#501 Numbers Game

Society and we parents have lost the capacity to draw a line in permanent ink. Maybe that’s why young people seem to crave tattoos. They want something they can depend on. This is a story about drawing the WASL line.
I hate the WASL. I hated that schools started teaching to the WASL. Even so, a lot of students screwed up the math/science part of it. The big threat was that if they didn’t pass the WASL, they couldn’t get out of high school. Now that so many kids have actually failed the WASL, the threat seems a little harsh. So now we waffle on the WASL. Maybe, some say, if we change the test we’ll get more kids out into our declining workforce. There is a shortage of workers, so it’s not like we can keep them out of the workforce and dependent on their parents for the next couple of years while they take remedial math.
Three things. One: They’ll be living off their parents anyhow. Two: The potential positions in the work force all require a good knowledge of math and science. And three: the community colleges manage to actually teach remedial math and science to those who decided to waste high school with social opportunities and sports.
What they really need is a more powerful incentive to learn math. My suggestion: The other day I was at an event where we gave out lottery scratch tickets as a prize. One ticket featured three rows of numbers that, if they could be added up to 7, 11, or 21 would result in winning big dollars. It was amazing how many young people managed to add up 3 numbers on the fly. So try this, WASL lottery. Learn the WASL math with scratch tickets instruction. Do this binomial equation, get big money. Kind of puts that “your lifetime income will be better if you learn math” up close and immediate. Because they already have a powerful incentive in the other direction. Some teenagers are looking for any excuse to keep living off their parents. It’s a simple math equation they all understand. For every mooch there’s an enabling coddle.
America, ya gotta love it