…It’s really funny. Again and again I watch news reports on the major TV cable stations lamenting the poor, frankly ridiculous, performance, achievements and levels of the young students of our nation, the leaders of our future.
…Again and again I hear things like “Good grief; 7th grade students lost 6 points in reading and 8 points in math, relative to last year,” or “Good grief; 7th grade students lost 6 points in reading and 8 points in math, relative to the year of the pandemic.” Yet no one even does so much as raise an eyebrow when hearing such information.
…The truth is that such statements themselves are LITERALLY at the level, at the grade level, of a young, intellectually naive child. Why? Because they are telling us NOTHING, even while using the impressive language and at least the “clothing” of mathematics and science, and purporting to tell us something sophisticated. Our key news reporters are standing in front of us and acting like YOUNG CHILDREN and nobody notices.
…By contrast, people literate (numerate) in mathematics know that numbers by themselves are almost always meaningless. There is always a need to provide RELATIVE and RELATIONAL information or context, or there is actually NO information conveyed. Sadly, the use of numbers in news stories and “scientific” presentations impresses most people, even when the numbers are being completely MISUSED since they convey NO information.
…So, in our case here, we are told, for example, the 7th grade students lost 8 points in math, relative to last year, and somehow the naive newscaster and public believes we HAVE actually been given “relative” information because of the phrase “relative to last year.” Yet THAT “relative” is meaningless by itself. To reach the level of meaning, we must ask question like, relative to WHAT KIND OF POINTS? What is the AVERAGE SCORE IN POINTS? What is the HIGHEST POSSIBLE SCORE IN POINTS? What is the STANDARD DEVIATION OF THE SCORE IN POINTS? What is the LOWEST POSSIBLE SCORE IN POINTS? Without THIS kind of relational information, do the presenters not realize they are giving us NO idea of what the loss actually IS or MEANS? How can this be, at the TOP levels of success in America, that people don’t even know what they are doing?
…Thus for example (and my numbers are all notional) I would actually KNOW something meaningful and critically important if instead a newscaster, despite having a pretty or handsome face, would say, “Our 7th graders across the nation lost 8 points in math compared to last year. This loss is on our national math assessment test where the mean value score last year was 137 points, and this year was 129 points, where the lowest possible score was zero, and where the highest, perfect score is 200 points.” HOW can they stand in front of us, with no shame or self consciousness, and give us numbers with NONE of the context I have just presented, and look at us as if they are communicating meaningful INFORMATION to us? This stunning phenomenon of astounding ignorance in a news presentation, IS ITSELF ironically the longer term result of mass and severe lack of genuine education in ARITHMETIC AND MATHEMATICS, such that even our top news presenters are INNUMERATE and live mathematically at the level of a young CHILD. Oh dear, what will our nation become? Will it become a zoo of squabbling children who know not even that their Tower Of Babel with all its never ending quarrels and polarization is largely the result of their having never been taught how to THINK? They were stuffed with something like information, e.g., taught WHAT to regurgitate, but never taught how to THINK. This is TRULY THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND. OK, that’s a cliche phrase, I know. But here’s another one, this time of my own creation: WHEN THE ENTIRE POPULATION BECOMES BLIND, THEN THERE IS NO LONGER EVEN ANY WORD FOR BLINDNESS. THE VERY WORD DISAPPEARS FROM THE VOCABULARY.” GEEZ, am I one of a minority who still remembers that there is such a thing as the word “blind”? On my Hermosa Beach, CA City Council building walls, we see the quote “Where there is no vision the people perish.” YOU are perishing. Do YOU realize it?
withthesongstillinsidethem 