I don't know about your peers, but the last time a large-scale national
assessment was made of adult mathematical knowledge (the N.A.E.P. data,
available from ERIC and other sources), it generally supported Jeff's
contention. The N.A.E.P. test was given to a cross-section of adults of
various ages. Most adults, who were educated in the golden pre-calculator
age, did not have mastery of fraction, decimal, and percent computations,
when the computations were embedded in a context, such as computing the
simple interest paid on a loan.
>You make good points, and I agree with most. (Except that at least among
>my peers a generation ago--no, make that two generations ago--nearly
>everyone would have been able to do the 25% thing pretty routinely).
Kathy Burgis
Dept. of Mathematics
Aquinas College
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