Parents Want More Math Taught At Schools

Survey Says Americans Think Math Is Most Important Subject Above English And Sciences

(AP)  More math, please.

A large majority of Americans think schools are placing too much emphasis on the wrong subjects, and more than half think they're doing just a fair job in preparing children for the work force or giving them the practical skills they need to survive as adults, according to an Associated Press poll released Friday.

So what do people think the schools should focus on?

More than a third said math. English was a distant second, at 21 percent. A tiny fraction picked art, music and the sciences, such as biology and chemistry.

"I don't think math is getting nearly enough attention," said Larry Michalec of San Diego, who has a grown daughter. "When was the last time you added up something without a calculator?"

Parents may want more math in school because they feel unprepared to help at home, said Janine Remillard, who teaches math-related courses at the University of Pennsylvania's education school.

"Math is the subject that parents are often intimidated by," she said. "We've allowed a lot of kids to just say, 'I'm not good at math,' .... and those kids become parents."

The economy and gas prices are the most important issues facing the country, according to those surveyed. Education was rated after those issues, generally viewed to be as important as health care. It was rated slightly ahead of the Iraq war.

Among minority parents, education is just as important an issue as the economy.

Minorities and whites rate schools differently. Fifty-nine percent of whites rate their local school as good or excellent, compared with 42 percent of minorities.

Minority parents are more likely to think their children are getting a better education than they received as children. Overall, the majority of those surveyed said the quality of U.S. schools has declined over the past 20 years.

Most think the United States is just keeping up or falling behind the rest of the world in education. On some recent international tests, U.S. students have posted flat scores and landed in the middle to bottom of the pack when compared with other nation's children.

Nearly all those surveyed say the quality of a country's education system has a big impact on a country's overall economic prosperity.

Americans have mixed views about standardized tests, which have grown in importance in recent years. The 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law judges schools based on math and reading tests taken by their students. Schools face increasingly tough consequences for scores that miss the mark.

About half of those polled said standardized tests measure the quality of education offered by schools well, while the rest disagree.

The vast majority think classroom work and homework - not standardized tests - are the best ways to measure how well students are doing.

"I think the time spent doing all those exams could be better spent in additional class time," said Jamie Norton of Gridley, Calif., a dad to 5-year-old twins.

School districts are increasingly tying student performance to teacher pay. Americans seem to support that trend. Sixty percent said the amount of pay teachers receive should be based at least in part on the performance of their students.

The nation is split over whether teachers should be allowed to strike, with half thinking strikes should be allowed. Whether strikes are allowed is governed by state law.

The AP survey of 833 adults and 854 parents of school-aged children was conducted June 18-23 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for each sample.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.

The research was financially supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Associated Press had sole editorial responsibility for the design of the survey questionnaire and the analysis of the survey results.

[faith_in_w]

They cant teach more math, theres no time for frivolous stuff like that when there is so little time for women and black studies.

[republic1776]

Idea....
Why don''t the parents learn the and teach it to their children?
Why is everyone expects Uncle Sam to do everything.

[republic1776]

Man, too many typos...

Idea....
Why don''''t the parents learn the math and teach it to their children?

Why do Americans expect Uncle Sam to do everything.

[terribayless-2009]

No one seems to care about history anymore.

[faith_in_w]

zoe2006, I certianly do not talk to fairies. I hate *****.

[bombadil4]

Are these the same parents who help make American Idol the top-rated TV show? Are these the same parents who voted for Dumb-nut Dubya twice? Are these the same parents who who have abandoned boxing in favor of the more brutal "mixed martial arts?" Sorry citizens, but you can''t dumb yourselves down below zero and expect the government or the teachers to "edicate" your cell-phone addicted kids.

[squidly8]

I ask this every time I go in for parent teacher conferences - "How are you linking science and math?"

It is great to teach more math but what kids really need to know is how science and math are linked together. Lets face it, there are very few professions that care if you can blurt out a science factoid. What they care about is you taking the science, applying the math and coming up with a usable answer.

Jobs that pay are ones where you have to think - to put the science and math together. Otherwise you are just working at McD''s where you only have to know the denomination of the bill you are receiving and how to make the change match what the register calculates for you.

"Do you want fries with that?"

[ozonmojo]

The math thing is only the tip of the iceberg.The 1000 pound gorilla in the room is the fact that American school education is seriously undermined by the culture of the country based too much on sports and entertainment.But nobody acknowledges this for obvious reasons.The sports/entertainment complex is far more dangerous to America''s future than the military/industrial complex.

[squidly8]

Divicar2, obviously you didn''t understand my post. There are plenty of McD''s corporate personnel - dietitians, food scientists, chemists and etc that understand the cooking science. And lo and behold they make a good wage because somebody asks them to put the science and math together. This is not what I refer to.

I refer to those working in the restaurant (or any other low wage, low skill job), that are content with simply doing their time and getting a paycheck. There are some that work these jobs as a way to make it through college or trade school. Again, putting the science and the math together. But how many are simply content with their existence and then become a net user of taxpayer funding as opposed to a payer.

I can''t remember ever meeting a career fry cooker that was able to do a partial differential equation or evaluate the thrust specific fuel consumption guarantee for an aircraft engine sales campaign. You?

[harpoot]

"I cant remember ever meeting a career fry cooker that was able to do a partial differential equation or evaluate the thrust specific fuel consumption guarantee for an aircraft engine sales campaign."

Maybe his/her career options would not have been limited to burger flipper if they could have. Hmmmmm?

[harpoot]

I listen to AFN on short wave sometimes and they offer courses for balancing checkbooks!! There seem to be quite a few morons out there if that''s the state of things.

[marcpcbs]

It''s fact that kids today are having trouble in all subjects. To turn this around we need to,

1, Get the drugs out of the schools. (Selective drug testing is the only way to know for sure.)

2, Make sure all teachers are accredited and adequately trained.

3, Re-Empower the PTA. Parents & Teachers need to work closely together to get the correct result.

4, Did I say get the drugs out of the schools?

[observer2020]

Some parents totally rely on school to teach their children everything...education starts at home. Get your children a couple of math books and add that on top of their homework. If they don''t like it...too bad. If they do better in school, then they don''t have to do the extra stuff. But don''t rely solely on teachers to teach your (our) children.

[cfin5]

It''s not just the 3R''s, they need to get rid of the fuzzy language in the questions that they ask. My daughter brought her book to me complaining she couldn''t understand the questions in it. This raised my eyebrows some because she''s not dull in the thinking department. After reading the questions,...even I wasn''t sure what the samhell was goin'' on! But I could read between the lines as to why,....JOB SECURITY. They want to keep kids in school by categorizing them with "special" problems which lets the local school district get more tax money from the state. Think I lie? Go flip through some of these kids books for a bit and then come back with a comment. Just be easy with your potty mouthin''!

[yongamerica]

What is all this babble here about. The US has fallen in math and science education in the k-12 schools. The schools have been dumbed down considerably in the last thirty years due to lack of funding and terrible salaries for teachers. No wonder some jobs are being shipped off shore, most of the kids get out of school not knowing how to balance even a check book. Algebra should be a mandatory subject for 10th graders. Once children are forced to put their game controllers down math isn''t that hard to comprehend.

[toolmangler-2009]

Once children are forced to put their game controllers down math isn''''t that hard to comprehend.
Posted by yongamerica at 01:24 AM : Jun 28, 2008


Agreed, but more than that, "No Child Left behind" has been taken to mean "Promote them no matter what" Political correctness has removed any fear of punishment from school or the home. What is there to make them learn? very few kids ''want'' to learn. Most of them are are too interested in *** and/or drugs and ''Doing their own thing" to study.