Erik, you make me a proud MPCSD parent once again. I am consistently impressed with your leadership, professionalism, character and how you care for our community. It is no wonder you are loved by students, staff, teachers, parents and community members. Our students are consistently reminded of the THINK acronym in their school day. For those unfamiliar THINK stands for T=is it true? H= is it helpful? I= is it inspiring? N= is it necessary? K= is it kind? Thank you for modeling THINK for us. I hope your model shows others the way.

Thank you, Erik, for clearing up this mystery for The Daily Post and its readers.

I have to confess I wasn't familiar with the term "divident," but you're right — a quick search gave me the answer (courtesy of thefreedictionary.com):

Div´i`dent
n. 1. Dividend; share.

I assumed when I saw the photo that the writing on the white board was the work of a student. Since Mrs. Yamada's math students are so smart and savvy, I figured they knew something I didn't — and sure enough, they did!

I've learned over the years not to presume that I'm right and the kids are wrong when they present me with unfamiliar information. Often, as in this case, they've been better-informed than me, and I'm given the opportunity to learn something new, which is awesome.

I'm glad we all got to increase our knowledge today!

Seriously? This really happened? Wow. Thank you, Mr. Burmeister, for taking the time out of your very busy day running our city's school district to deal with tabloid "news."

And Caryn, my kids are constantly reminding me of the THINK acronym too! Got to love our MPCSD schools!

Thank you for speaking up Erik. I use the word "newspaper" loosely in reference to The Post but they should be ashamed of their deplorable tactics of insinuation and embarrassment towards a very respected and loved MP teacher.

What does it say about the opposition to Measure X when all they can do is resort to enlarging a tiny fraction of a whiteboard with a (possibly) misused word on it?

Thanks Post, I am now more motivated and energized to help and support the Measure X campaign!

Really Post? Highlighting "misspellings" in kids' math work?

I am glad that the teacher (unlike the Post) did not put a big red circle around the words used in the kid's solution.

I expect that the teacher appropriately pointed out what the student had done right in the math problem, and perhaps quietly told the student that the word he/she used is often spelled with a D.

Btw, I will be supporting Measure X.

My kids received a great education at MPCSD and are well prepared for high school and beyond. As an alum parent, I'm proud to be supporting Measure X because I believe quality schools - made so by quality teachers - benefit our whole community. Keep it up, MPCSD!

It would not surprise me if the Post endorsed Measure x. Dave Price's front page made readers aware of the election. Hopefully, that will lead to a large turnout where reason will prevail and Measure X will be defeated.

I really appreciate Mr. Burmeister's article and I am very disappointed that the Daily Post in Palo Alto chose to do a story of this caliber. With all of the real news stories out there, especially now, I am baffled why a newspaper would print "rag" news like this. This makes me ask, what is the Post's end goal of writing an article like this? Wouldn't it be appropriate for the Post to reach out to the campaign first if they had questions regarding a mailer? Or perhaps reach out to Mr. Burmeister or district staff if they had a sincere concern? As a parent volunteer I am in classrooms at MPCSD every week, and anyone who is connected to the district's schools will tell you what a fabulous district it is! By the way, the teacher in the photograph, is my son's teacher and she is absolutely incredible! Her detailed level of support in both educational and social emotional learning has been fantastic. It breaks my heart that the Post did not take into account how their attack portrayed in this irresponsible article would reflect on this top notch, MPCSD teacher. Like Michelle Obama said, "when they go low, we go high." Please "go high, keep positivity, and funding in our excellent schools, despite the negativity of articles like this...join me to support Measure X!

Wow, how disappointing that the Daily Post would decide to attack a teacher and try to harm an effort to fund public education. And here I've been doing what I can to support journalism in this new time in our country where journalists are under attack. This is no way to prove how important journalism is when a simple search also quickly demonstrates how wrong this supposed call out is.

I do hope that readers of that tabloid take a moment to look up the word "divident" and find what anyone can find-- a correctly spelled version of the word dividend-- and come to the quick conclusion that I did: The Daily Post is just mean. (And short sighted. Realtors support Measure X in overwhelming numbers and by my observation seem to be the ones who support that paper.)

Our public schools depend on parcel taxes to provide quality education. To have a local paper try to smear our teachers, our schools, and our volunteer lead effort to fund our schools through much needed parcel taxes is a seriously low blow.

Really happy and proud to see our Asst Superintendent call this out and defend our great teachers.

Let the realtors join MPAEF and the PTO's to fund the embellishments.

Tut, tut, tut, Daily Post, edit and verify your work before you print it.

Thank you realtors!!

Web Link

All of Mrs. Yamada's parents, both present and past, know exactly what kind of teacher she is: creative, inspiring, innovative, and caring. She KNOWS her students as individuals, and she celebrates them and draws out the best in them. My middle son had her in first grade -- she fostered a love of learning and a deep sense of curiosity in him. The Post's ridiculous article notwithstanding, she is one of the biggest reasons I am so supportive of Measure X. Our students, our District, and *our entire community* is richer because of teachers like Mrs. Yamada. And thanks to Erik Burmeister, our entire community (and hopefully the editors at the Post) now has a richer vocabulary as well. Teachers never stop teaching.

I am so proud to call Heidi Yamada a friend and colleague and today, reading these comments, I am equally proud to be a member of MPCSD and the Menlo Park community. Let's keep supporting our EXCELLENT schools and pass Measure X!

Thank you, Erik, for providing the complete, true story and for understanding the inspirational, meaningful education our students receive at Laurel, and in the entire Menlo Park City School District.
Laurel School is a 2016 National Blue Ribbon School. No other school in San Mateo County received the 2016 NBRS Award, and less than one half of one percent of schools in the entire State of California were honored with it. Mrs. Yamada absolutely contributes to our ability to inspire, challenge and develop confident students. She embodies everything that makes Laurel a nationally recognized leader in education. The Daily Post "article," unfortunately and unnecessarily, likely chipped away at her self-esteem and also the self-esteem of her students.
I tried to attach an image of the complete student generated poster, but was unable to do so in this comment section. The poster was collaboratively created, where students defined AND provided models different division terms. We know that when students can teach and explain concepts, they have reached the deepest level of understanding. I'm proud of our fourth graders, their ability to learn collaboratively, and their confidence to take risks when producing publicly displayed products. I'm sure you would feel the same if it was one of your own children who had created the math display.
I've sent a formal request to the Daily Post to correct their information and print the real story of our high-quality education in MPCSD.

The Urban Dictionary has its own definition of divident:

Web Link

I sat down with my fourteen year old to review the "article" and teach him to read/think critically. Before we even had a chance to discuss the "article" he stated, "That's not an EQUATION; it doesn't have an equal sign. It's an incomplete EXPRESSION".

Since we're discussing mathematical terms, I thought it important to highlight the correct definition of equation for the record. Even more importantly I'd like to highlight that a student caught this error.

My son is a recent graduate of MPCSD.

I hope that the community members will support our schools on Measure X; we need smart graduates who can read for detail AND think critically.

Erik, the Daily Post is NOT a "respected" daily newspaper?

If Daily Post employees don't live in the district, then some unscrupulous individual in the district shared this mailer with the publisher Dave Price. So sad.

Though I support Measure X, it's incredibly inappropriate and borderline illegal for the district superintendent to use this platform to shill for votes.

I wouldn't expect a 9-year-old student to know how to spell "dividend" so no reason to concoct elaborate excuses -- the misspelling (let's not sugar coat it) does not reflect badly on the district's education, but the post suggests poor judgment on the part of the superintendent.

Sleaze, You should re-read Burmeister's letter. It WASN'T a misspelling. Divident is a math term that was correctly used by the student. But even if it had been a misspelling, which it wasn't, it's not at all acceptable behavior by adult editors at The Post to shame a child for a mistake. I appreciate that Burmeister came to the defense of a defenseless child being attacked by a newspaper for political reasons.

I suspect that a supporter of Measure X "leaked" the error in the flyer to the Post in the hopes of getting it on the front page. It worked!

Oh please, nobody in the real world uses the word divident.

We all know it, and so does Erik Burmeister.

I attended the MPCSD in grades k-8 and nobody ever taught us that spelling. If they're teaching it now, the question is why are they using such archaic language.

Divident is a math word.

Webster's defines divident here Web Link

And here is a non-MPCSD example of it being used in a math context: Web Link

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

@Facts

You're linking to a 1913 edition of Webster's dictionary. That's over one hundred years old. In that time, "divident" became obsolete such that the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary no longer lists it as a word.

Web Link

Are there any up to date dictionaries that list it as a word? When I Google search it, those dictionary entries cite the same 1913 version of Webster's dictionary as the source. Google suggest an auto-correction from "divident" to "dividend".

Eric, admit it. Divident isn't a word in your math curriculum. Either a teacher or a student made a mistake, then somebody put together this mailer without catching this error. So now you're doubling down on this mistake. You look silly.

Instead of blaming the messenger, you should fault the person or persons who approved this mailer. It doesn't make the district look very good.

It's sad that our new superintendent won't take responsibility for the error in this flier. He should have checked it over carefully before it was printed. Now he wants to blame the 9-year-old who wrote the misspelled word and the newspaper that merely pointed out the mistake. Pathetic!

@Facts. You're mistaken in saying the Post shamed a child. There was no mention in the Post of any child. The caption had the heading, "Teacher, what's a divident?" That implies a child was asking why a teacher put that word on the board. But I saw nothing in the caption or photograph that mentions a 9-year-old student. @Facts, seems you've fallen for Dr. Burmeister's attempt to shift the blame away from himself.

Holy smokes! OK...

First, I'll just point out that I think it's entirely reasonable for Mr. Burmeister to defend the district if he feels the district is being misrepresented in some way. So in that respect I'm supportive of Mr. Burmeister's post and defense of the district.

That said, the length to which he goes does scream "thin skinned" to me. Just point out (with a reference supporting your claim) that divident is a valid word, then move on.

10 paragraphs???

Divident shmivedent.

It's not a term of art - certainly not in current use. The flier was simply not proofread.

I look at meaning of language and terminology as part as a technical expert, and co-authored a legal reference on the subject.

See, The Thesaurus of Patent Claim Construction.

Web Link

Buy a copy, or two. Please.

I'm really puzzled by the word 'divident', so as a public service I've arrived at the définition.

A divident is the name for the space between teeth of gapped-tooth people. See, for example

Alfred E Neuman, icon of Mad Magazine: Web Link

Or Guy Verhofstadt, former PM of Belgium, current president of the EU: Web Link

Proofread, shmoofread. That a zoomed in photo from a classroom happened to show a poster created by nine year olds in the background is only an issue because the Post decided to step away from journalistic integrity by confusing its front page with its op-ed section.

Still, it's ripe that the Post decided to make federal case out of a young child's minor error. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Glass houses and all.... Do we need a thread that calls out every typographical and grammatical error inserted into the Post's editions? I'm not sure that the Almanac has reserved enough storage space to archive it all....

@fifw, you're shooting the messenger when you blame the Post. They're just exposing an error made by the campaign committee. And the Post never mentioned any 9 year old. Burmeister should have proofread this mailer carefully, and because he didn't, a big mistake happened. Now he's trying to blame others, such as the Post and a 9 year old. It's total CYA on his part. It's sad somebody who is willing to stigmatize a child for his own benefit is our school superintendent.

@George, we're just going to have to agree to disagree. Sure, there was nothing in the Post's "story" about the 9 year old who actually was responsible for writing the word on the poster because the Post never bothered to exercise the journalistic integrity necessary to bother with an inquiry. But beyond that, the not so subtle implication of the story was to impugn the districts teaching staff as though their teaching methods were sloppy or below par.

Simply put, it was an obvious hit piece. Certainly the Post is entitled to their opinion, but have a little integrity and put your pretentious complaint in the editorial section because there was nothing there that was newsworthy in the story on its own merits, and I say that the district was naïve not to put extra effort into proofreading knowing that its political opponents would make use of any opening, even if a cheap shot.

My last post has at least one typo in the last sentence. Feel free to correct it on your own if you're offended.

So the Post never mentioned the 9 year old? Supt. Burmeister did that to deflect blame from the mistake he or another adult made? That's disgusting. Instead of blaming others, our new superintendent needs to man up and accept responsibility. I expect a superintendent to protect kids, not scapegoat them. Unless Burmeister apologizes, I'm voting NO!!!

> Unless Burmeister apologizes, I'm voting NO!!!

Seriously? What a bunch of misplaced faux outrage.

Honestly, I don't have a dog in this fight. Reasonable people can
argue over what level of taxation should apply to their own public
school district. And my own kids go to a better funded district than
your district anyway.

On the other hand, I happened to actually read the Post on the day
the "story" came out, and I found it offensive in that it so unfairly
and obviously denigrated teachers and a district of which so many of
my friends have spoken so highly. It's just a fact that 9 year olds
created the poster that happened to be sitting in the background
photo. That the poster existed accurately conveyed the work that was
going on in that classroom. I have no doubt that the teacher understood the proper spelling, but allowed it to be unedited because, as explained in one of the early replies in this thread, she preferred to focus on the
meaning of the terms quotient, divisor, and, yes, dividend.

Good on Burmeister for standing up for his district and its employees.

To Disgusted:

It's the journalists who need to be proofreading; that is their professional obligation. Why are they calling an expression and equation? My son pointed that out to me and he's only fourteen! I don't want that job to be given to Mr. Burmeister.

I personally want our school district leadership to focus on leading, not on minutia. I don't want Erik to be focusing his time on proofreading, unless it's a decimal point in a budget item. If he is sitting in his office proofreading campaign mail, then he is not out in the field, seeing what is going on in classrooms. If he is in his office, I want him focusing on staying current with best practices, not proofreading a campaign poster. We can't have a talented leader doing everything. That's not his job nor would it be a good use of our taxpayer dollars to pay him six figures to proofread campaign mail. Glancing it over, sure. Scrutinizing, absolutely not.

1. It's not his job to proofread.
2. An error was not published. The real situation was published and that's how schools run. Students do work and teachers display it.
3. There is a place to disagree with the measure and that is the Op Ed section.
4. Voting NO because the superintendent tells it like it is or doesn't call it a mistake is ridiculous. Vote no, if you don't want to vote for the tax, but not based on Mr. Burmeister's blog.
5. If you want to know more about the tax itself, call or write to the district or school board to inform yourself. Make a decision based on what you hear to be the facts, not about a blog, where an opinion about journalism was expressed. That has nothing to do with a tax.

@community member, you're missing the point ... Burmeister defended himself by scapegoating a 9-year-old child. Do we really want a superintendent who uses children that way? He's apparently willing to stigmatize a child (who was never mentioned by the Post) in order to make an argument. I agree with @Disgusted above. Burmeister needs to apologize to this child, his or her class and the child's parents.

Pam stated, in part: "Burmeister defended himself by scapegoating a 9-year-old child. Do we really want a superintendent who uses children that way?"

How did you reach this conclusion given the text of the article, above? In all my interaction with Erik Burmeister he's been nothing short of outstanding (my children attend school in the district) and the notion that he "uses children" in any way is patently absurd, doubly so if based on this article alone. I support Measure X and Erik's use of this forum for the purpose of providing a light-hearted response to what is clearly leaden snark on the part of the Daily Post, and I won't lose sleep over a Measure X flyer which exposes a misspelling in the work of a nine-year-old student, if misspelling we deem it.