* Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> [Feb 16. 2014 19:00]:
Apparently, possibility is the intersection of probability with Boolean algebra. A certain 4th grade teacher decided to enrich Saxon Math with a few days of re-education from a private copy of something called "Logic Liftoff", followed by a test supposedly copied therefrom, on which a certain confused 4th grader apparently was reduced to bluffing with ambigrams: gosper.org/logic.png
First answer reads: "we will bring our umbrellas" Valid answer.
<http://gosper.org/logic.png>. I don't understand how he got credit on the first five answers, since their correct answers are clearly "the sun will rise tomorrow."
Given the questions, there is no remotely reasonable way to put scores on the answers.
Or how he didn't lose 5 more points for "Febuary".
Or how the teacher wasn't shot, for the better of the kids. Note there is just the letter "r" skipped, perhaps one of the more forgivable spelling errrsr.
I actually had to Google for reassurance that they weren't dumbing down the spelling.
Hey, "aluminum" is a valid spelling!
--rwg [...]
Looking at this pathetic piece reminded me strongly of the feeling I had at school that I needed to "resist the nonsense" for the sake of staying sane. Non-withstanding, at least in my school they drilled proper math and natural sciences basics into us. The level of knowledge/preparation of many of today's students entering studies of engineering (that's what I see) often appears shocking to me. When I studied (physics; all forgotten by now) those who clearly didn't manage anything nontrivial (physics/math) just took a course in pedagogics (or something like that) and became ... ... guess what ... yes, school teachers. Case closed. Best, jj