Skip to Content

Pat Berg

Twin Cities
Commenter for
1 year 22 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 11/27/12 at 12:18 pm in response to State kids failing graduation test, so drop math requirement?

After reading Brian's piece, I googled Cindy Pugh, and all I can say is Oh. My. God.

Posted on 11/28/12 at 11:30 am in response to State kids failing graduation test, so drop math requirement?

Another thing I was struck by when reviewing the tests at the links posted online was how much they relied on "word problems". Now I understand that the idea behind "word problems" is to make sure you're relating the "abstracts" of mathematical concepts to "real life", but I still think that over-reliance on them in this context is problematic, mostly because in relying on them, you have failed to decouple math literacy from reading literacy.

I don't argue the importance of reading...

Posted on 12/03/12 at 12:06 pm in response to State kids failing graduation test, so drop math requirement?

Are we currently requiring the same level of math proficiency to graduate from high school as we are to be admitted to college? And if so, is that appropriate?

Posted on 12/03/12 at 05:50 pm in response to State kids failing graduation test, so drop math requirement?

I see your point, but I don't necessarily think it follows from where this conversation began - that is, the fact that we have kids not passing the high school math requirement, and the question of whether the requirement is being set appropriately and realistically.

I agree it would be nice if everyone could do all of their own calculations so as to understand to the nth detail every transaction they are involved in throughout their lives. But is that realistic? Is every student...

Posted on 12/04/12 at 09:39 am in response to State kids failing graduation test, so drop math requirement?

I think Paul and I are on the same wavelength, and I, for one, do not favor dropping the test, as that could tend to de-emphasize ANY amount of importance being associated with math literacy.

I'm not in favor of eliminating math literacy. I'm in favor of testing for an appropriate level of math literacy for high school students who may or may not ever go on to higher education (or if they do, may or may not pursue a field requiring high levels of technically-oriented expertise)....

Posted on 11/26/12 at 02:16 pm in response to Forget shopping in North Dakota on a Sunday morning

Many states still have Blue Laws in one form or another - including Minnesota.

Here's an article that lists them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_laws_in_the_United_States

Posted on 11/22/12 at 09:38 am in response to St. Stephen’s: ‘I thank God for places like this’

this works right into the Tea Party narrative. They think churches, charities, and family should take care of the less fortunate. It is government that they want having no part of it.

They have very little to offer in response when asked "What if church, charity and family aren't quite enough to help everyone who needs the help?" Somehow in their world, that just isn't ever going to happen.

On the positive side, though - thank you St. Stephens and Red Wing Shoes and...

Posted on 11/22/12 at 09:55 am in response to DFL legislative ‘unity’ may be hard to keep with likely tax and spending fights

maybe sales tax could be structured not like a flat tax, but set up in brackets in much the same way as is done for income taxes. That way it would have less impact on lower dollar value purchases than on higher dollar value purchases, and yet, we'd still be "all in this together".

I'm sure there are problems with this idea, too - but then, as far as I know, the perfect problem-free system has not yet been devised.

Posted on 11/23/12 at 02:58 am in response to DFL legislative ‘unity’ may be hard to keep with likely tax and spending fights

I was just tossing out an "off the top of my head" idea that occurred to me as I was reading the comments. I wasn't assuming any "statements of fact".

Don't read more into it than was there.

Posted on 11/22/12 at 09:48 am in response to Judge orders 35 random ballots tossed in tight House race

Not sure what factors would affect this (i.e need for legislative approval, counting machine compatibility, etc.), but perhaps in situations where there are multiple precincts in one site, the ballots could be different colors. Even a very pale pastel color (hopefully still readable by the machines) could differentiate one precinct from another.

Sometimes it just takes a little "human factors engineering". Finger-pointing is all well and good (well, actually it's not!) but as you...