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“Do people not realize in this day and age that there are much more important aspects to education than math? Learning and accepting diversity: learning to protect our environment: learning how fossil fuels are destroying our planet: teaching about the hate and bigotry of the alt-right: those topics are much more important than math. I’m teaching my students how to be prepared for the real world and how to deal with all the negativity on our planet. Math can be taught at home.”  
- From today's Sound Off section on Page A2 – Brandon Sun March 22, 2017  
 
There is also a write up regarding this comment under the Editorial on page A7. It expressed the hope of this comment as a joke. I agree with the editorial that math should not be downplayed. Learning to protect the environment and how fossil fuels are destroying the planet are now a priority?!?! Good grief this was taught under Social Studies class when I went to high school. We had terminology such as “Acid Rain”. This kind of stuff can be taught at home while sitting at home watching the news and such. I use math in money, counting inventory, creating budgets, running math formulas to create auto calculations, all sorts of things. What does this teacher want, tree huggers graduating from the school system? I wish I had more teachings on stuff like loans, mortgages, cost of lease vs buy, bi-weekly or monthly payments, investing, etc. Deal with negativity on our planet……that is what a councilor is for. I am throwing it out there, is this actually the way things are going in the schools? Mind you I have yet to apply my knowledge of finding a hypotenuse of a right angled triangle in real life, even though I have memorized the formula since high school.

I had the authority and the knowledge of whom this individual was they would no longer be employed.  
 
The teacher is a disgrace. Obviously you should be teaching opinions at home...without pay.

Fishin Guy said "“Do people not realize in this day and age that there are much more important aspects to education than math? Learning and accepting diversity: learning to protect our environment: learning how fossil fuels are destroying our planet: teaching about the hate and bigotry of the alt-right: those topics are much more important than math. I’m teaching my students how to be prepared for the real world and how to deal with all the negativity on our planet. Math can be taught at home.”   - From today's Sound Off section on Page A2 – Brandon Sun March 22, 2017     There is also a write up regarding this comment under the Editorial on page A7. It expressed the hope of this comment as a joke. I agree with the editorial that math should not be downplayed. Learning to protect the environment and how fossil fuels are destroying the planet are now a priority?!?! Good grief this was taught under Social Studies class when I went to high school. We had terminology such as “Acid Rain”. This kind of stuff can be taught at home while sitting at home watching the news and such. I use math in money, counting inventory, creating budgets, running math formulas to create auto calculations, all sorts of things. What does this teacher want, tree huggers graduating from the school system? I wish I had more teachings on stuff like loans, mortgages, cost of lease vs buy, bi-weekly or monthly payments, investing, etc. Deal with negativity on our planet……that is what a councilor is for. I am throwing it out there, is this actually the way things are going in the schools? Mind you I have yet to apply my knowledge of finding a hypotenuse of a right angled triangle in real life, even though I have memorized the formula since high school. "

Have you never estimated the distance saved to cut across a field vs walking around?  
 
Maybe I like math too much.

Fishin Guy said "“Do people not realize in this day and age that there are much more important aspects to education than math? Learning and accepting diversity: learning to protect our environment: learning how fossil fuels are destroying our planet: teaching about the hate and bigotry of the alt-right: those topics are much more important than math. I’m teaching my students how to be prepared for the real world and how to deal with all the negativity on our planet. Math can be taught at home.”   - From today's Sound Off section on Page A2 – Brandon Sun March 22, 2017     There is also a write up regarding this comment under the Editorial on page A7. It expressed the hope of this comment as a joke. I agree with the editorial that math should not be downplayed. Learning to protect the environment and how fossil fuels are destroying the planet are now a priority?!?! Good grief this was taught under Social Studies class when I went to high school. We had terminology such as “Acid Rain”. This kind of stuff can be taught at home while sitting at home watching the news and such. I use math in money, counting inventory, creating budgets, running math formulas to create auto calculations, all sorts of things. What does this teacher want, tree huggers graduating from the school system? I wish I had more teachings on stuff like loans, mortgages, cost of lease vs buy, bi-weekly or monthly payments, investing, etc. Deal with negativity on our planet……that is what a councilor is for. I am throwing it out there, is this actually the way things are going in the schools? Mind you I have yet to apply my knowledge of finding a hypotenuse of a right angled triangle in real life, even though I have memorized the formula since high school. "

a2 + b2 = c2  
Had that drilled in to my head too lol

I actually used algebra the other day.....

Bahahaha....Sure I have wanted to know how much to run across the field but never put it in a math problem lol. I use basic algebra all the time. I have never used it to the extent where I had to plot it in a graphing calculator like I did in school. Smaller graphs like market trends, budget analysis, little things like that. Haven''t pressed sin/cos/tan on my calculator since leaving school lol. More basics like order of operations, multiplication, fractions adding/subtracting, and such like that I use a lot and it isn't with a specialized profession. Stuff like how much extra is taxes on items.  
 
Edited by Fishin Guy, 2017-03-22 21:56:08

next door what they did in school that day.  
They told me that they had a 'huddle'. What's that I asked? The answer? We cooked some food and then talked about if we liked it or not. Is that all the kids learn these days? SMH!

fdsafdsa said "I had the authority and the knowledge of whom this individual was they would no longer be employed.     The teacher is a disgrace. Obviously you should be teaching opinions at home...without pay. "

And that is what I am trying to figure out. Is that what a focus is now as a bigger picture for the kids? I do understand and honestly teachers if you watched from the outside I would hope you would question some days yourself. I don't want to get into a teacher bashing but I hope their own opinions and what they view as teaching for the real world stays to themself. We already have a low amount of teaching days in a year. If the curriculum is broken teachers should say something. Really it only makes them look bad as they are the front line first finger point.

that original sound off person should consider this the opposite way and get parents back on track to teach values , respect , responsibility,acceptance etc and leave the reading , writing and math to those in the classroom to teach according to the provincial curriculum. Do not see how teachers can do it all in 5.5 hours per day.

Judging by my step son and his home work teachers are failing miserably! He is 11 years old and doesn't know his times tables because apparently they don't teach that anymore, so they give him a problem where he needs to multiply 7 x 9, he struggles to figure that out instead of being able to rattle off 63 in under 3 seconds. they teach them a number of stupid strategies to come up with the "Answer". Its math the answer is the answer its not debatable, its not context dependant its math.  
 
They need to dial this crap back 40 years and teach math and phonics and geography. If they ever teach them the basics maybe we won't have a generation of functional illiterates(who can't spell three letter words), innumerates who can't recite the times tables to 12 x 12(lord help you if they need to manually make change) and kids who can't even identify South America on a frigging map. Maybe if they taught the kids facts instead of feelings they would be worth the money it takes to educate them

if math is question what about spelling my son never had a spelling test and they say reading is supposed to help spelling well have spelling test I say to help memorize the words and they don''t even teach writing its always printing my daughter in grade 9 doesn''t no how to write along with some other families kids that have graduated don''t write so when comes time to write a cheque r sign a document you need a signature is the Manitoba government or our BSD that has to set aside the courses for the teachers to teach so I been teaching my son how to write his signature  
 
Edited by Brian , 2017-03-23 05:16:31

It could be that this teacher is referring to divisional pushes/policies towards numeracy and literacy (English and Math). These are very important subjects and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who believes we shouldn't be focusing in these areas - probably even the original poster in this thread. The problem is when other subjects and activities are pushed aside in order to make more room for numeracy and literacy. Certain schools are literally taking away the arts and elective courses just to try and improve our performance numbers in English and Math. There is more to the world than these two subjects, and I think that's what was trying to be said... although rather poorly.

The one that bothers me a bit is in our school the have computer courses. My daughter, currently in grade 10, is in computer sciences. They are learning to code a bit and get the basics for websites, which is great. But get this... they have never had a typing or keyboarding course. So they can build a website but they don't know how to type. (Unless it is with their thumbs on their 'device'.)  
And she doesn't think they teach that anymore.  
I can honestly say that typing is one thing that a lot of professions do use everyday.

was quite dismayed to read that particular post in Sound Off. Math should always be a priority in school, as should reading, spelling and grammar. Fossil fuels and other extras are important subjects but can be learned at home,from the news and as extra projects in school. Assign an essay and let the topic be fossil fuels....do students still write essays?

I am not a teacher but please remember that teachers are employees and have to do what their employer tells them. The province sets the curriculum for every grade and subject and is very specific what needs to be done. The teacher must follow this the same as an employee in any job. The employee may not agree with the direction the employer is giving them but if they want to continue working they must follow these instructions. So please direct your education concerns where they should be - to the employer - Minister of Education.

The school, principal, superintendant, and the school board have no say in the curriculum that is taught K-12 only the provincial government. For example if it came down from the Minister of Education that learning the times tables in Grade 4 then the teacher would teach times tables in Grade 4 and the principal and superintendant would make sure this happened. Obviously the minister has not put this as part of the objectives in the schools at this point in time.

Based on the frustration expressed in the previous posts, I have to tip my hat to my son's teachers for apparently going above and beyond. He's in grade 5 in the Brandon School Division and he just finished studying for a math test covering multiplication, long division and fractions. He has had spelling tests since grade one and just finished a project on the Voyageurs. I always assumed that my experience was the typical experience.

what should be taught more is money...and cooking. the stuff that you need to do everyday kinda stuff. the education system needs to be changed BIG time

I also hope that sound off was a joke or sarcasm. I am not here to bash teachers. My son has excellent teachers at his school and as far as I can tell he's learning all the basics and more. However, I noticed in that sound off that the person who wrote it has everything backwards. They seem to feel that it's the school's job to teach kids to be a good person and parents jobs to teach things like math at home. WRONG. Leave parenting to parents and teach school subjects to kids. In what world do parents come home from work and spend their evenings teaching math and spelling to their children. Is this idea coming from some strange education seminars they send teachers to? Or is this some kind of trolling?

 
 
Edited by DSopinion, 2017-03-23 15:01:46

14K said "what should be taught more is money...and cooking. the stuff that you need to do everyday kinda stuff. the education system needs to be changed BIG time "

I think these are skills that could and should be taught by parents. It's our responsibility

I will refrain from posting on this thread, I will refrain from posting on this thread, I will refrain from posting on this thread....  
 
*visualizing calm, blue ocean*

DSopinion said "    14K said "what should be taught more is money...and cooking. the stuff that you need to do everyday kinda stuff. the education system needs to be changed BIG time " I think these are skills that could and should be taught by parents. It's our responsibility "

I say should be taught in school. How many children would actually listen to their parents talk about RRSP, RESP, TFSA, mortgages, leases, health care benefits, saving for secondary schooling, etc. I didn't learn all of this in school and I certainly didn't expect my parent to know about all of it either. Sure with my daughter I explained about the daily costs of things such as groceries, fuel costs, etc. Kids come out of school not knowing what it costs to live, complain about high cost of college and university, etc. I wished I would have had schooling for how to budget, how credit works, all that stuff. At over 40 years old I am still trying to learn all this. It took me a lot of bad debt and high interest loans to learn and some were costly learning lessons. It took me a month of evenings to research how to buy my first brand new vehicle 10 years ago. My mortgage was even longer. I thought a 25 year mortgage was just that....one payment over 25 years. Didn't know about renewing every few years, do I go fixed, term, etc. It was mind boggling for me. My latest adventure is looking into life insurance. Again there are so many directions and terms to learn. Sure we have "professionals" but everyone is out to make money and I want to make sure I am benefiting too and not getting raked over the coals.

To understand money you need Math. To understand cooking you need Math...  
 
I'm unsure what understanding is needing in the sense of money... loans interest, etc. Is all very simple to grasp if you understand the fundamentals IE a solid foundation of mathematics.  
 
Cooking is the same. It's math. It's literally procedure based problem solving, critical thinking and unit conversions. You can be the worst cook in the world but if you can read and measure ingredients, and finally problem solve you don't need to teach cooking.  
 
Again everything stems from the three R's in the sense that if you have them you can solve any problem yourself through self education... Teach kids tools to solve problems and they will be thinkers ... Teach them how to do something and they will only ever be doers...  
 
To summerize, teach the three R's very well. Everything else can be learned by the individual. If someone wants to learn something whether 40 or 5 they will learn it provided the understand the fundamentals.  
 
Finally the brainwashing needs to stay out of schools, because those aren't facts in the Sound Off they are opinions.

Leave it to parents to teach.  
 
I was at Superstore today and I am not sure if the gentleman in front of me has kids but he wouldn't be able to teach his kids to count. The line was for 16 items or less. I quit counting his items at 20.  
 
Not everyone can teach including parents. I used to have to train people at a job and found it easier to do it myself as I didn't have patience to teach them how to do it especially when they didn't want to learn.  
 
I was offended by the article in the sound off column. I had a teacher over 40 years ago that would always get the bible into a math class instead of teaching math. He turned me and many of my classmates off religion to the point of being atheists.  
 
There is a lot more on the internet and T.V. which kids watch about the political correctness that the teacher in the column wants to teach instead of math.