A new study published by Stanford University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis shows that doubling up on math courses in one year, has negative impact… Rigor causes people to forget what they would have retained otherwise…

In other words when it comes to learning. Rigor actually MAKES us stupid….

The test was ingenious… Two groups of students in the same school; all with math scores within 5 points apart… Half were above the arbitrarial line of cut off; half were below… Those below were required to take a remedial class along with the next level of math. Those above, just took the one math class their grade required…

The difference between the two could be classified as rigor… Those below got a hearty dose of RIGOR… Those above didn’t, and yet except for an arbitrarily drawn line in the sand, all were of equal intelligence…

Here is what he found…..

At the end of the year, students with double math scored substantially higher than their peers who took just one math class. However, a year after returning to the traditional schedule with one math class, those gains were about half as large. Two years into a regular schedule, that difference was down to about one-third of the original gain. 

And when those students reached high school, the gains all but diminished completely. 

But during that wasted time, they could have learned something in another discipline and changed their life forever….

RIGOR DOES NOT WORK FOR LONG TERM GAINS.

This is common sense and is the natural way of the world.  How many of you played high school sports?… How many of you who did, are in great shape now?  How many of you did not play high school sports… How many of you are in great shape now?

We are all a mess….  RIGOR has no shape on our future… Immediate gains, perhaps.  Longterm… zero.

The only good that RIGOR gains:…. are higher arbitrarily set scores on arbitrarily created  tests that arbitrarily cover what was taught across the school year…  In other words, the roll of the dice.  One can win at Yatzee if one knows where the secret weight was placed changing all the odds of how a dice may roll.  But that is specialized knowledge only good for that one game and one set of dice…

To expend RIGOR on how dice will roll, is insane… RIGOR itself is insane…. Just imagine studying history instead?…  To lose all history classes in order to take another math class just to make the Governor and Rodel look good to their peers?

Madness…  RIGOR doesn’t work….  Look at your own lives.. Are you more productive when your boss is huffing and puffing, standing over you? Or when he is somewhere else?  If you are more productive in his presence, you SHOULD  be fired… because that would mean you weren’t doing work when he was somewhere else… No one is more productive under pressure.

RIGOR  is a punishment, It comes from prisons, slave ships, and impressed militaries.  It does not work for learning..