A QUESTION OF LITERACY & A PUZZLE OF NUMERACY

    I started out to write a blog on the annual failure of the Las Cruces Public Schools to educate most students to levels of proficiency in basic subjects.  Their scores in reading (39%) and math (22%) are well under 50%.  These results are not surprising because neither School Boards nor Superintendents nor teachers stress education and educational achievement.

Consider the LCPS Mission Statement: “The Las Cruces Public Schools provides a safe, caring, equitable, and student-centered learning environment that cultivates civic and community engagement, promotes excellence, and honors diversity.”

 

Consider the LCPS Core Values:

Be accountable for every child.
Foster growth and innovation, grounded in research and evidence.
Guide all decisions through the lens of equity, sustainability, and respect.
Commit to the inclusion and success of every student.
Maintain a safe, healthy, and caring environment.
Cultivate and maintain partnerships with parents, students, staff, and community members.

Embrace the power of collaboration.

 

Now notice that the word “education” does not appear in either statement.  The mention of a “learning environment” does not mean that learning occurs or achieves proficiency.  Disgraceful.

 

Tired of berating these LCPS self-servers, I chose to present a question of literacy and a puzzle of numeracy for the entertainment of my readers.  The answer to the first challenge depends on cultural knowledge long forgotten which sometimes underlies the familiar.  The answer to the second challenge depends on a basic fact of a simple mathematical process.  I shall provide the answers to these challenges in a future blog or, on request, by email.

 

At the lowest level, literacy is the ability to read and pronounce the words of a text, from a bumper sticker to the Bible.  Chuck Schumer, in his Antisemitism in America, tells the story of his pre-Bar Mitzvah preparation, which included enough study of Hebrew to read aloud the words of the text assigned to him for the service.  He admits to learning that much but not to knowing what the words meant.  Obviously, or not so obviously, that definition of literacy may result in attractive statistics, but not in a measure of real-world literacy.

 

Here is a simple example.  Most people know Clement Moore’s The Night before Christmas.  Or think they do.  I have asked dozens of people a simple question about it to which none yet has had an answer.  In the poem, the narrator goes to the living room, sees St. Nick, and describes him.  Then he observes, “A wink of his eye and a twist of his head / Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.”  My question is, why did the narrator have fears which these hints allayed?

 

Again, at the lowest level, numeracy is the ability to count and read numbers.  The inability to perform even simple computations is widespread, never mind those computations ever more challenging.  From a doctor’s office no less, I received the following instructions for soaking my feet for a plantar wart: “begin soaking foot in solution consisting of: One part Apple Cider Vinegar and five parts lukewarm water (20% solution).”  Wrong.  One part plus five parts are six parts, and one part is one-sixth of the solution.  One divided by six is 16.67%, not 20%.  Someone had trouble in math or chemistry or both.  Fortunately, I was not getting a prescription for internal consumption of mixed pharmaceuticals.

 

Here is a math puzzle which requires no mathematical skills beyond those at the elementary school level to solve.  A student runs low on funds and sends the following message for cash to the folks back home:

 

    S E N D

   M O R E

M O N E Y

 

How much is their child requesting?

 

(The words should line up flush right so that the letters line up: D-E-Y; N-R-E; E-O-N; S-M-O)