CTK Insights

The US Constitution mandates fair and equitable distribution of seats among the member states. Starting with 1790, the population census has been conducted every tenth year. Several methods (algorithms, one can say) for the seat distribution (known as apportionment) have been considered; some tried at different times bringing to light curious inconsistencies. Needless to say [...]

I think this is the first time in a long while that I read education news both without resentment or disbelief. Detroit Public Schools is set to open its first school without a principal — teachers will be running the day-to-day operations and making all pertinent decisions. (Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki, Detroit Public Schools tries something new: [...]

I’ve been following the links the new edition of the Carnival of Mathematics sponsored by the Wild About Math! blog. This is an issue #66, and it appears that I have learned about this undertaking relatively late, of which I regret. It is a curious collection of online articles. The next submissions deadline is set [...]

A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart is one book I wish I had written. The points concerning mathematics and math education raised in the book are very close to those in my manifesto. Mathematics plays a tremendously important role in science and engineering as a tool and often the vehicle of progress (especially in modern [...]

The news are sometimes overwhelming. The latest I read came from National Geographic Daily News. A new research by Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, suggests “that human evolution may have a big influence on whether you’re liberal or conservative—not to mention how smart you are, whether [...]

A story in foxnews.com under the caption “Detroit School Leader Sends Wrong Message, Some Parents Say” tells of the president of the city’s school board who shockingly confessed that he can’t pen a coherent sentence. Mathis, 56, of Detroit, has had difficulties with language as early as fourth grade, when he was placed in special [...]

In the Fall 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $45 million to six school districts, including Denver, for a two-year study of teaching. I’ll quote a response to this news from James D. Starkey, a retired teacher. The purpose of the study is a quest to find out the best teaching practices. [...]

On Monday, September 14, 2009, there appeared a paper in Washington Post, Student “Learning Styles” Theory Is Bunk by the cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham. The paper was distributed on the web through a list server run by Jerry Becker. To quote, According to the theory, if we know what sort of a learner a child [...]

I’ve been charmed by the opening allegory in John Rosemond’s article I reproduce below (Southern Illinoisan [Carbondale, IL], Sunday, May 24, 2009, p. 6D See http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2009/05/24/lifestyles/family/28992003.txt.) I do believe that parents attitude is one of the factors that affects the process and the results of education system. Growing up, children absorb the surrounding culture, with [...]

Believe it or not, but here’s a message I found in my mail box: *** Just the Facts Number of physicians in the US: 700,000. Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year: 120,000.  Accidental deaths per physician: 0.171 (U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services) Number of gun owners in the US: 80,000,000.  Number of [...]