What's wrong with the state of Mississippi?

Question

Legislators in Mississippi recently outlawed the teaching of fractions and negative integers in all grades.They said the concept was too difficult for students.So how does one shop in that state when gas is $2 and a fraction of one dollar?

Answer 1

I find this very difficult to believe!! What is your source?

Still no response--I guess you don't have a source. You must just enjoy perpetuating the myth of stupid southerners. Maybe you should check online to see what important research is being conducted at the University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State University, and the University of Mississippi (among other MS institutions of higher learning). Knowing fractions and negative integers is necessary in any type of statistical based research--so again, I find this extremely difficult to believe.

By the way Salty, the word Mississippi is of Native American origin.

Sam--click on "more information about this page" at the bottom of your snopes source.

This story is FALSE. MS did NOT remove fractions or decimal from their curriculum.

Answer 2

This was passed quite a while ago, and I think it's been repealed by now. I've been learning fractions since I was in second grade. I've been learning negatives since fourth. Now I'm acing algebra in eighth grade.

I don't think that the teaching has ever been outlawed, just brought out of the mandatory curriculum. Everyone I know can add 1/2 and 8/9, as well as multiply, divide, and subtract them. Some can even find their slope and use them in a system of equations.

Apparently someone in your state outlawed English.

"So how does one shop in that state when gas is $2 and a fraction of one dollar?"

First of all, never start a sentence with a conjunction. "So" is a conjunction.

A word (or several) between "state" and "when" is (or are) missing.

Before you insult us, check yourself over again. You don't want a fourteen-year-old insulting you again, do you?

Answer 3

Yes that is strange and uncalled for. Better things than that to legislate against. Shame though because I have a soft spot for Mississippi having lived in the Delta for several years and yes even though some of it's people are rednecks, most are friendly and down to earth. I guess just like most American states really.
I come from a land down under.

Answer 4

I'd like to see where you got this alleged fact. I happen to be from Mississippi. 1/2 have of your brain is missing it's other 1/2. Together they should make a whole. Gee, fractions are pretty easy. You're a fool. I want to see your proof!

I am a lifelong resident of Mississippi with a college degree. I'd say the ignorant one is you and the others who believe you with no proof.

Answer 5

The way folk spell it.

Having come from Italy, I had to learn the proper way to spell "Mississippi," and it goes as follows:

Emma comma once, I comma next.
Two asses comma together.
I comma once more and then two asses comma again.
I pee pee twice, and then I comma for the last time.

When spelled this way (the correct way) you should easily understand why Mississippi legislators may have been somewhat addled if they did indeed enact the the legislation you indicate.

Answer 6

No kidding? Wow, maybe there's something in the water once it gets all the way down there that robs people's brains of what it takes to learn fractions and negative integers!

Answer 7

It's part of the south. I do like the southern weather. I have met a lot of people there, that would fit in Jerry Springer live. I saw real inbreds there. They act like it was normal, but not all act like that.

They just need to hurry up and fix the Gulfport , so I can come and visit.
try going to college there, it's rigged!

Claim: The Mississippi state legislature removed fractions and decimal points from the mathematics curriculum of public secondary schools.
Status: True.

Origins: First
Alabama tried to redefine the value of pi to 3. Then Kansas removed the requirement for teaching evolution in its public schools. We thought it couldn't get any worse, but then Mississippi came along and proved us wrong:


13 August 1999
Jackson, MS -- Bolstered by the state of Kansas' recent measure removing the requirement for the teaching of evolution in public schools, yesterday afternoon the Mississippi legislature passed a bill eliminating fractions and decimal points from the mathematics curriculum of all public secondary schools in the state.

"Despite the coincidental timing of the measure, this was no whim," asserted Mississippi state senator Cassius de Spain. "We'd had the issue under consideration for several months now."

The bill, which cleared the Mississippi Senate by a vote of "a lot" to "a little" (with "this many" senators abstaining) after some initial confusion over how many votes constitute a "majority," directs public secondary schools in Mississippi to emphasize whole number arithmetic in mathematics courses and orders the removal of questions involving non-integer mathematics from standardized state tests after 1999. The fate of percentages remains undetermined as educators attempt to work out an alternative scoring method for tests.

Judith Sutpen, chairperson of the Mississippi Senate Education committee, defended the legislature's action against charges that it was motivated by "controversial religious beliefs."

"This has absolutely nothing to do with religion," she told reporters at a press conference Friday morning. "We're simply seeking to make mathematics more accessible to schoolchildren by de-emphasizing the elements that so many of them find confusing. It makes no sense to try to train our students how to think logically, then present them with nonsensical concepts such as 'irrational' and 'imaginary' numbers."

Senate minority leader Cora Tull indicated that religion did play a part in the passage of the legislation, however, maintaining that "if cardinality is good enough for the Catholic church, it ought to be good enough for the children of the great state of Mississippi." She added that "'improper fractions' have no place in any respectable school system, public or private."

Freshman senator John Sartoris of Brookhaven elaborated on the reasons for his colleagues' support of the bill: "We're sick and tired of hearing about how everything in our culture, from art to entertainment to education, is aimed at the 'lowest common denominator' of society. We're took aggressive action to do something about it yesterday by eliminating that denominator."

School librarians expressed concern about whether they will be able to continue categorizing books according to the Dewey decimal system once the law goes into effect, but Jason Compson, chief librarian for the Greater Biloxi School District, opined that "anyone who couldn't beat that pinko Truman doesn't deserve a place of honor in our schools' libraries anyway."

Several senators indicated that an additional measure aimed at removing "irregular verbs" from English classes might be in the offing.

Answer 8

are you kidding?!? that's unbelievable!!! what a freak of a state!! how can they learn algebra or geometry, let alone calculus?!? there's going to be some dumb people in the next generation :(

Answer 9

this is total CRAP...