So, the front-runner to be the next Republican nominee for Governor, Al Melvin, State Senator-AZ, has gone on the record that he's against Algebra. Yes you heard that right. The best (actually the worst) part is he is on the committee to determine educational standards in Arizona. Hey, you can't spell crazy without a R-AZ.
Apparently his logic starts with his duel love of Reagan and his hatred for any standard from the evil US Dept of Education. Quoting GOP Senator Al Melvin:
“It got hijacked by Washington, by the federal government,” said Melvin, a candidate for governor, and “as a conservative Reagan Republican I’m suspect about the U.S. Department of Education in general, but also any standards that are coming out of that department.”
So this above comment was based on his thoughts about Common Core Standard's in the state's secondary education system. But then Mr Melvin was blind-sided by a rigorous follow-up question from a mean old Democrat colleague:
David Bradley, D-Tucson, ask him whether he’s actually read the Common Core standards, which have been adopted by 45 states.
“I’ve been exposed to them,” Melvin responded.
Pressed by Bradley for specifics, Melvin said he understands “some of the reading material is borderline pornographic.” And he said the program uses “fuzzy math,” substituting letters for numbers in some examples
Wait, I need a moment....bwa-ha-ha-ha....a-ha-ha-ha...breathe....bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Maybe solving for the unknown letter X, somehow offends his religious beliefs??
The sad part is there is actually a religion vs/against math movement. Here is a person on a math blog's take on this quote and some background for the "anti-math" movement:
http://www.goodmath.org/...
(It's the Run, hide your children blog)
Also here is another article concerning the War on Algebra:
http://groupthink.jezebel.com/...