The Case for U.S. Metric Conversion Now
The news by now is familiar and expected. U.S. elementary and high school students perform poorly in comparison with their foreign counterparts on international tests of mathematics and science achievement. Several explanations have been posed to explain the poor performance, such as a relatively shorter school year in the United States, fewer required math and science courses in U.S. high schools, sub-populations taking the exams that differ from country to country in the proportions of students at each grade level represented, and (need I mention it?) inferior schooling.
I'd like to pose another possible explanation. The United States, almost alone in the world, does not use the metric system of measurement in its daily life. But it does teach the metric system in the schools. It teaches two systems of measurement in the schools and, the confusion from learning two systems aside, there is a cost to the time spent in teaching two systems. A full year of mathematics instruction is lost to the duplication of effort.
Mostly in the elementary grades, our schools spend a few weeks a year teaching two measurement systems when teaching just metric could be done in one-third the time. Elementary school mathematics textbooks generally give equal weight to the two systems, as do the newly completed curriculum standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Educators feel forced to teach both systems because, even though we Americans still use the inch-pound system in our daily lives, the metric system is used in many professions (medicine, science, and engineering, for example) and now in much of industry. High school science courses now use...
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