# Jokes that, nowadays, need explaining

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** comedian-jokes\
**Created:** [September 25, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466 "2020-09-25T02:53:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 554

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jokes-that-nowadays-need-explaining/921466/554 "2020-10-28T04:24:07Z")

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> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> I sympathize with them and offer to play them a song that mocks the newfangled way we teach kids math. Then I reveal that the song is 55 years old and describes the way they grew up learning math.

If that was the way they learned it, why was the “reveal” necessary?

> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> The fact that we’re learning new ways to explain concepts to children, and we haven’t stopped trying to improve, is a feature, not a bug, of educational policy.

New Math didn’t improve understanding and it decimated basic arithmetic skills. And “trying to improve” is not necessarily the same as actually improving. To avoid further discussion of this subject in this thread, here’s the discussion from 4 years ago. [Explain this 'new math'](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-this-new-math/729132)

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