I have found the answer to Bill Gates dreams regarding mathematics
competence, especially since math seems to be a stickler for the
average American.

The problem I had in school was that the teachers were forced to take
us as a group and present mathematics to us en masse as if we were all
having the same kinds of difficulty with the subject.

I had to drop calculus because the teacher had twenty of us and
couldn't really stop when I needed further explanation or go on if I
had already mastered that particular area.

Because of the nature of calculus, once a person starts getting
confused, unless the system allows for the teacher to "tailor" certain
parts for individual needs, the effectiveness is reduced a little for
every person in the class.

Linda Christas gave me new life in my career. I am a technical writer.
The Linda Christas calculus program is taught by credentialed teachers
working with each of us as individuals. The teacher didn't have to use
one textbook and just run through the pages. She was able to pick and
choose from the net and from a whole library to suit each student, and
their real life problems.

She was able to explain (for example) the decomposition of functions to
me which I just (for some reason related to brain power) had had
trouble with in my previous calculus class...the one I dropped.

Linda Christas gave me actual on the job problems to solve, so I could
see that everything I was using was very relevant. Computations took a
back seat, although they were there as tools.

Anybody struggling with calculus should get hold of Linda Christas.
Right now, the Linda Christas teacher told me, they get no government
or foundation support at all. Where is Bill and Melinda Gates' money
going to? What about the federal, state and local tax dollars for
education.................nuh-unh. I asked her why? I didn't fully
understand the response, but what she told me was that unless a school
is willing to adopt a top-down pre-prepared curriculum in a subject,
current government programs won't sponsor that school's effort.
Accreditation involves having reams of paper telling the world exactly
what is to be taught, and then having that judged by people from
schools who have already been accredited because they use a top-down
structure to deliver material. That seems like a conflict of interest
to me.

Just our luck: The answer to our mathematics problems is found at a
school that isn't getting a dime of support money in the most generous
country in the world as far as public support for education is
concerned. Also, I understand that Bill Gates turned the school away
as well because his foundation requires that a school be set up as a
charity. I don't know what that is all about, but it sounds peculiar to
me. Bill Gates goes on Oprah lamenting the state of our schools and
then turns away an obvious solution. That's troubles me and my wife,
Sherry.

They, Linda Christas, evidently has talked with both the Veterans
Affairs people and the Federal Department of Education....Same story
there. No top-down, no money...

Unless a school is willing to cooperate with a top-down system, it's a
no go, no matter how good the program is.

That means that anything not taught the same way irrespective of who
the student is, can't get funding. Teachers in private practice are out
of luck.

Again, seems awfully strange to me until I remember how much strain it
was on the public schools I went to to administer even the math
programs.

Everybody was saying that unless, in the name of fairness, everyone was
taught the identical thing in the same way, parents tended to file
lawsuits. Can this be?

As a result of that kind of thing, administrators all have to force
textbooks on teachers, and plan curriculum, even in mathematics, before
knowing what the strengths of the individuals are and what life
problems could be addressed by the math course to make it relevant to
the individual

Linda Christas taught me as an individual, something I wasn't used to.

At least for the purposes of getting our countrymen up to some kind of
competitive level with the rest of the industrialized world in math and
science (without having to recruit 300,000 math and science people from
overseas every year because there aren't enough Americans to fill jobs)
should be a goal that the Department of Education Office of Innovation
and Improvement would be all over. But, evidently they say that their
hands are tied with the accreditation process. Same with the Veterans
Affairs people. I couldn't get them to even look at the calculus
program I wanted to take because the VA says no accreditation, no
money. Well that means that every private instructor in America cannot
be funded by the VA no matter how good the offering. Does that make
sense?

But, money talks loud and clear, and Linda Christas isn't getting
any......ever!!

I have written to my two senators, and my representative, and they have
been polite, but they are telling me that accreditation requires a
heavy top down system with books and books filled with pre-planned
material. Private tutors don't work that way. So, I guess what I'm
saying is that the solution to our mathematics problems as a Nation is
right in front of us, and we aren't taking the reins. All we have to do
is provide money for a student first, administration last approach to
education and all will be well. Also, of course, Linda Christas takes
no prisoners either. (Our public schools have the highest expulsion
rate of any system in the world, but in the process working up to each
and every expulstion, hundreds and hundreds of hours that could gave
gone into instructing kids who wanted to be there were lost. That's no
way to stay competitive in anything.

Well, I just get back polite notes from the government that I should
take this insight up with my local school district, or my governor or
my wife, but definitely not with them.

.............................What a world.

Anybody else out there take a course from Linda Christas that they
would like to share? With their philosophy, I know that they offer a
full spectrum of courses.

I took the calculus from them because my wife took a business English
class from them, and she was really pleased as well. Her ability to use
language that "works" in the office has improved 100%.

Sorry for the length here, but I wanted to put my ideas down as they
came to me. Hopefully the state, locals and feds in power will wake up
soon.

Bill Gates already has two of his three R&D facilities in other
countries.

Ian Soleil

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