Odds and ends, 11/6/08

From a story in the Washington Post:

Many elementary schools are turning to math specialists or coaches to add expertise to a teaching workforce dominated by generalists who, studies show, are vastly under-prepared in math.

Elementary teachers often relish their reading lessons but lack the same confidence when it comes to math, experts say. Specialists attempt to fill the knowledge or enthusiasm gap by working with classroom teachers to improve skills. In some schools, they take over math instruction. ...

Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education, said teachers need to understand math in a way it is rarely taught: going beyond rules and formulas and explaining why they work.

Somewhere at home I have a book that asks the question why people are embarrassed to say they don't know much about this or that, but few people are embarrassed to say they have a hard time with math.

I've always found basic math and algebra to be easy. My wife tells me I missed my true calling -- that I should have been a mathemetician. I don't know about that, but I do wonder why people give up so easily on math.

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This is from six years ago, but I was running out of things to worry about:

New research suggests that non-native earthworms are radically changing the forest floor in the northern U.S., threatening the goblin fern and other rare plants in the process.

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Sorry, folks, Joe the Plumber is not going away.

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One more thing:

I went to bed the other night before McCain could give his concession speech. I had no desire to listen to it. And I doubted his speech would match that of George McGovern in 1972.

McGovern knew he was going to get creamed by Nixon in the Electoral College vote. Did his speech make him sound as though he would cooperate with Nixon, no matter what? No. McGovern gave us a line that all election losers would do well to repeat:

"Now, the question is to what standards does the loyal opposition now rally? We do not rally to the support of policies we deplore."

He stuck to his principles in defeat. Good for him.