nonversations

The prompt: The picture below shows the top of a base used in baseball. The top of the base is the shape of a square that is 15 inches along a side. What is the area of the top of the base?

The picture showed a square and noted 15 inches along the length and width. I proposed altering it so that it only showed "15 inches" along the length or the width, or even not labeling either one and leaving it up to the kids to remember that squares are equilateral. Well. My GL partner thinks the kids are going to be just so thrown off if they don't have two dimensions to multiply. Dearly though I love working with her, I had to put my foot down on this one (frankly, I didn't even want to give the kids the picture of the square), and said, none too patiently, that they do have two dimensions to multiply. If they don't know by now that if one side of a square is 15 inches then the other three sides damn well better be too, then we have problems bigger than flunking the statewide assessment.

The thing is, she is of course right. Some kids are not going to get it. Some kids are going to need the square drawn and labeled, and will need a calculator to figure out 15 x 15.

John Taylor Gatto (Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling) gives me a headache but I know I'd agree with what he would say about this.

Say, JT, can I come teach in Harlem with you?