It is no shocking news that the ability of children all across the country to perform lower level mathematics has been significantly dropping year after year. By lower level math I mean things like division with decimals, multiplication with exponents, scientific notation as well as basic geometry, algebra and trigonometry.

The test that I am going to attach below and hopefully something that you will all take just to see how much you simple math you still remember to be able to do. Out of the 13 problems on that exam, I had problems with (1e) for some unexplainable reason but I guess that is me being rusty. I did well there not to embarrass at least myself but it certainly would not surprise me if those people who have done little to no math since high school that they would struggle exam. It is not a trend that I like but it is only a matter of fact nowadays.

This was a test (UW – Math Test) was conducted by a professor at the University of Washington who teaches Atmospheric Sciences 101, which is supposedly a large lecture with a diverse population of students from different majors I would assume. The results that the professor got from the simple test were rather appalling due to the lack of abilities of the incoming freshmen year after year.

The professor went on to write:

The results were stunning, in a very depressing way. This was an easy test, including elementary and middle school math problems. And these are students attending a science class at the State’s flagship university–these should be the creme of the crop of our high school graduates with highGPAs. And yet most of them can’t do essential basic math–operations needed for even the most essential problem solving.

It’s not every day you get to hear about a high school girl captaining a varsity boy’s soccer team and being successful at it.

Meet Aditi Vyas. A senior who goes to the Middlesex County Academy in Edison, New Jersey which is a school only 10 years into existence and one that only accepts 40 kids each year from the entire county based upon an entrance exam which usually yields only a 20% acceptance rate.

As a senior this year, she co-captained the squad to a 9-9-1 record but an outstanding 7-2-1 in division mark where they fell one pathetically refereed game short of winning at least a share of the Gold Division. I had a couple of opportunities to coach her both during her regular school season and in two indoor seasons where she has been nothing short for a great leader for her squad which at times were quite inexperienced. There was never a doubt in my mind she would be able to overcome some of the verbal/physical abuse you take in the GMC (or in any competitive environment) as a female going up against male opponents.

When the Academy soccer program back in 2004, the initial squad featured two girls with the Scala sisters who certainly took more than their fair share of abuse on the playing field but if you were to ask anybody from the program over the years, they wouldn’t replace either one of them and I am certain that has been the case for all the girls that have passed through the program since from Danielle and Lauren Scala to Allison Mazur to Aditi Vyas and will be the case for those to follow.

So this is just an amazing story out of my high school of roughly 140 kids where they have collected over 14,000 lbs. of food for M.C.F.O.O.D.S., the Middlesex County emergency food network to help 60 different food pantries and soup kitchens all across Middlesex County.

I have heard there were some incentives academically but nothing is confirmed so I won’t comment on that yet but I think anything you do to urge kids to raise more to help the needy is a worthwhile cause in my mind.

If anyone from the Academy has any more details on this, feel free to comment or let me know and I’ll put it up here and credit you of course.

140-something kids did that. What has your high school done? I don’t care, I’m not ashamed to say that I went to the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies.

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Just background information for those who don’t know me that I went to a relatively small high school (graduating class of about 35 kids) and I met some of the people I graduated with back in 2005 today over lunch. Some I had kept in touch with more over others, then there have been some who I saw maybe once since graduation.

It was quite a small community, our principal would even love to call it “a family” all the time but it was quite something. I used to have informative, often heated debates with some people on questions varying from social to fiscal issues. There were just some that I thought I would never see eye to eye with, or some that would never switch their party lines to vote for another candidate – even on a more local ballot, never mind on a national scale.

One of the friends I met today was one of those people who I always argued against but continuously ending up respecting because they stood for their beliefs and stood firm on it. As an opponent in those arguments, you always felt they gave you a fair shake in listening to your points and rebutting things they disagreed with in a rather calm and respectful way – at least most of the times. To be quite frank, on the political scale we were as polar opposites as one could be without falling off the scale.

That same friend, who was always an avid learner certainly pulled a fast one by me today when they said they had voted for Barack Obama in this past year’s national election. In all my years of personally knowing someone who fundamentally stood on issues that were slightly more conservative than they were liberal, I did not see this one coming. They had been reading up on several social issues for some part of their studies and that in turn led them to vote the way they did. (By the way, the person did end up voting conservative down the ballot for every other candidate. haha)

It is sad to see people who have grown up here and gone through the public school system (although that is much to say at times) are still be capable of such statements like which truly shows their ignorance and blatant racist ways. A lot of people I went to high school with know the person a whole lot better than me but just from that statement there, I think I know plenty to decide for myself.

A couple of my better friends are probably the staunchest conservatives I know but you know what, I can respect them because we differ solely on issues that matter and don’t discredit a candidate simply because of his or her name. I have told some of my closest friends that although there is a very high probability that Barack Obama is going to be elected President, the likelihood of him bringing the country together really lies in the hands of those who refuse to see beyond a skin color, beyond a guy with a funny name and refusing to accept that he may be just as much of an American as you are is what is holding this country back.

Let’s not be naive and think just because an African American can reach the highest position in our country that all of a sudden and overnight, racism will disappear. As the economic conditions of our country continue to deteriorate as they most likely will, regardless of who is President, expect to see race rise once again and those looking to prey on the weak blame this solely on a “black” man being not qualified to run a country. There is probably a chance that this will flame the fire even more in those minds of the hateful but this is where an opportunity arises. This country has a far too dark of a history to continue to ignore this issue and deem it to insensitive to brought into the spotlight.