Math Forum Discussions

Gerry Rising

Posts: 19
From: Amherst, NY
Registered: 7/26/10

Re: Jobs and Skills and Zombies - NYTimes.com
Posted: Mar 31, 2014 3:36 PM

Plain Text

On 3/31/14 12:16 PM, Roberta M. Eisenberg wrote:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/31/opinion/krugman-jobs-and-skills-and-zombies.html?emc=edit_th_20140331&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=34947105&_r=0
>
>
> The author is the Nobel prize winning Princeton professor of economics
> and nytimes OpEd writer, Paul Krugman.
>
> One of the the main things pushing the CCSS is what he calls a myth ?
> the skills gap between what workers have and what employers want. In
> other words, making students "college and career ready? may be a false
> impetus for the CCSS.
>
> Bobbi
Bobbi, thank you for sharing that. It reminded me of an experience I had
some years agowhen I was math coordinator forthe city of Norwalk,
Connecticut.

The Norwalk High School guidance counselor called to tell me he wanted
me to modify the 12th grade general math course to make it address
shortcomings that were reported to him by the local nursing school. He
had been told that nurse applicants all failed an entrance examination
for the local nursing school and could only be accepted provisionally.
What he wanted to do in response to this was have theyoung women who had
completed three years of high school academic math take a general math
course during their senior year (together with the weakest students in
the school) so that they could address this shortcoming.

I told him to hold off until I talked with the nursing school
supervisor. The supervisor was very accommodating. "Indeed," she said,
"virtually all of our applicants fail this test. It'snot just your
schools." I asked her what she did to remedy this situation. "Oh, we
give the students training in the measurement and proportiontopics that
they failedand they are brought up to our expectations." "How long does
that take?" I asked her. "Two one hour sessions," she responded.

This business about people not having job skills that Krugman speaks of
is indeed a red herring. Although specific training is appropriate for
many professional positions, what business employers really want, if
theyhave any sense, is smart people who can quickly learn on-the-job
skillsthat differer from setting to setting. The best way for candidates
to demonstrate that is prior success in their academic studies.

Gerry