Teaching Maths
– A Beginner’s Guide
Some sample questions taken
from Maths papers over the past forty years to demonstrate how things have
changed – not always for the better.
1. Teaching Maths – 1970s
A
logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
2. Teaching Maths – 1980s
A
logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 80% of the price. What is his profit?
3. Teaching Maths – 1990s
A
logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80.
What is his profit?
4. Teaching Maths – 2000
A
logger sells a truckload of timber for £100. His cost of production is £80. His profit is £20. Your assignment – using a black pen,
carefully underline the number 20.
5. Teaching Maths – 2005
A
logger cuts down a forest of beautiful trees because he is selfish, and
inconsiderate, and cares nothing for the habitat of animals, or the
preservation of our woodlands. Your
assignment – discuss how the birds & squirrels might feel when they
realise that the logger has cut down their homes for a measly £20 profit.
6. Teaching Maths – 2009
A
logger is arrested for attempting to cut down a tree on his own land, in case
it may have been offensive to any groups not consulted in the application for
the felling license. He is also fined
£100 because his chainsaw is in breach of the 2008 Health & Safety
regulations, as it is deemed too dangerous, and could cut something. He has used the chainsaw for over 20 years
without incident. However, he does not
have the correct certificate of competence and is therefore considered to be a
recidivist and habitual criminal. He is
compelled to give a sample of his DNA, and his details are circulated
throughout all government departments.
He protests, is taken to court, and is fined a further £100. When he returns from Court he finds that
squatters have cut down half his wood to build a camp on his land. He tries to throw them out, but is arrested
again, prosecuted for persecuting an ethnic minority, imprisoned and fined a
further £100. Whilst he is in prison,
the squatters cut down the rest of his wood, and sell it on the black market
for £100 cash. They also have a
departure BBQ of roasted squirrel and pheasant, and leave behind several tons
of rubbish and asbestos sheeting. The
logger is warned that failure to clear the fly-tipped rubbish immediately at
his own expense is a criminal offence.
He complains and is arrested for environmental pollution, breach of the
peace and invoiced £10,000 plus VAT for safe disposal costs by an outsourced
regulated government contractor. Your
assignment – how many times is the logger going to have to be arrested and
fined before he realises that he is never going to make a £20 profit via sheer
hard work, give up and sign onto the dole and live off the State for the rest
of his life?
7. Teaching Maths – 2014
A
logger doesn’t sell a lorry-load of timber because he can’t get a loan to buy a
new lorry because his bank has spent all his and their money on a derivative of
securitised debt related to sub-prime mortgages in the USA and lost the lot,
with only some government money left to pay a few million-pound bonuses to
their senior directors, and to the traders who made the biggest losses. The logger struggles to pay the £1,200 road
tax on his old lorry. However, as it was
built back in the 1970s, it no longer meets the emission regulations and he is
forced to scrap it. Some itinerant
loggers buy the old lorry for cash from the scrap merchant, and put it back on
the road. They undercut everyone on
price for timber haulage, whilst claiming unemployment benefit for themselves
and all of their relatives. The Government borrows more money to pay more to
the bankers, because bonuses do not come cheap. The parliamentarians feel that
they are missing out, and claim the difference on expenses and allowances. Your assignment - explain how the British economy still manages
to work at all, and how the teaching of Mathematics has evolved over the past
40 years. Send the solution to Michael Gove
in the envelope provided. No crossings
out. Show all your working-out.
Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment