Teaching Math in 1930:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1950:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1970:
A logger exchanges a set “L” of lumber for a set “M” of money. The cardinality of set “M” is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set “M.” The set “C”, the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set “M.” Represent the set “C” as a subset of set “M” and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set “P” of profits?
Teaching Math in 1990:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
Teaching Math in 2010:
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.
International Liberty 
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[…] My other examples of education-themed humor can be found here, here, here, and here. […]
[…] with gender performance, which helped lead to this funny video. And this bit of satire on the evolution of math training in government schools also is quite […]
[…] with gender performance, which helped lead to this funny video. And this bit of satire on the evolution of math training in government schools also is quite […]
[…] with gender performance, which helped lead to this funny video. And this bit of satire on the evolution of math training in government schools also is quite […]
[…] with gender performance, which helped lead to this funny video. And this bit of satire on the evolution of math training in government schools also is quite […]
Lessons through the ages:
BLUE, royal, central planning: Nope, didn’t work, wrong answer,
then YELLOW, imperial, central planning: Nope, didn’t work, wrong answer too,
then RED egalitarian central planning: Nope, that didn’t work either,
ok then BLACK central planning: Nope, wrong again,
ok BROWN central planning: Nope, that one wrong too,
Aha! Here it is! I found it! GREEN! GREEN!
GREEN CENTRAL PLANNING! That’ll work for sure!
So quick! Put one more requirement in the emerging mandatory federal schooling curriculum: that all students be able to demonstrate their ability to compute their CO2 footprint. Otherwise, no school diploma! Forget any other dreams you may have in life. Public protection will require that formal federally accredited diplomas will be required for 90% of the jobs in the future.
The future has arrived. And it’s starting to feel a lot like Europe these days…