would view as pure ***** evil. - Cinder6, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1@The SaladMan
Believing in the Bible is no more stupid than blindly believing in a certain theory people like to push that has around 1-in-a-trillion odds and lacks pretty much anything in the way of supporting evidence on a large scale. - Cleanlyness, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4Should be written.
America - Religion in Government + Republic = Win
As I don't want to deny those kids in the classroom the right to worship their imaginary friend that tells them to murder anyone that their "friend" doesn't approve of. - FluffyArmada, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Religion shouldn't be about hating people and killing your enemies. People seem to have forgotten that. I remember reading Moby Dick, where Ishmael had first met the Savage (sorry can't remember his name) and he talked about how he "as a good christian man" should make an attempt to form an understanding of the his religion, so he could be a better friend to him. That's how I think we should start acting again. But as long as we have churches marching around military funerals with signs that say "GOD HATES FAGS", I think we're really doing something wrong. :-s
- Iandefor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"why exactly do we have to get rid of religion? Are you implying that anyone that believes in God and or organized religion is stupid? The smartest mathematician I know is an orthodox Jew and he's a ***** genius."
If you look more closely at the equation, religion is subtracted AFTER stupid people. If religious people were stupid, any good mathematician would've gotten rid of a pointless term and omitted specific reference to religion. - punmaster, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3Does anyone find it a little bit pathetic that no matter what the topic is, people always find a way to start fighting over religion?!?!?! How about everybody believes in whatever they want, and given that nobody does anything stupid because of it (like start pointless fights that nobody's going to win) then everybody's happy. How about People + Common Sence + Freedom to Do Whatever the Hell One Wants to Do as Long as it Isn't Hurting Anyone Else + Tolerence For Other Ideas - Selfish Assholes = Win.
- wangjiaji, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Reducing the people putting money in their mouth will do.
- dsendecki, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4I would think just getting rid of the government would reduce the number of stupid people quite a bit.
- OBDriftwood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What I really like about this idea is that it's a privately funded program. Government programs tend to be more expensive and perform poorly. A privately funded program like this can be leaner and provide a better return for the money.
It's a shame how many kids graduate from high school and can't even balance a stupid checkbook. What's worse is when they get elected to Congress and get to make economic decisions. - ffelix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Speaking of religion...what's up with this brain-dead "no government" mantra? Did any of you guys actually read the article? The guy funded a pilot--he's trying to get government to pick it up.
- OBDriftwood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What I really like about this idea is that it's a privately funded program. Government programs tend to be more expensive and perform poorly. A privately funded program like this can be leaner and provide a better return for the money.
- anicejew, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2+digg he's a fellow jew!
- Wootery, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2His religion means you should treat him differently?
- laughingcowpig, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6math is the best subject. I look forward to school everyday at math class. I guess that's one reason it's because I'm going to be a computer engineer heh. Math is just interesting though because you can do anything with it. I really can't wait for physics. http://www.marsgamer.com
- shortkid422, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6If you really can't wait for physics, start learning it early. Go online (well, you're reading this so you already are) and find online lessons, tutorials, projects, anything you can. If you are serious about wanting to learn a subject, don't wait, go for it.
Btw, physics are a blast. Have fun. - 4degrees, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6ill have to second that motion... physics kicks ass.
learn it, apply it(experiment), learn some more! - laughingcowpig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I know physics will be fun. You can apply it to everything you do. I find it funny how many of my classmates and other teachers say they dread math.
- shortkid422, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6If you really can't wait for physics, start learning it early. Go online (well, you're reading this so you already are) and find online lessons, tutorials, projects, anything you can. If you are serious about wanting to learn a subject, don't wait, go for it.
- laughingcowpig, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5but math is like a puzzle. You really can't learn too far ahead of where you stand or else it won't make full sense. WHat I mean is if you miss a class or 2 of classes, you can get quite lost sometimes.
- nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1not in AP calc AB, which is apparently a much easier/slower class than Precalculus.
- dangerrmouse, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3physics is phun
- tidu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12unless you have a test tomorrow...
- nreynolds, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1strange. I DO have a test tomorrow. But it's stupid stuff. 2 dimensional kinematics. I hate stupid people that still make it into AP physics.
- yahoofrom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1physics is boring. mathematics is fun.
- BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3At our high school the teachers are going on a strike where they wont do after school activities because they don't get payed enough. I think we got to finish up this damn war in Iraq (you would think they could defend themselves by now maby with just a little bit of financial aid from uncle sam) and start putting insane amounts of money that we do into war instead into schools we would be better off.
- PhatFingers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Don't know about the rest of the country, but in our neck of the woods, the government likes to trot out the deprived teachers and students so they can raise taxes. An obvious good cause. They then reduce the amount of money paid to the schools from the general fund. In a vague technical sense, the money did go to the schools, but the schools don't see the benefit because after the creative accounting, the public really voted themselves an increase to the general fund.
- vvargoal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Here's a profound way to improve math instruction to our students:Make the little bastards study.
Really, though, it's amazing how utterly incompetent public school teachers can actually be.- FluffyArmada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What our math instructors need to do is, instead of making us do the same crap over and over in a text book, give us an interesting problem and help us work our way up to figuring it out. No gives a crap that ABC = 30º and is comp. to angle EFG. But given an interesting problem... :)
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Indeed, the problem isn't insufficient wages for teachers, or not enough to begin with, but rather they don't teach well. The problem is with both the attitude toward their subject and the fact that the system is broken. I recommend one subject a day, with assignments due next class, and get serious instead of treating school like daycare and college like a social club/trade school. Only people who love their subjects should be allowed to teach them. And get rid of this work three jobs while taking classes baloney. Go to college to study, not work.
- BadgerOU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1But part of the reason why they don't teach (math) well, is because those people who could teach math well don't teach. They go and make more money else where. If we paid teachers more, we would get better teachers. We wouldn't make the current crappy teachers perform better.
- BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@FluffyArmada
The problem with that is the school bord makes a strict lesson plan that has to be followed (unfortunatly) - cyface, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"What our math instructors need to do is, instead of making us do the same crap over and over in a text book, give us an interesting problem and help us work our way up to figuring it out."
I agree wholeheartedly....what made me, as a creatively-focused person, dislike math is that beyond a certain point, it wasn't a simple matter of memorization or understanding, rather it was something that took *practice*. You have to do derivatives over and over before you get good enough be to able to glance at one and solve it. What demotivated me was that solving derivatives over and over *in isolation* had no purpose. And the constant "you'll need to know this to do (whatever your next math course is)" was not enough of a motivator to make me spend hours *practicing* math.
Although I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of a privately funded and managed education program like this, I fear (like others above) that a full-fledged government program will be a magnet for pork and mismanagement.
I would love to see programs like this for Computer Science, Engineering, and other applied fields. - TheBull, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@BadgerOU
You summarized exactly what the article was saying...
- Vinhdicated, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Encourage students to learn and prepare them for higher education.
- afbase, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well throwing money at the problem doesn't help. The government does this with almost every gov' funded proggy. This guy may actually know how place the money in the right spots to work.
Nothing against those majoring in art or anything, but imagine universities that removed sports training and art from their academic programs. It may force people to take math, like me!!!
[d/dx] (American education) = (delta ((Sigma (American education budget)))/(delta(American Student Population))
XP
A wee bit too mathy- BadgerOU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Education actually is a "problem" that can be solved by throwing more money at it. More money attracts better teachers, allows us to buy better supplies (books, lab supplies, etc), and pays for better facilities. The problem is that schools are underfunded right now -- look at all the schools that are suing not to be held liable under the No Child Left Behind act because the gov't hasn't given the money to support the program!
- psbpv3o, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I hate school.......
- yahoofrom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1you mean, your school blocks digg?
- skydolphin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0An additional way to making America more competitive is
to allow more educated people to immigrate to America.
It is a triple win.
1. The other countries becomes less competitive
because of brain drain.
2. We wind up with a better educated population.
3. The more family ties America has to other populations,
the less hostile other people are to us.
It should be inexpensive because other countries paid for
their education.
Educated people also tend to emphasize education
to their children.
In the same vein, we should also make it easier for
foreign graduate student to stay in the States. We
already paid for their education, why not take advantage
of their training and deprive their talents from our
competitors. - cantoral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Another solution is to give recognition to the students, like high school sport stars. In the case of sports, sometimes the students also get money, good math students should get as much money as good sports students.
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