Leavening: Teaching Math Through the Years

Teaching Math in 1950:
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A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit ?

Teaching Math in 1960:
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A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1970:
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A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set "M". The set "C", the cost of production, contains 20 fewer points than set "M." Represent the set "C" as a subset of set "M" and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set "P" for profits?

Teaching Math in 1980:
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A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. Her cost of production is $80 and her profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math in 1990:
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By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? (There are no wrong answers.)

Teaching Math in 1996:
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By laying off 40% of its loggers, a company improves its stock price from $80 to $100. How much capital gain per share does the CEO make by exercising his stock options at $80? Assume capital gains are no longer taxed, because this encourages investment.

Teaching Math in 1997:
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A company out-sources all of its loggers. The firm saves on benefits, and when demand for its product is down, the logging work force can easily be cut back. The average logger employed by the company earned $50,000, had three weeks vacation, a nice retirement plan and medical insurance. The contracted logger charges $50 an hour. Was outsourcing a good move?

Teaching Math in 1998:
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A laid-off logger with four kids at home and a ridiculous alimony from his first failed marriage comes into the logging-company corporate offices and goes postal, mowing down 16 executives and a couple of secretaries, and gets lucky when he nails a politician on the premises collecting his kickback. Was outsourcing the loggers a good move for the company?

Teaching Math in 1999:
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A laid-off logger serving time in prison for blowing away several people is being trained as a COBOL programmer in order to work on Y2K projects. What is the probability that the automatic cell doors will open on their own as of 00:01, 01/01/00?

Teaching Math in 2000:
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A logger approaching a timber operation encounters a beautiful Pagan/Earth Goddess chained to a towering old-growth redwood. She says:

"Stand next to the Tree, close your eyes, and Listen.......Listen.....Listen......You will hear the Tree speak to you. It will speak to you with a thousand voices. If you listen closely you can hear YOUR Voice. But then you will realize they are all YOUR voice, but yet not YOUR voice. They are all ONE voice, ONE sound, speaking with a thousand tongues. Tonight the Tree Sings.... Silently repeat the words:'Om Mane Padme Om...Sa Da Nam, Sa Da Nam.'... Listen to the thoughts in your mind. They are no longer YOUR thoughts, just thoughts. Listen to the thought that YOU are standing next to the Tree... then it passes away. Listen to the thought that YOU live in the USA at the end of the 20th century.... It passes away. Listen to the thought that YOU are a physical entity composed of matter... It passes away. Listen to the thought that YOU exist.......... It passes away.... You have experienced your own death, the release of your soul. You are now ENLIGHTENED. YOU ARE NOW AND YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ENLIGHTENED...."

What is the logger's profit?