scottyokim

California math!??

I live in silicon valley, and just recently I dropped by my local Smoothie King to acquire a strawberry shredder smoothie (my favorite).  While there, I noticed that the person serving behind the counter was studying her high school mathematics textbook.  She laid the book on the counter while making my smoothie.  Having two degrees in math, and fondly remembering my own high school math texts, I was pleased to leaf through the text.  Until I saw the cover: stamped on the bottom of the front cover was a large label saying "California Edition"!!

I know some are having a good laugh at my naivete, but I had never thought about an obvious result of government's near monopoly of education - government-approved mathematics!  In Galileo's day, we had church-approved science, and in our day we have state-approved mathematics.  The more things change ...

Posted: Wed, Nov 14 2007 1:10 PM by scottyokim | with 3 comment(s)

Comments

Ronorama said:

Okay, that's pretty dang funny! Are Californians being held to a different mathematical standard than those of us in other states?

I wonder, though, if it's not about the mathematics in the book, but about the book itself. Maybe it was certified "California Edition" because it was manufactured using some percentage of post-consumer recycled paper. Or maybe it emits fewer hydrocarbons.

# November 15, 2007 12:27 PM

ContumacySince87 said:

It's the Cali edition because contains problems with tupac, and stuff like "if a hummer produces 10000 tons of Co2 an hour, how many hummers will it take to melt all the ice in the world and flood all of California in 20 hours?"  (even tho ice becomes more dense when it melts...)

# November 16, 2007 9:56 AM

IrishOutlaw said:

I thought you might find this short article interesting...

www.politicalgateway.com/.../114296

In part, " Reviewers have found 109,263 errors in sample copies of math textbooks to be used next fall in Texas.

One second-grade math book, for example, has 4 plus 7 equaling 10, the San Antonio Express-News reported Friday"

# November 17, 2007 2:15 PM