Teaching Maths in Britain:

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Jonzjob

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1. Teaching Maths In 1970
A logger sells a lorryload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
What is his profit?

2. Teaching Maths In 1980
A logger sells a lorryload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 80% of the price.
What is his profit?

3. Teaching Maths In 1990
A logger sells a lorryload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80.
How much was his profit?

4. Teaching Maths In 2000
A logger sells a lorryload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20.
Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Maths In 2005
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habit of animals or the preservation of our woodlands.
Your assignment: Discuss how the birds and squirrels might feel as the logger cuts down their homes just for a measly profit of £20.

6. Teaching Maths In 2009
A logger is arrested for trying to cut down a tree in case it may be offensive to religious groups not consulted in the felling licence.

He is also fined a £100 as his chainsaw is in breach of Health and Safety legislation as it deemed too dangerous and could cut something. He has used the chainsaw for over 20 years without incident however he does not have the correct certificate of competence and is therefore considered to be a recidivist and habitual criminal. His DNA is sampled and his details circulated throughout all government agencies. He protests and is taken to court and fined another £100 because he is such an easy target.

When he is released he returns to find Gypsies have cut down half his wood to build a camp on his land. He tries to throw them off but is arrested, prosecuted for harassing an ethnic minority, imprisoned and fined a further £100. While he is in jail again the Gypsies cut down the rest of his wood and sell it on the black market for £100 cash. They also have a departure BBQ of squirrel and pheasant and leave behind several tonnes of rubbish and asbestos sheeting.

The forester on release is warned that failure to clear the fly tipped rubbish immediately at his own cost is an offence.. He complains and is arrested for environmental pollution, breach of the peace and invoiced £12,000 plus VAT for safe disposal costs by a regulated government contractor.

Your assignment: How many times is the logger going to have to be arrested and fined before he realises that he is never going to make £20 profit by hard work but instead should give up, sign onto the dole and live off the state for the rest of his life?

7. Teaching Maths In 2010
A logger doesn’t sell a lorry load of timber because he can’t get a loan to buy a new lorry because his bank has spent all his and their money on a derivative of securitised debt related to sub- prime mortgages in America and lost the lot with only some government money left to pay a few million pound bonuses to their senior directors and the traders who made the biggest losses.

The logger struggles to pay the £1,200 road tax on his old lorry however, as it was built in the 1970s it no longer meets the emissions regulations and he is forced to scrap it.

Some Bulgarian loggers buy the lorry from the scrap merchant and put it back on the road. They undercut everyone on price for haulage and send their cash back home, while claiming unemployment for themselves and their relatives. If questioned they speak no English and it is easier to deport them at the government's expense.

Following their holiday back home they return to the UK with different names and fresh girls and start again. The logger protests, is accused of being a bigoted racist and as his name is on the side of his old lorry he is forced to pay £1,500 registration fees as a gang master.

The Government borrows more money to pay more to the bankers as bonuses are not cheap. The parliamentarians feel they are missing out and claim the difference on expenses and allowances.
You do the maths.

8. Teaching Maths 2017
أ المسجل تبيع حموله شاحنة من الخشب من اجل 100 دولار. صاحب تكلفة
الانتاج 80 من الثمن. ما هو الربح له؟= 20
 
Jacob":17luilcn said:

Well at least I now know who to blame for all those wasted hours of my yoof that were spent suffering in hot/cold/damp/smelly classrooms being forced to attempt the learning of all that shyte (and failing miserably, much to the dismay of Teachers and Parents).
 
I think (from various questions asked on this and other forums) that maths teaching in the good old days wasn't quite so hot either.

BugBear
 
bugbear":1nd7iywe said:
I think (from various questions asked on this and other forums) that maths teaching in the good old days wasn't quite so hot either.

BugBear
:lol: :lol:
 
Question and answer overheard by my Dad while doing national service in the R.E.M.E early 1950s.

Q: How many thous are there in an inch?

A: (Pause) Oooooo .... there must be 'undreds.
 
Well I left school in 1955 able to to do mental arithmatic, logerithms, algebra, trigonometry and calculas, how does that compare with you modern Gardianistas Jacob?
And do they all lack a sense of humour I wonder.
BTW I also read the Gardian, but it isn't the Bible you know!

Roy.
 
Neither for me thanks, I'm a Private Eye chap.

Re maths teaching in Britain in 1970 ... in the 70s I had a hell of a time with maths as the odd thinking at the time foisted upon us the learning of binary and bases and such. I only found out later that this was supposed, in some way, to prepare us for using computers.
We had two ghastly books: Alpha and Beta. And an absolute mess it turned out.
I ended up being sent to a private tutor for an hour a week in the evening to get some useful maths levered into me.
Though I quite agree with what the OP is getting at, it hasn't been quite that straight forward.
 
Digit":v0wtb8ny said:
Well I left school in 1955 able to to do mental arithmatic, logerithms, algebra, trigonometry and calculas, how does that compare with you modern Gardianistas Jacob?
And do they all lack a sense of humour I wonder.
BTW I also read the Gardian, but it isn't the Bible you know!

Roy.

When I left school I could do the mental arithametique. Now I can only do the mental bit :?
 
As a devotee of motor cycling I read a number of bike related forums, which has, of course, a large number of teenage/younger posters, and their grasp of English is often shocking!
The Guardian routinely publishes the report on British education vis-a-vis other countries, and despite all the left wing rhetoric, the reports show a steady decline over the last few years in the three 'Rs'.

Roy.
 
Digit":1fxwzuia said:
As a devotee of motor cycling I read a number of bike related forums, which has, of course, a large number of teenage/younger posters, and their grasp of English is often shocking!
Better out than in IMHO. What is being communicated matters infinitely more than how. Good to see that people aren't deterred by spelling snobbery.
The Guardian routinely publishes the report on British education vis-a-vis other countries, and despite all the left wing rhetoric, the reports show a steady decline over the last few years in the three 'Rs'.

Roy.
Oh dear more DM style paranoia! I doubt it is true. Do you have evidence?
If you choose read old fogeyish notions of education, over the years you will see that standards have been in decline (in so many things :roll: ) for several millennia.
 
Oh dear more DM style paranoia! I doubt it is true. Do you have evidence?

Yes! It's published in your Bible, annually! So it must be correct musn't it? Like I said, to my shame, I read the rag.
Since when did being able to spell make someone a snob? Is that your excuse for lousy education?
Yes, what is conveyed is more important. But not much is conveyed if it can not be understood. Youngsters use the fora for help, and we frequently have to ask for clarification as they can't be understood, conveyance?
Eg, Break versus Brake, Alot when a lot is meant etc etc.
Your snobbery is of the negative kind, an excuse for bad teaching or bone idleness, dyslexia aside.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source ... hw&cad=rja

Any thing else you'd like to say Jacob?

Roy.
 
Digit":tgv9cgtn said:
....
Yes! It's published in your Bible, annually! So it must be correct musn't it?
I make my own mind up. No bibles for me.
So can you quote this annual report or point me to it? I don't believe it myself.
iLike I said, to my shame, I read the rag.
Why?
Since when did being able to spell make someone a snob? Is that your excuse for lousy education?
Yes, what is conveyed is more important. But not much is conveyed if it can not be understood.
Thinking that spelling is all important and in some way superior is a sort of snobbery. More convenient yes, but the message is more important.
Youngsters use the fora for help, and we frequently have to ask for clarification as they can't be understood, conveyance?
Conveyance? Is that a spelling mistake? What do you mean?
Eg, Break versus Brake, Alot when a lot is meant etc etc.
You are not likely to misunderstand either of those example are you?
Your snobbery is of the negative kind, an excuse for bad teaching or bone idleness, dyslexia aside.
Nonsense
Hmm, middle of the road, not good.
Mind you we have had a sustained attack on education from 1979 (Thatcher) through the new labour years and now intensifying under the current gang of prats. All that bol&&& about Academies, excellence. failed schools etc, they've all been at it. Now it's "unaffordable" i.e. keep taxation low.
We need more money spent on education and less of the non-productive "blame" game.
 
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