If any of my readers (for the moment that's nobody) has Facebook, you should have noticed that in the last few days a few... mathematical questions have popped up on Facebook.
I hope this link works... 70 + 10 x 2 + 1 = ?
If my readers are merely semi-literate, they'll know that the correct answer is... 91. Well of course it is. (Note: The above mathematical statement can also be expressed as "70 + (10 x 2) + 1 = X", because multiplication/division happens before addition/subtraction. So it's 70 + 20 + 1 = 91. BOMDAS bitches!!!)You'd have to be a moron not to know it.
And yet, one of my friends clicked on "161". Really? I mean, REALLY? I know the guy, he's really nice and knows a ton about history, but this is absolutely depressing.
He's not the only one, either. Out of approximatively 4,000 people answering the question, about 1,000 answered wrong. I guess that's not bad, it really could be worse. But in all honesty, I want it to be better! 75% answering correctly is NOT FUCKING ENOUGH for something that simple!
If I read the statistics correctly, there should be on the order of 85%+ high school enrolment in all developed countries. I would expect ALL of them to know basic maths.
I'm a teacher and I'll be sure to rant about education in later posts, but this is something I'd rant about even if I weren't a teacher. I also know that Facebook is not in any way representative of the population at large... well on the other hand, maybe it is. For now let's just remember one thing: A great number of people get through the system without even a basic education. It shouldn't be a surprise then that stupid people govern us.
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