On: Google is transforming public education with low-cost laptops and free apps

[mafribe]

   “I cannot answer for them 
   what they are going to do 
   with the quadratic equation. 
   I don’t know why they are 
   learning it.”

If Mr Rochelle cannot answer this question, and recommends just googling it, he might not be a good person to be anywhere near STEM eduction.

[mathisfun → mafribe]

Only a person who had once learned it before would be able to quickly get back up to speed by googling it. Math is a language not trivia.

[wolfram74 → mafribe]

Also, the most literal answer "solve quadratic equations" is kind of the most meaningless, what a physicist does with it is different than what a graphic designer does with it. The teacher might be saying they don't know in that context and would rather not lie to individual students that it's super important for them in particular way.

[taneq → wolfram74]

That's like saying you don't know what you'd "use a lever" for.

[wolfram74 → taneq]

And I imagine after answering that question a few hundred times it might take on a level of kafkaesque absurdity.

[eternalban → mafribe]

He is exactly where he is supposed to be. They do not want a thinking general population equipped with cognitive tools. That would be a disaster for that set and the end of their long running party.