Does anyone really find it surprising that close instruction by people of similar age, who actually know math, made a difference? I remember my math teachers.

Does anyone really find it surprising that close instruction by people of similar age, who actually know math, made a difference? I remember my math teachers. I remember them talking down to us. I remember teaching myself how to handle quadratic equations after being made to look a fool in class. I also remember the joy of programming my first HP-48sx graphing calculator (donated to me when I got into an AP math 11 course). Like the old speak-and-spell, that little machine never insulted me, never said I wasn't trying hard enough. Math became easy. I still miss R-P notation. Look at this from the UK a few years ago. Most teachers were found to lack basic math skill. I doubt US/Canadian teachers are any different. "Only one third of the teachers tested for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary were able to calculate that 1.4 divided by 0.1 is 14, while only four out of 10 could work out that 2.1 per cent of 400 is 8.4. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7236780/Primary-teachers-fail-basic-maths-test.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7236780/P... "Fewer than four out of 10 of those who sat the test – designed for 11-year-olds – could calculate 2.1% of 400, and only a third answered correctly that 1.4 divided by 0.1 was 14. Overall, four out of ten scored 40% or below, only one got all the answers correct and the average mark was 12 out of 27 or 45%." http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/feb/14/primary-teachers-fail-maths-tests http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/feb/14/primary-tea...