Obama To 4th Graders: Biden 'Doesn't Know His Decimals!'

[babylonsister]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/1208/Obama_takes_more_questions_from_kids_.html

Obama takes more questions from kids

Following today's press conference, Obama met for 15 minutes with a group of first to fourth graders, according to a pool report from The NY Times' Helene Cooper. There, he took more questions than earlier.

After a few minutes of chit chat in which he asked the kids what they were studying--(when one child said "decimals" mr obama replied "decimals! Wow, Joe doesn't even know his decimals!") Then he told the kids he was opening the floor to questions, and proceeded to take more than double the number of questions than he took at his press conference. Plus the kids got to raise their hands and ask.

He may even have made news. One child ask him about iraq and he said he plans to have troops home in.a year and a half.

Cooper may have been alluding to the fact that reporters don't raise their hands to ask questions in Obama's press conferences because they are often selected beforehand. And here's a few more questions. (Pool reports written quickly for the press corps may include a few typos, which I left in below).

What are you gonna do as president?
A--make sure all kids get a good education In 2009 are you going to the white house?
A-- after replying yes, mr obama volunteered that he's getting a dog for malia and sasha, and added: "I want to make sure my daughters take care of this dog, and if they do their business, and you've got some poop, you don't just leave it there."
Will you go to other countries?
A--mr obama said yes, adding that he even expects to meet some kings and queens.

He also told the kids he's thinking about longer school days, which did not seem to go over well. :D

He took some photos with the kids, and we left the school at around 1126. Mr obama is back in his transition office, and we have a lit until 6 pm

[Jennicut]

1. Our school days here are way shorter then i nthe rest of the world

but as a kid, I wanted to get out asap too. And Joe, I was never good at decimals either. Or fractions, or geometry or math in general, I got a D in geometry, and had to go to summer school where I got a D again and had to take retake it junior year. I hate math.

[babylonsister]

3. I hated math, too, probably because of poor teachers that didn't inspire.

Or cause I just didn't like it?

As for longer school days, it's for the kids' own good imo. It will be nice to see education take a front seat. Americans need to catch up with the rest of the world.

[Jennicut]

7. Lack of inspiring teachers in math is my opinion.

I had a good Algebra teacher in 12th grade and I shocked my whole family with getting an A in her class but she was a great math teacher. The only teacher in math in all my years of school that made math easy to understand. We did more hands on projects involving math and had to write out math problems word for word in journals. Most teachers lecture and then expect you to know how to solve the math problems.

[SheilaT]

8. It may not be poor teachers so much

as badly designed math programs.

When I was in high school I had the remarkable good fortune to be in a math curriculum called U.I.C.S.M, which stood for University of Illinois Committee on School Mathematics. It was brand new. We didn't have regular math texts, but soft bound workbooks, and starting with basic algebra we were led to discover everything on our own. It was amazing. I never considered myself good at math, but I got straight A's in the geometry part. We even did math logic stuff, that when I described it to college math teachers recently they said, "Oh, that's finite math, and you usually don't get into that until advanced college course." By the middle of the third year we were beginning to do calculus, only the program never bothered to name it as such. That was when I started being really over my head and didn't take another math class for thirty years.

And whey I did start up again, I was able to test in to Algebra II, and I found that in that class and the next semester in College Algebra, stuff I'd learned more than three decades earlier would bubble up in my brain.

And so while I absolutely agree that some of us are better at math than others, it can help a great deal to have a decently written math program, no matter what level you're at.

[Jennicut]

9. Yes, bad programs, its not really the teachers' fault that they have to teach math that way

[TlalocW]

11. We had good math teachers at my school

They tended to make it fun and were generally alternately funny or scary so you wanted to pay attention. My favorite was a Mister Harris who would either crack us up or confuse/scare people. At one point when explaining something he noticed quite a few blank stares and got frustrated and walked up to a wall and started to address it and explain math to it. He turned to face us again, and I looked around and saw even more blank stares and said, "Mister Harris, the saying that you're acting out probably isn't that commonly used amongst my classmates." That got a laugh out of him and lightened the mood, and after class I had to deal with my classmates asking me what was going on when Mister Harris was freaking out. :) The highest we went at my school was pre-calculus, and the most we ever did was derivatives although he snuck in an anti-derivative bonus question into a test once.

In college, one of my majors was math, and it happened to be the college he had graduated from so he visited the campus one weekend and hunted me down. I was half-napping in my dorm room when I thought I heard his voice in the hallway asking where my room was, and he took me out to dinner.

TlalocW

[Bicoastal]

2. It's a slow news day story, I know...

...but I'm proud we have a president not afraid to use the word "poop."

[babylonsister]

5. Hey, I like it that he can say 'poop; to a room full of 4th graders, too.

:D

[sohndrsmith]

17. I love it.. : ) n/t

[AspenRose]

4. Nice to see I have something in common with Vice President Hotness

I hate math :-)

[monmouth]

15. Hahha, hadn't heard that one before. Good one. VP Hotness...woo

[AspenRose]

18. Clio the Leo gets the credit

:hi:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. "He also told the kids he's thinking about longer school days, which did not seem to go over well."

Bad move.

How many Republicans did he create right then and there? :silly:

[zbdent]

10. and no kid had to ask

"and for my last question, what happened to Billy?"

[ecstatic]

12. uh oh, his poll numbers among kids will probably suffer

LOL.

Longer school days will only work if something is actually being taught. Sadly, from what my brother reported to me, nothing is being taught. Especially in Georgia public schools.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. Joe Average can get very mean, I'd watch it Obama

Corny Math Joke, sorry.

[ecstatic]

14. I wonder if Obama was referring to some confusion Biden had

about poll numbers? :shrug: I wonder what the inside joke was.

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. Barrack told Joe

a joke about decimals
but he didn’t get the point!

[karynnj]

20. lol

[karynnj]

19. I wish Obama did not make Biden the butt of this joke

It is pretty disrespectful and it is almost worse that it was said to kids. Decimals are not the least bit complicated and are learned easily by kids. (In fact, you are essentially using them if you sum costs.)

(Question - would he have said it about himself, if the answer is "no" he shouldn't say it about someone who will report to him. This is especially important because Biden was smeared over the last 2 months as making gaffes - mostly because Palin really did.) If Bush said this of a Democratic Senator, we would be calling him a bully and saying it was inappropriate.

[jberryhill]

22. "When I was growing up, we couldn't afford decimals"

We'd cut up old semicolons and paste the dots over our good old-fashioned Irish fractions.

God bless 'em.

My dad would always tell me "It's not how often you reduce to the lowest denominator, it's how far you can repeat the decimals"

And even today, in shitholes like Scranton and Claymont, there are people who are in danger of losing their decimals.

George Bush just doesn't get it.

We wanted to increase troops in Afghanistan by 1/3 and he wanted to reduce them by .3333333333... That's not change, that's more of the same!

[SoxFan]

36. Uncanny!

:spray:

[jberryhill]

37. I plagiarized a little

:-)

[babylonsister]

23. I'm sure Biden knew the comment was

offered jokingly while Obama was talking to some young kids. Maybe he wanted to make them feel more comfortable.
I hope they both retain a sense of humor.

[karynnj]

25. Ask yourself how you would feel if your boss

said this of you in a public meeting - even if said to kids. I know I would not like it even though it would be an obvious joke - I have an advanced degree in math and worked in a research group. I just don't like the dynamics.

[babylonsister]

26. Obama may be boss, but from every picture I've seen, they seem

to be friends as well. I'm just not going to get all annoyed over this.

[karynnj]

31. Ok, what if it were Obama's best friend

To put it in perspective, what if he said "my wife doesn't understand decimals?" Would that be ok?

[firedupdem]

27. I get your meaning but I don't think they have the normal "boss",

"employee" relationship. Most of us haven't traveled the country with our boss sharing ice cream cones and pretzels and cracking jokes etc.

and if you're right and Biden is embarrassed or upset, hopefully he addresses it...I would really doubt that he is though.

[karynnj]

30. I doubt Biden would be "embarrassed or upset"

but it does hurt his image when added to the smears - especially if that type of comment were repeated. The problem is that it is the type of thing that is small enough on the surface that it seems petty to complain.

Sorry, but I really don't like it.



To put it in perspective, what if he said "my wife doesn't understand decimals?" Would that be ok?

[firedupdem]

32. I doubt if it hurts his image with anyone other than people who didn't

care for his or Barack's image in the first place.

Secondly, doubt that he would say that about his wife because they don't have the same relationship he and Joe have.

Let's agree to disagree...it's not a big enough issue to keep discussing.

:hi:

[karynnj]

33. True - and I want to reaffirm that I like Obama

I do think you got the point as you implicitly agree that he wouldn't say it about Michelle. Frankly, the photos of a campaign always make the candidates look closer than they usually are. There is mutual respect, but I doubt the couples are anywhere near as close as photos try to show them. (Consider the real Gore/Clinton or worse, Kerry/Edwards relationship - it is a relationship of convenience.

[jberryhill]

28. He was speaking to children

I guess it is more encouraging for them to hear...

"Decimals? You're learning decimals? Christ, that's pretty easy stuff that everybody knows already. What are you, retarded?"

You're just upset because you are having problems with partial derivatives.

[karynnj]

29. NOOOO

You can praise them for tackling decimals - you can even say you remember that it was hard to learn all of that but important. To say an important grownup still doesn't know it well - kind of says it's not important.

[jberryhill]

39. Probably a zillion different ways to look at it

As long as we are all playing armchair child psychologist, it could make them feel proud that they are learning something that even an important person has trouble with.

Maybe they'll be inspired to help Joe Biden with his decimals.

I remember when I was in grade school and Spiro Agnew was vice president, how smart I felt when I realized that even I knew everyone was supposed to pay income tax.

Of course, one is also reminded of Dan Quayle's foray into elementary education...

[karynnj]

40. I wouldn't use Dan Qualye as the example - he became an object of

derision because of that "foray into elementary education". As to Agnew, he really did obviously think he could get away with not paying income tax - and you deserved to feel both smarter and more ethical. The problem here is that unless it is true, Biden is likely quite competent with decimals. Just as kids felt smart vs Quayle, who they derided as dumb if they believe this about Biden, how would they feel?

[ecstatic]

38. I think it depends--a joke like that on a woman or racial minority

might be less sensitive because that's already what people who stereotype others based on race or gender expect. Also, someone who actually majored or works in that field might take a bit more offense as well. I think it's all about context, and Barack correctly saw that it would be OK to make Biden the butt of that particular joke. :)

[Muttocracy]

35. yeah, why not talk about decimals in money? at NASA?

Obama piling on Biden isn't funny to me either. Nor is the "math is hard" sound of it.

:shrug:

[karynnj]

41. Thanks

I hate it when people tell kids that math is hard. This was not differential equations, complex variables or even probability and statistics, it was decimals. Decimals are EASIER than fractions, which kids do have some difficulty with. What next learning the multiplication tables is hard? Addition is hard?

All I know, is that I was scared before I started algebra because in many of the pre-teen books, there were many plots where some girl was struggling with it. It took about a month to realize that it was by far my easiest "A".

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

21. Shit, wait till the "press" gets a hold of this "gaffe". nt

[Muttocracy]

34. oh, they have already. The headlines aren't "Obama visits math classroom"... Sigh. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

43. Are these cockwads predictable or what? n/t

[11 Bravo]

24. Maybe he meant Lieberman, or perhaps that asshole plumber.

Maybe?

[AspenRose]

42. If you haven't seen it already: The entire exchange in context

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7988088

And yes, Obama pokes fun at his own ability to do decimals....