Math Homework

My oldest son Jared (9), is an amazing kid. Academically he is nothing like I was at his age (especially in Math). He comes home and immediately tells us he has homework, and gets it done. Let me stop there for a minute and digest what I just wrote. . . .I didn't know kids like this really existed. Take me for example. I would come home and lie my head off and put twice the energy into convincing my parents that I did not have home work than it would have been to just do it. Then the daily paranoia would set in. I would lay in bed and be petrified they would find out. It never really occurred to me that parent teach conferences were always looming out there and there would inevitably be a "come to Jesus" meeting with my parents and teachers. Math was, and always has been, my nemisus. Why would I ever need to know that pi was half-the circumfrance of a circle. Seriously! Nevertheless, I am a slow learner and this pretty much sums up my elementary and Jr. High careers.

So with my new and enlightened view of todays kids, I had to ask, why do our children perform so poorly on standardized tests? Does the fault lie with our teachers? With our school administrators? With our political leaders? Can we, as concerned parents, sue somebody about this and obtain millions of dollars?

Or maybe it's time that we parents stopped ''passing the buck'' on education. Maybe instead of ''pointing the finger'' at everybody else, we should take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror, and place the blame for our children's lousy test scores where it clearly belongs, on our children. They apperantly have a terrible attitude. While surfing the internet today, I found this letter written from an 8th grade teacher in Texas:

"I teach math to eighth-grade students. This is an unnecessary task because they are all going to be professional basketball players, professional NASCAR racecar drivers, professional bass fisher people or marine biologists who will never need to actually use math.''

This is a sad commentary on the unrealistic expectations of today's students in America. The real statistical truth is that, in any given group of 10 young people, only a third of them, or 22 % (I used a calculator here), will actually succeed as professional bass fishers. The rest will wind up in the ''real world,'' where, like it or not, they will need a practical knowledge of math.

So Jared, here's to ya. You are my shining ray of hope in this world of urealistic dreamers and kids that want jobs that the rest of us can only drewl over. Your the man.

Oh, did I mention what Jared said, when I last asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up: A Professional Football Player.