maths is now sufficiently hard that's it's going to be two GCSEs
Can't tell if you're joking, but actually the proposal is an excellent idea since it means students actually get to learn some maths. It works very much like Double Maths at A level.
Unfortunately, I wish I were joking. My view is that, if maths is an everyday subject (like English), then it's not worthy of a GCSE. My "every day" English certainly didn't continue into my O level: I was supposed to be competent by then. Everyday maths GCSE isn't going to be worth of the same recognition as biology or physics (which will still be one GCSE each).
Yes, you're right, it's better that people come out with an adequate knowledge of maths, so they can survive in the real world. But I'd suspect the way to do that is to encourage teachers, and make the subject interesting, not to split it into easy[*] (but boring maths) and hard maths.
I saw a finance program on late night BBC4 a month or two back, and credit and debt. Teenagers outside Next where asked what "19% APR" meant, on a 80 pound dress (boys and girls were both asked). They mostly concluded that it meant a discount. And couldn't work out how much discount. These are the people who need to be taught maths. And they're still not going to be interested, and still not
( ... )
I went to look at the comments you were talking about... Is it my imagination or was there no way to just view all comments and you had to go through one by one? What were they thinking? :)
Comments 9
Can't tell if you're joking, but actually the proposal is an excellent idea since it means students actually get to learn some maths. It works very much like Double Maths at A level.
Reply
Yes, you're right, it's better that people come out with an adequate knowledge of maths, so they can survive in the real world. But I'd suspect the way to do that is to encourage teachers, and make the subject interesting, not to split it into easy[*] (but boring maths) and hard maths.
I saw a finance program on late night BBC4 a month or two back, and credit and debt. Teenagers outside Next where asked what "19% APR" meant, on a 80 pound dress (boys and girls were both asked). They mostly concluded that it meant a discount. And couldn't work out how much discount. These are the people who need to be taught maths. And they're still not going to be interested, and still not ( ... )
Reply
Reply
Good point. It's a typo. It's also poor language (but that's kind of my point: workable English wasn't the focus of my O level).
Reply
Reply
Reply
Yeah, that'll be where your problem is...
Reply
Leave a comment