Why math scores are low

U.S. students habitually score poorly in math and science when compared with other industrialized countries. A conversation with a secondary math teacher a year or two is an example of some of the problem. I was working at Waffle House at the time, and mentioned that some people were not qualified to work as servers because they didn't know how to do percentages. He said he taught his students percentages by starting with 10 % (which of course just involves moving the decimal one place to the left), and taught them to "estimate" other percentages. This is not good enough. Eg., when computing sales taxes and doing your income tax, you need to know how to get the exact answer. People do need to know how to estimate, so they can know if their answers are reasonable. Some people who wanted a job would come up with totally riduculous sales taxes, and have no idea that they weren't anywhere near the right answer. But knowing People do need to know how to estimate, so they can know if their answers are reasonable. I expect we have all accidently hit the wrong key on a calculator. Some people who wanted a job would come up with totally riduculous sales taxes, and have no idea that they weren't anywhere near the right answer. But knowing only how to estimate is not sufficient.