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The MS legislature removed fractions & decimals

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The Mississippi state legislature removed fractions and decimal points from the mathematics curriculum of public secondary schools.

First Alabama tried to redefine the value of pi to 3. Then Kansas removed the requirement for teaching evolution in its public schools. We thought it couldn't get any worse, but then Mississippi came along and proved us wrong:

13 August 1999
Jackson, MS -- Bolstered by the state of Kansas' recent measure removing the requirement for the teaching of evolution in public schools, yesterday afternoon the Mississippi legislature passed a bill eliminating fractions and decimal points from the mathematics curriculum of all public secondary schools in the state.

"Despite the coincidental timing of the measure, this was no whim," asserted Mississippi state senator Cassius de Spain. "We'd had the issue under consideration for several months now."

The bill, which cleared the Mississippi Senate by a vote of "a lot" to "a little" (with "this many" senators abstaining) after some initial confusion over how many votes constitute a "majority," directs public secondary schools in Mississippi to emphasize whole number arithmetic in mathematics courses and orders the removal of questions involving non-integer mathematics from standardized state tests after 1999. The fate of percentages remains undetermined as educators attempt to work out an alternative scoring method for tests.

Judith Sutpen, chairperson of the Mississippi Senate Education committee, defended the legislature's action against charges that it was motivated by "controversial religious beliefs."

"This has absolutely nothing to do with religion," she told reporters at a press conference Friday morning. "We're simply seeking to make mathematics more accessible to schoolchildren by de-emphasizing the elements that so many of them find confusing. It makes no sense to try to train our students how to think logically, then present them with nonsensical concepts such as 'irrational' and 'imaginary' numbers."

Senate minority leader Cora Tull indicated that religion did play a part in the passage of the legislation, however, maintaining that "if cardinality is good enough for the Catholic church, it ought to be good enough for the children of the great state of Mississippi." She added that "'improper fractions' have no place in any respectable school system, public or private."

Freshman senator John Sartoris of Brookhaven elaborated on the reasons for his colleagues' support of the bill: "We're sick and tired of hearing about how everything in our culture, from art to entertainment to education, is aimed at the 'lowest common denominator' of society. We're took aggressive action to do something about it yesterday by eliminating that denominator."

School librarians expressed concern about whether they will be able to continue categorizing books according to the Dewey decimal system once the law goes into effect, but Jason Compson, chief librarian for the Greater Biloxi School District, opined that "anyone who couldn't beat that pinko Truman doesn't deserve a place of honor in our schools' libraries anyway."

Several senators indicated that an additional measure aimed at removing "irregular verbs" from English classes might be in the offing.

Aaaarrrrgggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

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Reply to Ned_Flanders

the value of pi isnt 3?

"Never underestimate the predictability of Stupidity."
<A HREF="http://www.cameronwilliamson.com" target="_new">-={Neurotic Narcissist.}=-</A>
<A HREF="http://www.youreadopted.com/" target="_new">Guess what?</A>

Reply to mrface

Reminds me of a plaque on a college professor's wall: "if all else fails, lower your standards."


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

Reply to RichPLS

lmao.

"Never underestimate the predictability of Stupidity."
<A HREF="http://www.cameronwilliamson.com" target="_new">-={Neurotic Narcissist.}=-</A>
<A HREF="http://www.youreadopted.com/" target="_new">Guess what?</A>

Reply to mrface

Quote :

the value of pi isnt 3?



yes it is.

Alltaken

<A HREF="http://www.mudpuddle.co.nz" target="_new">http://www.mudpuddle.co.nz</A> its where its all going on, oh and its also all going on HERE <A HREF="http://doug.mudpuddle.co.nz/gallery/" target="_new">http://doug.mudpuddle.co.nz/gallery/</A>

Reply to alltaken

heheh even better.

"Never underestimate the predictability of Stupidity."
<A HREF="http://www.cameronwilliamson.com" target="_new">-={Neurotic Narcissist.}=-</A>
<A HREF="http://www.youreadopted.com/" target="_new">Guess what?</A>

Reply to mrface

It depennds on what pi your'e talkin' about...personally I think apple is over rated. I prefer a tart pi like cherry or blackberry or that little tart nazi-ola that seems to have disappeared...

Gort, Klaatu nicto barada...Patricia Neal

Reply to TeeTewl

<A HREF="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1739927,00.asp" target="_new">sell the legislature</A> considering judges are already on sale.

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/fing.jpg" target="_new"><i><font color=red>Very funny, Scotty.</font color=red><font color=blue> Now beam down my clothes.</font color=blue></i></A> :tongue:

Reply to priyajeet

The original article was sent to me and I went to snopes and <A HREF="http://www.snopes.com/lost/fraction.htm" target="_new"> Found this on snopes </A> so I posted it in disbelief. I had never heard of it, it was emailed to me, I googled and got a hit on snopes, but this morning I dug further, and apparently snopes has a darker side, written for humor stated as fiction and that story is <A HREF="http://www.snopes.com/lost/fraction.htm" target="_new"> Not True... </A>

If it is, then They also say that Western Canada only exists seasonally.

Have a good day, don't believe everything you read, and only half of what you see.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

Reply to RichPLS

Duh, the story isn't true. Jeez...

--
"There's more to life than profits."
<font color=red>"Like what?"</font color=red>
"Like, you know, Slurpees and stuff."
<A HREF="http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/video/707/slurpees.mov" target="_new">South Park</A>

Reply to ksoth
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