[Skybird]

https://www.tichyseinblick.de/kolumn...ng-mathematik/

Germany: Land of the Mathastenics - the Mathematical Illiterates

More and more German states, eleven of them in the meantime, are dispensing with a compulsory mathematics examination for the Abitur. Now Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania wants to join these eleven.

Mathematics is a truly evil subject. Along with physics and Latin, it is the classic subject that students fail to take. In mathematics, the examinee can't just rant and rave like in some subjects in the humanities and social sciences, where a lot of chatter often results in a grade of 3. In mathematics, there are usually clear solutions. There, it is simply "right" or "wrong". Accordingly, the grades for mathematical performance are quite objective and incontestable. You can't make an "A" out of an "F," no matter how much empathy the examiners have. And anyway, as we hear from U.S. universities and their anti-colonialist, anti-racist departments, mathematics is a "toxic" subject because mathematics (allegedly) comes from ancient, white, male Greeks.

This ideology now seems to be catching on in Germany as well. More and more German states, now eleven of them, are doing away with a compulsory exam in mathematics at the Abitur. Now Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has also joined these eleven. The education minister in office there, Simone Oldenburg (Left), set up a "steering group" of practitioners some time ago, which has been discussing the further development of the Abitur in an "open-ended" manner for more than a year. However, there can be no talk of "open-ended", because regional newspapers in the state on the Baltic Sea report that Simone Oldenburg is actually planning to abolish compulsory examinations in mathematics.

The CDU and AfD oppositions see it differently in unison - and without regard to Merz's firewall. "High school graduates should be able to do more than the multiplication tables. Whoever claims that mathematics is dispensable for many professions, and that the exam therefore is, is shamelessly lying to the students' faces," explained the education policy spokesman of the CDU state parliamentary group, Torsten Renz. The devaluation of the Abitur is no contribution to more educational justice. "Whoever grumbles against mathematics can fatally always hope for applause," explained the education policy spokesman for the AfD state parliamentary group, Enrico Schult, adding, "Instead of abolishing exams, schools should teach children: Mathematics is cool."

Quite unemotionally: Without a mathematical baccalaureate basis, you can't master physics, chemistry, computer science, engineering, economics or business studies. And even psychology or sociology studies are difficult without a solid mathematical foundation. The same applies to the subject of "climate research", unless you specialize in how superglue works. Two facts prove the importance of mathematics in a course of study: Firstly, because many students fail in the subjects mentioned because of their deficits. Secondly, because universities have to set up more and more mathematical air courses, especially in these subjects.

In addition, solid mathematical foundations have a political and media dimension that can hardly be underestimated. Specifically, the more diffuse mathematical knowledge or even rudimentary calculation skills are, the easier it is for the Habecks, the Lindners, the Baerbocks and others to fool the public with adventurous numerical comparisons, tricky trend and percentage calculations, and faked charts (histograms and polygons). To fool the public - and the "media professionals". Because the latter are often unable to see behind these number games due to their own lack of basic mathematical education; or else they continue to transport these tricks in an attitude loyal to the government without criticism.

However, it is often not even about higher mathematics. A foreign minister with a feminist and international law mindset sometimes says that the Ukraine war will only end when Putin turns 360 (!) degrees. She was already a minister then. But she wasn't yet a minister when she started spouting the following figures: Every German citizen emits 9 gigatons of CO2 per year. In fact, the figure is 9 tons (end of 2018). But that doesn't matter: You can make a mistake by a factor of 1 billion. Or: "People with low incomes usually consume (sic!) less CO2, are therefore not as strongly affected by the price increases and still get just as much money back as people with a large CO2 footprint who pay more" (June 2021). Which, however, takes us outside the realm of mathematics, because "consume" and "emit" are different physical facts. But never mind. The then candidate for chancellor meant well, and in 2018 and mid-2021 she did not yet have a whispering ministerial apparatus including ex-Greenpeace boss and US citizen Jennifer Morgan as German Secretary of State.

What does this "teach" us: A billion "or so" does not matter. You can also make it into the federal cabinet as a mathastenic/dyscalculic (m/f/d). Because one is also clear: Federal government and Bundestag are to be a representative image also of the stupid German pleb.

Incidentally, even CDU-led federal states are now making every effort to ideologize the school subject of mathematics as well. In a draft of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from the spring of 2023 for a mathematics curriculum (empty plan?), the goals of math instruction - quasi as an invitation to swagger in exams - include:

Within the framework of the general educational mission of the school supports the subject of mathematics, supports the development of a mature and socially responsible personality and makes further contributions to interdisciplinary cross-interdisciplinary tasks in school and teaching, which include, among others:
[Mind you, this is the school curriculum for courses in mathematics!, Skybird]

- Human rights education,
- values education,
- political education and democracy education,
- Education for the digital world and media education,
- education for sustainable development,
- gender-sensitive education,
- cultural and intercultural education.
(Core curriculum for secondary level II Gymnasium / comprehensive school in North Rhine-Westphalia, mathematics (draft association participation, 23.01.2023) )

--------------------------


The dumber a population, the less critical questions it can ask the politicians in command. Stupidity is very much wanted.


Some years ago I heard on radio that somebody was demanding to delete 1 and 0 from the numbers because these were sexualised numbers reminding of Lingam and Yoni and therefore they were sexually discrimination of non-heteros.



Cultural degeneration.