Dumbing down to a new low

This morning Mary Hanafin has announced that she wants to give bonus points for higher level maths marks used to do engineering, science and technology degrees.

Nice idea, but here’s a question, did we used to do that? Didn’t we only recently abolish that system?

Not to mention the fact that this is blatantly avoiding the problem.

Later in the article Hanafin is quoted as saying that more people need to do foundation maths, because too many people are failing ordinary level maths.

A round of applause for the minister please, for completely and utterly missing the point.

If the grades for the entire spectrum of maths courses are consistently below par, getting everyone to do the easier exam and for that matter questioning if honours maths is too hard is NOT the solution!!

Honours maths need to be challenging – in fact, the entire leaving cert needs to be challenging but that’s an argument for another day. Honours maths is designed to prepare people for use of mathematics at a college level and beyond. The people who are building our bridges need to be able to cope with complex mathematics. Really, they do – this shouldn’t be open to debate or discussion and we really need to boycott any plans to rubber stamp lots of A’s on leaving certs just to get bums on seats in lecture theatres.

Ordinary level maths is called ‘pass maths’ for a reason. I agree that too many people are failing pass maths, but getting them to move down to foundation level really and truly isn’t the problem here. We have a societal predisposition towards fearing mathematics, and the way it is taught does nobody any favours. Pass maths should be about providing people with enough maths to get by in the kind of maths courses that business students are consistently subjected to, without torturing people who simply aren’t mathematically minded. In fact the entire (first and) second (and third?!) level education system needs to pay a bit more attention to the fact that not everybody is good at everything – and adjust itself accordingly. Pass maths should be about passing maths. Simple as.

Finally, foundation level maths should be about providing people who are in neither of the above categories with the basic numerical skills required to get by in life/the outside world. Nothing more, nothing less. 2+2 = 4. Case closed.

Mary Hanafin is a teacher (as in fact are half the TDs in Leinster House).

 

She should know better - and she should do better.

FF eejitry (more of the same…)

You may remember a few months ago the FF backbenchers got together and decided to kick up a bit of a fuss about generally being ignored by the Big Boys.

This morning they all decided to kick up a fuss about the fact that Bertie is (as ever) hiding from the problem, holed up in his hotel in Kerry and hoping it will go away if he stays there long enough.

What I love about this story is the bit where Minister for Defence, Willie O’Dea (that’s “Government Minister”), urges the government to take action. Now, call me crazy, but isn’t that something he should be urging down a phone line, or across a cabinet table, rather than in a press release? I appreciate that he’s covering his own ass and trying to keep the frankly ridiculous number of people who voted for him (seriously, 19,082 first preferences) happy, but it comes across as quite counter-productive and definitely doesn’t present a happy united government front!

Leaving Cert Results Day: The Bad, the Great and the… eh.. usual $hite

I hate almost all of this article. 11 people got 8 A1s, and 7 of them want to go off and study medicine. God forbid anyone dare to use those kind of points to do Arts. God forbid they “waste” the money that in many case their parents “invested” in their points so that they could go right ahead and drop out of a course in a year.

Of course chances are, those 11 people won’t be the kind to drop out of anywhere, and I don’t mean to belittle their achievement in the slightest. 8A1s is no fluke, not by any stretch of the imagination, and they are more than welcome to study what they like. But the prevailing attitude, supported and indeed promoted by the article, is that if you get a certain number of points surely you are an anti-social bookworm who should go off and become a doctor/theoretical physicist.

While I appreciate that we have a bit of a problem filling science-y courses these days, is it not enough that the heads of the universities are belittling the arts without everyone else joining in?

As a sidebar, there aren’t enough good things to say about the girl from Russia who has defied as many stereotypes as possible in one go. Not only did she manage 8 A1s in the leaving cert, but she did in serious style – all the sciences are amongst her multiple As. Not only that, but last year she did the equivalent Russian exams – and even said that Irish system is less pressurised. Someone buy that girl a drink. 

The ugly side of leaving cert results day did of course get the usual coverage. The parents of these girls must be almost as proud as Mr and Mrs Feyzrakhmanova. Almost.