Posted on 12/18/2022 10:11:12 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Kansas universities may soon dispense with their algebra graduation requirement because too many students fail the courses.
NPR Kansas recently reported: “About one in three Kansas students fails college algebra the first time around. Some take it several times before they pass. Others get so frustrated that they drop out altogether. And that cuts into university graduation rates.”
NPR added that this prompted the Kansas Board of Regents to consider alternative requirements under what’s called “Math Pathways program.”
Regent Wint Winter (yes, that's his name) said the new Pathways program is critical as a way to fight declining enrollment.
He stated: “It’s incumbent on us to be aware of all the roadblocks that are out there for students … reasons why they’re leaving, reasons why they’re not graduating. So I would urge us all to … find ways to find the bandwidth to keep this moving along.”
If graduation rates are now more important than what students are taught, than why not only offer gender and women’s studies courses…and underwater basket-weaving? Is algebra—algebra!— really too hard for today’s young scholars to handle? In my day, many of us took advanced placement calculus…in high school no less…with credits often transferring to the college of our choice. If calculus, geometry, and even algebra are too difficult for those enrolled in bastions of “higher education” today, perhaps the schools can offer Remedial Addition and Subtraction in their Math pathways programs, assuming they can find “the bandwidth.” What do you think about that, Regent Wint Winter? (Not to be confused with Regent Summ Summer.)
Higher education’s emphasis on enrollment over substance and mission is sadly of a piece with Christian churches’ abandonment of traditional doctrine in favor of a policy of “we must do whatever the hell it takes to put more butts in the pews,
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Good policy.
The sorry fact is that many of our current college grads have double-digit IQs.
And have teachers that can’t teach the subject. No to mention the stupid Common Core crap that forces children to learn algebra in the most difficult ways possible.
The dumbing down of America continues and is actually accelerating!
I was a professor at a top 20 university and sat on a university curiculum committee. The things I heard were appalling. “Art majors don’t need to know math. I motion that all math and science be dropped as requirements.” Etc. Etc.
I was on a PhD disseration committee (out of my area). The disseration proposal was about showing chidrens’ naked photos to convincted pedos to see if it got a reaction. The guy presenting the proposal were clearly getting excited.
I stop the proposal meeting by saying “First, where did you get photos of naked children? That is a felony. Second, what is the point? Naked photos get pedos off? I think we already know that. But here is the punchline: How will you measure convicted felons of their excitement level? Answer: some called a penometer (or something) measuring the angle of erection! I asked “Who is going to measure this? You? The inmate? A guard?” Bottom line: I filed a complaint with the Provost about faculty condoning pedophelia (like Biden).
The result? I was removed from the committee and someone else greenlit the dissertation.
MIT still requires calculus and physics. Whose graduates shall we hire?
Caltech as well...
Universities> Algebra? Did none of these students ever go to Junior High School, specifically the 7th grade??? How did they even get into a University?
Even to this day, ALL MIT freshman MUST take calculus-based physics, and take and/or advance-place calculus!! This includes humanities and management majors!!
MIT first-term freshman physics has among the highest flunk rates in the Institute!!! MIT does offer a slower version of the course, which eventually includes all the material of the usual course. But all must take and pass some version of freshman physics, even if one must take it over, in order to graduate!!
Now some Gen Z “college” students in lesser universities cannot even hack college algebra—or perhaps even high-school algebra!! And now Kansas universities want to allow such students to both enroll AND graduate!!!!
Gen Z sucks!!!! And university officials who allow these “students” to graduate suck even more!!!!
Let them learn a trade instead—if they are able!!!!
RE: Gen Z sucks!!!! And university officials who allow these “students” to graduate suck even more!!!!
I believe Gen-Z overwhelmingly voted Democrat in this year’s midterms ( attracted no doubt by the attempt to “forgive” their college loans ).
But hey, this is the future of America.
Actually, college algebra is a difficult course. I took it as a part of an engineering degree but after being away from school for 8-9 years. For me it was mainly a refresher course after high school algebra I & II, but it was not easy, but I made an “A”.
I thought they had a lesser math course that could be taken for graduation for “studies” majors, etc.
Really? I'd be glad to know when I did. Give me an example please of when I might have used it without knowing it and I'm open to changing my view. Thanks.
You know what they say, “as Kansas goes, so goes the rest of the country”. /sarc
Equations require a knowledge of algebra. Trigonometry as well.
Algebra 1 is very basic math. I took it in jr. high.
It's not just a question of indoctrination. The USSR had indoctrination but they still had education.
The goal is to exterminate us. All the schools are good for is preparing for a life of degradation and misery.
As an engineering student I don’t remember any of my associates taking statics except one who was a statistics major. That was a long time ago at a major school of engineering.
The Kansas Board of Regents also installed a sodomite as president of Wichita State. Guess they want to be on the leading edge of the times.
I have a HUGE math phobia. Had an alcoholic Catholic teacher in junior high who was demeaning and frankly, a shitty teacher. For my first degree, I needed an Algebra credit to graduate. I started and dropped a 1/2 dozen online/in person classes. Finally got an immigrant teacher who saw I was struggling & he worked with me to find how I learned until I got it and passed. I wrote the president of the college about my experience & he replied that the teacher was PT but because of my letter, they were hiring him FT.
So many teachers are one dimensional and the good one take an interest in helping you succeed.
When I went to school, we took a course called “Logic.”
Today’s kids suffer from Lackalogic, a terrible disease.
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