James Frysinger wrote in USMA 18346 >So this is the usual line from NCTM (as from others) stating: > >1. We got burned on this once in the 70s. We don't want to get burned >again. > >2. We're not interested in doing anything to force the issue. We're >going to let someone else take the heat. > >3. We're going to take the safe position of riding the waves, like a >ship without propulsion. Meanwhile, we're going to continue trying to >improve our job of doing something that is ineffective, rather like a >crew running laps faster and faster on the weather deck of a ship which >is dead in the water. Maybe someone will think we're going somewhere. > >4. Say what you want, but we're not interested in changing our minds. >We're going to ignore what you (and others) say about the negative >impact that teaching two systems of measurement has on our student's >abilities in math and science. In our reply we won't even try to counter >that arguement because that might mean we feel it's worth discussing. In >otherwords, we will pretend that the subject has never come up. > >(Gee, I hope that I don't sound cynical.) > >Jim
In 1968, the Canadian Teachers' Federation passed a resolution "That the C.T.F. encourage conversion to the Metric System". In the 1970s all school textbooks removed all references to or examples of imperial units. The imperial system was no longer taught officially in Canadian schools, although some teachers may have given their pupils some information about it so that their pupils could understand their parents. Joseph B.Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 TEL. 416-486-6071
