Teen stumps Gov. Bush with pop math quiz

[JohnLocke]

Teen stumps Gov. Bush with pop math quiz
Tuesday, July 6, 2004
Associated Press
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Gov. Jeb Bush had come to pitch the virtues of reading, but instead got stumped on a math question today.
During a speech to high school students who mentor younger children in reading, a teenager asked the governor a basic geometry question taken from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which Bush has championed.
"Me and a couple of my friends ... we know that the FCAT is a very important part of schooling in Florida and we were wondering if you could answer one of the questions we remember from the FCAT?" said Luana Marques, 18, who just graduated from Freedom High School in Orange County and is heading to Flagler College in the fall.
(...)
"If the point is, I haven't been in school for the last 30 years, that's true. But if I'm going to be graduating from high school and I can't pass a 10th-grade aptitude test, then I'm fooling myself," Bush said. "The fact that a 51-year-old man can't answer a question, is really not relevant. You're still going to have to take the FCAT and you're still going to have to pass it in order to get a high school degree."
Marques said later that she had asked the governor the math question only as a joke but she does believe the governor and others who call for the use of the test should be able to pass it.
"I think I offended him," Marques said of the governor. "I don't think he had much of a sense of humor."
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Read the rest here.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. A priceless moment

[Malikshah]

2. Now I don't want to be mistaken for Jeb, but

What the hell is a 3-4-5 triangle. Has it been so long since I've been in geometry?

no wonder I'm an historian...

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. The question also stumped a college math professor

Even college math professors needed a minute to ponder the question.

"Um ... well ... ah ... gee," said Edwin Clark, professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of South Florida. "I don't think those are very well known angles."

After working on his calculator, Clark said the angles would be 90, 53.13 and 36.87 degrees, if rounded off.

"I've been teaching math for over 30 years, and I didn't know the answer to that question," he said. "I wouldn't expect many mathematicians to know that."

more: http://www.sptimes.com/2004/07/07/State/Query_stumps_governor.shtml

[Bombtrack]

4. I would be very supportive of these state-wide assessment tests

if instead of testing arbitrary math questions they tested understanding of relevant history, geo-politics, and foriegn relations.

I despise Jeb Bush, but I really doubt we'd be snarking if someone did this to a democratic governor.

Sorry, just being fair more than partisan. Again, Jeb Bush is the loathesomest of the loathesome.