Granite State Challenge

their future is assured

Received: 24Feb2010

Acedemic Skew

I regularly watch "Granite State Challenge". During the 2008/2009 season, I noticed a surprising imbalance of questions so I decided to categorize the questions as to whether the subject was real or make-believe.
In the 17 contests I rated, 30.76% of the 1,089 questions were about the world of make-believe.
These results did not particularly alarm me because they are merely a reflection of those composing the questions not of the New Hampshire High School curriculum.

I Stand Corrected

The other day I watched an episode which convinced me otherwise.
All eight contestants having pencil, paper and ample time were unable to provide a correct answer to the question:
As a result of a two-seventh increase in manpower, a company has 117 soldiers. How many were in the company before the increase?
I was alarmed but then astounded by the look on the faces of the eight contestants none of whom even ventured a guess to the question:
What is 15% of 1,500.

I Know, Let's Teach Them Video Games

When eight of the brightest and most talented young adults have such a deficiency in arithmetic, we hesitate to project the competency level of their less gifted classmates.
Is this where we are headed? Are we preparing students for the arts at the expense of the real world?

Prosperity Is Not Evil

Not long ago high-school students spent a significant percentage of their time absorbing information for their working careers. There is no denying that their cocktail-party careers suffered immeasurably.