Communications from HCP readers appreciated

When a prominent – and very busy – business owner takes time out of his day to call and compliment one of our own, it’s always greatly appreciated.

A story and photos by HCP Sports Editor Stephen Forsha on the occasion of Hillsboro High School senior Kaylynn Bell’s 1,000th career point prompted the aforementioned call from Steve Haag of Jerry Haag Motors on North High Street.

Kaylynn scored her 1,000th point in dramatic fashion on Jan. 7 during the Lady Indians’ 65-58 overtime victory at Wilmington.

With 19.5 seconds left in overtime, Kaylynn connected on a free throw for career point No. 1,000. And, as explained by Stephen, she hadn’t realized that that was her milestone basket. It wasn’t until the public-address announcer informed the crowd that she realized it.

Kaylynn said after the game she thought she was another 50 points away from 1,000. She wasn’t.

Lady Indians’ Head Coach J.R. Moberly said very few people knew how close the senior point guard was to her 1,000th point. J.R. mentioned this to Stephen in advance of the game and he adjusted his schedule in order to cover the road game in Clinton County.

The result, as Steve Haag so generously pointed out, was a great game story that also highlighted a tremendous individual accomplishment in local high school sports.

Congratulations, Kaylynn. Thanks, Steve, for such a nice call. And thank you, Stephen, for being the dean of southern Ohio sportswriters. (Or, as our old friend Gita might call you, the maharaja of sportswriters.) Either way, you are the man.

* * *

• Another pleasant communication this week came from a loyal HCP reader who lives off Route 138.

Dolores writes: “Thanks for a great paper. I look forward to receiving it each week!!”

A grandmother, Dolores also asks: “I wonder how many parents realize what their children are being taught in school.”

Along with her $10 annual (yes, the HCP is still just $10 a year!) subscription check, Dolores also included a simple multiplication problem from her grandchild’s homework.

The problem was 362 x 419. Dolores included the “Common Core” solution and her “Grandma’s Math” solution.

The Common Core solution required the pupil to begin by writing 362, horizontally, above nine boxes, with 419 written vertically to the right of the nine boxes. The pupil progresses by multiplying the initial digits (3x4) and placing 1 over 2 (12) in the diagonally divided first of nine boxes (top, left), then it’s 6x4 with 2 over 4 (24) in the second box (top, center) and so on.

The “new math” solution requires writing 36 digits, drawing nine boxes, and dividing these nine boxes diagonally into 18 boxes. At the end of the exercise, it can best be described as a numeric game of tic-tac-toe.

Grandma’s Math is much more practical – and conventional – than the tic-tac-toe method. It requires just 23 digits – including the answer: 151,678.

Until this week, I don’t recall ever having seen a simple multiplication problem solved in the manner in which her grandchild and other students were required to use. Perhaps my old math teacher, the late, great Bob Boyd of Mowrystown, might have demonstrated the tic-tac-toe solution just for laughs, but he surely would not mandate it in his classroom.

Mr. Boyd did not believe in wasting time. As he used to say, “The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.”

Other parents and grandparents have had similar concerns with the academic mandates from Common Core.

Since my children are now college graduates (no thanks to Common Core), I am – admittedly – not overly familiar with these new “standards.”

But I am familiar with politics. If anyone wants to get to the core of Common Core, he needs to look no further than his local state and federal representatives.

As The HCP reported last month, despite an Ohio House of Representatives public statement that legislation to repeal or replace Common Core would be considered for a full House vote, the new academic “standards” will remain in place.

An effort to repeal Common Core did not make it to a vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

State Rep. Andy Thompson, R-Marietta, said: “The more people know (about Common Core), the less they like it.”

Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, a senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the think tank for Concerned Women for America (see: http://www.cwfa.org/common-core/), has this to say about Common Core:

“Like Obamacare, Common Core was forced onto the public as a naked federal government takeover. Common Core usurps state and local governments, based on the dubious idea that the local rubes can’t be trusted to understand and meet the needs of their own children. Common Core was developed without state legislative involvement or authority, without involvement of curriculum or content specialists, and it was never voted on by anybody. Instead, it began with progressive educational insiders in Washington, D.C., was developed by Achieve, Inc., a group of progressive education reformers, shaped by commercial vendor NCS Pearson, Inc., and funded primarily by Bill and Melinda Gates through numerous foundations, organizations, and coalitions. At the last minute, two D.C.-based trade associations, the National Governors Association and the Council of State School Officers, were brought in to give the appearance of local and state involvement. Common Core has been implemented primarily through billions in federal ‘bribes,’ because states had to accede to it in order to receive ‘Race to the Top’ grants or waivers for ‘No Child Left Behind.’”

In other words, follow the money. Many of those embracing Common Core are profiting from it.

Never Question Academic Authority 101 (NQ Double A, as the kids will say) soon may be required reading.

I’ll take Grandma’s Math any day.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.