this is when science didn't have to have any specific purpose

[rex_dart]

Is Algebra Necessary?A TYPICAL American school day finds some six million high school students and two million college freshmen struggling with algebra. In both high school and college, all too many students are expected to fail. Why do we subject American students to this ordeal? I’ve found myself moving toward the strong view that we shouldn’t

Comments

[layweed]

I'm so confused by the subject line, I don't know how to proceed. Maybe if it were calculus...but even learning calculus is necessary to me..

[layweed]

I wish I had taken more math in college myself. My college and BS didn't allow for minors (unlike other colleges in the university, Idk) and the best I'll ever be able to say is, "I took X math credits", which kinda sucks. I wish I had the opportunity to take more fundamental subjects like group theory and number theory

[creativepseudo]

While I think I get (and partially agree with) the main point of this article -- that quantitative reasoning skills matter, and those may not be able to be measured by scoring high on a benchmark math test or obtained by a traditional math class -- it's framed in such a weird way it took me a bit to get it. And I can't help but see some of his solutions as just flat-out lowering expectations -- I'm not sure the solution to "many kids don't do well in math" is "stop teaching math".

[rex_dart]

The solution offered wasn't "stop teaching math", though. The point about kids dropping out is that math is a subject that is taught in a way that provides little benefit for the vast majority of people going into higher disciplines and the work force, while at the same time it's hindering people from graduating. So people are dropping out of school over something that had a five percent chance of doing them any good, and that hurts everyone.

[creativepseudo]

I'm just highly skeptical of the alternatives he suggests to traditional math, specifically these parts

[rex_dart]

But nobody's suggesting that all math courses are converted into something else; he's suggesting options. tbh I have a history degree and I absolutely believe that properly taught high school history would do more people more good for the rest of their lives than properly taught high school pre-calc. And yet people are still allowed to opt out of my discipline (terrible as high school history classes are... separate issue) to take shitty ~geography~ courses or some crap. Math at all levels is elevated above basically everything else, and that is really taking away students' options.

The solution to the issue you have isn't to require particular math classes; it's to require more from our high school math teachers.

[layweed]

Me too. I'm a chemistry major who decided to fill up on his non-chemistry science requirements with math courses. There's something beautiful about how you can reduce things in the world to equations, the simplicity of it all, etc. It sucks that it's such a hard subject to pick up for many students (I struggled with it in secondary school myself), but that doesn't mean we should stop teaching it.

[lux_roark]

One day it clicked for me as well. I wasn't horrible at math, I had a B average in all of my math courses, but one day I just realized it wasn't as hard as I was making myself believe it to be. I'm hoping to finish up my BS at UCSD and then go on to pharmacy school.

[ericadawn16]

I loved my college math. It was the lowest math that counted for a BA and I found it very informative. A lot of it revolved around the various methods that founding fathers proposed for adding up votes and the electoral college before deciding on one method.

It also stressed average vs median and such and different ways to have equal pieces of pie. I found this a lot more practical than Algebra or such.

[mycenaes]

Yes! I took a basic math course in college, and oh man, it was so much more interesting/useful than anything that was more abstract. Of course, even with that, I had to have my dad essentially tutor me. So, math's not really a strong point for me.

[belleweather]

Ugh. I wish my college math was like that. I also took the lowest math that would fulfill my requirement. But we calculated mortgage amortization tables. BY HAND. NO ONE does that. EVER. Because it is both pointless and torturous. They wouldn't even let us use a slide rule. *cries*.

Well done on the post title, Rex....

[mhael]

*wonders if anyone besides you and I will know where it comes from*

As for the article: dammit, _p, I'm a historian, not a mathematician, but I think the author makes some pretty cogent arguments against making it mandatory for everyone. I myself took all of ONE math course in college, and it had nothing at all to do with algebra nor anything at ALL to do with my Major or Minor.

On the other hand, making sure high school students understand the basics of symbolic logic is also pretty damn important, so I like the fact the author addresses ways to see that happen without forcing algebra on students who won't ever need it again.

Re: Well done on the post title, Rex....

[rex_dart]

purely put the title there to see if anyone would recognize it.

Re: Well done on the post title, Rex....

[mhael]

Only the cool people, Eskimo Spy.... only the cool people. ;)

Re: Well done on the post title, Rex....

[kseda]

I got it! And then the roommate and I started quoting things at each other.

Joe, I'm in one of these boxes, find me!