Perhaps our difficulties in education stem in part from bad textbooks. Case in point: in the course of helping with a page of seventh grade math, I was forced to reckon with two unfamiliar acronyms, SMM and STA. Problem 2 had the parentheical statement”(Use the SSM method.)” at its end. Upon perusing the text, I discovered that SSM meant Some and Some More. STA means Some Taken Away. We’re talking addition and subtraction here. Ya.
Now math has always been burdened with arcane vocabulary – subtrahend anyone? – but it seems to me that adding gratuitous acronyms to the sum of what must be learned is just plain wrong.
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