If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? At least that’s the prevailing common-sense rule that most people agree with. But have you ever noticed how some folks just can’t resist tinkering with things? There are folks who literally seem to always be on the hunt for another chance to sort things out according to their own notions. Never mind that it was working just fine, they just have to get in there and make “important changes” so that whatever it is can become more, I don’t know … gooder.
I remember one guy in the Army who was in charge of the mechanical and electrical systems that my team relied on. They worked fine. They ran non-stop. Until he had the profound and misguided realization that he could get the same result by doing it a different way. So he fixed it and broke it. Let’s just say that this Major had a one-sided conversation with that Sergeant.
Funny thing, the system that wasn’t broken until he fixed it suddenly got unfixed and worked great for the remainder of the deployment.
But that’s the thing: Sometimes folks just get it in their head that their own measure of success is found when they jimmy around with things until they have revamped them to their own situational dictates.
Now don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about actual improvements. The usual and customary goal of taking something that works and making a change is because there is the belief in a different outcome, an improved level of success, or a state of efficiency or standard that was not otherwise being met. In short, improvements are designed to achieve a different outcome, not just the same outcome by a different means.
Right now, there is a Bill working through the Alabama Legislature referred to as the Numeracy Act. It purports to improve Alabama’s abysmal math ranking which currently sits at 52nd in the nation by spending $92 million to put upwards of 900 math coaches throughout the state’s elementary schools. But those “coaches” are not going to teach students. Those coaches will have the mission of teaching teachers how to teach.
I’ve talked with proponents and opponents of this bill, and I cannot find any reconciliation that this is a good thing. Alabama has no history of success in education built upon the archaic notions of throwing more money at the education system. So now we are going to hire 900 more people for the better chunk of 1/10 of a billion dollars to do what was supposed to have already been done by the higher education community that degreed Alabama’s teachers.
Perhaps, instead of spending more to fix our problem, we should hold colleges and universities accountable for turning out teachers who can’t teach.
Or perhaps we should also consider the fact that what is being taught is really a befuddling attempt by someone somewhere who made their name by fixing what wasn’t broken: math.
In Alabama, the general mantra by ‘educrats’ is that we have repealed the education standards known commonly as “Common Core”. It doesn’t appear to be so, and nowhere is it more glaring than the awful and mind-numbing mental contortions created by Common Core math.
Somewhere, someone, decided that there was a need to take arithmetic and gerrymander it so that the outcome would be the same but the means of arriving at that outcome would be different. The drop by Alabama to 52nd in math rankings occurred in the years subsequent to the adoption of Common Core standards.
I will be frank and admit that math has never been my strong suit, yet it always made sense: 2+2=4 and 2x10=20 and 50/2=25 and so on. Have you seen the way Common Core math works? Good Lord.
Apparently, someone decided that early elementary math should involve machinations that turn into mental gymnastics with boxes, and stacks, and broken out parts of numbers and the need to explain your work on everything because apparently explaining your work on rudimentary math is a necessary part of Common Core math. Allegedly the goal of Common Core math is to ensure that the youngest minds grasp and relate to the “why” of computations as much as the “what." So our teachers in early elementary teach theory and application to age groups who are well-known to be more commonly suited to memorization and fact patterns.
I will be honest: when I was told that Dick and Jane had two apples and picked up two more apples, I was quickly able to see “what” the answer was. Dick and Jane now had four apples, and I could also see “why” … because there were now four! I didn’t have to draw four separate boxes and line them up next to each other and write the number 1 in each box and then count them out in part and parcel.
I heard one candidate running for political office say just the other day that “it was the old school math that put men on the moon,” and she was right. I would also add that math, as we always knew it, didn’t require coaches to teach teachers how to teach.
Perhaps our degreed teachers now need degreed coaches (to the tune of $92 million) because the rubric of fixing what wasn’t broken means that what was working is now broken because someone fixed it. Hence the 52nd place ranking.
Alabama is 52nd in math rankings nationwide not because we don’t spend enough on education. We are dead last in math because our teachers are apparently not prepared by their degree training to teach math under a cockamamie and overly confusing regimen of new ideas designed to get the same result from the same numbers by a different means. And we’re 52nd in math because we have refused to allow innovation, do away with tenure, and open the door for true school choice.
In the end 2+2 still equals 4. Let us avoid the notion of having to fix something that ain’t broken and spend more time working hard with what actually works.
The results might amaze us.
Phil Williams is a former State Senator, retired Army Colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing Attorney. He has served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute and currently hosts Rightside Radio M-F 2-5pm on WVNN. His column appears every Monday in 1819 News. To contact Phil or request him for a speaking engagement go to www.rightsideradio.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commetnary@1819News.com.
