Posted on 07/29/2012 6:05:38 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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.
My question extends beyond algebra and applies more broadly to the usual mathematics sequence, from geometry through calculus. State regents and legislators — and much of the public — take it as self-evident that every young person should be made to master polynomial functions and parametric equations.
There are many defenses of algebra and the virtue of learning it. Most of them sound reasonable on first hearing; many of them I once accepted. But the more I examine them, the clearer it seems that they are largely or wholly wrong — unsupported by research or evidence, or based on wishful logic. (I’m not talking about quantitative skills, critical for informed citizenship and personal finance, but a very different ballgame.)
This debate matters. Making mathematics mandatory prevents us from discovering and developing young talent. In the interest of maintaining rigor, we’re actually depleting our pool of brainpower. I say this as a writer and social scientist whose work relies heavily on the use of numbers. My aim is not to spare students from a difficult subject, but to call attention to the real problems we are causing by misdirecting precious resources.
The toll mathematics takes begins early. To our nation’s shame, one in four ninth graders fail to finish high school. In South Carolina, 34 percent fell away in 2008-9, according to national data released last year; for Nevada, it was 45 percent. Most of the educators I’ve talked with cite algebra as the major academic reason.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You are correct, figuring square feet isn’t algebra - but determining the number of gallons of paint needed is. And as with the other problems I posted, you not going to derive the answers with a framing square.
and I also am a grammarphobe!
As far as your electical question is concerned, you’ll have to give me more information. If the problem is you think there’s no power, then to test the circuit you need a meter; if you’re trying to allocate the number of outlets you can run off of a single circuit, then Ohm’s law applies...
So what I got from reading the article is that Andrew “Hacker” endorses being a Math Non-hacker. I don’t think that’s the answer.
The person is just substantiating why writers and ‘social’ scientists are useless as to the technological advancements needed.
“That wasn’t my quotation. But, I would say a motivatd low intelligence person can still learn to graph y=x, y=x*2, y=1/x with suitable effort. If not, maybe that person shouldn’t be granted a high school degree. When degrees are handed out for compliant behaviour rather than academic achievement, the nature of the institution and the value of the degree is degraded for all. “
I’m with you. If we set low expectations, we’ll get crappy results. Back in the days when Saxon Math was an independent company (before they sold out to Big Textbook), they used have anecdotes on their site. My favorite was the one where a school had just gotten the “latest and greatest” curriculum and used it for their advanced students. The lower level math class got their beat-up Saxon Math books. Needless to say, guess who got skunked at the end of the year.
For those who don’t know, Saxon Math is about as traditional as you can get with math instruction. It is LEGENDARY in the home schooling community and is among the main reasons that home schoolers do so well. Needless to say, the Education Establishment doesn’t like it - AT ALL, and pretty much stopped it in its tracks before it got to critical mass in the public schools.
A major misconception is that accountants are mathematicians. We use very basic math. The only algebra we need to know is Assets minus liabilities = equity.
I tutored accounting to help put myself through college. I found that many that were good at math were not good at accounting.
I believe that accounting is really a specialized language. Its purpose is to tell a story about where the business is at the end of the year and how it got there. This cannot always be expressed with math equations.
Taxes is different. Most tax accountants are very sequential thinkers and do not make good financial accountants.
Figuring how much load to allocate to a certain circuit is the job of an electrical engineer and ohms law.
Finding an open in a simple household circuit can be done with ohms law and a calculator, but why do that when a meter does the same job much faster and easier.
*shudder*
Lockhart has an interesting critique of the standard mathematics curriculum.
Unlike Galileo’s 17th century debate on world systems, however, I think the optimum solution is somewhere in between that of Simplicio and Salviati.
Like Simplicio, I rather liked the formalism of my late ‘60s instruction in Euclidian geometry. Things have gotten worse rather than better since then: the standard curriculum now just teaches geometry facts without proofs.
But, like Salviati, I rather disliked the curiousity-killing pedagogy of elementary school. I still remember my 4th grade teacher telling me that there were no such things as negative numbers when I argued that, yes, you can subtract 5 from 4.
And, Lockhart is absolutely correct about trig being a two week course that gets expanded to fill an entire semester with useless definitions and purposeless manipulations.
Why do liberal educators think that practice in sports and music is good but homework (i.e. practice !) in academic subjects is bad?
I did something similar with my daughter as to what my father did with me, the TV didn't go on until homework was done and done to my satisfaction. Meaning it was correct! I sat at the dining room table with her or in her room at her desk until the standard was met. In elementary school my daughter's performance was "so-so" but by doing the above around middle school a light clicked on with her. She started thinking , ' Hey I like being known as smart!' Also by doing the homework right away rather then argue about it she found out she actually had more time for play. Which resulted in time for social activities, cheerleader, sports e.g., Tae Kwon Do - 2nd degreee Black Belt, etc.
She graduated from college with a dual major in Chemistry and Physics, minors in Math and Classics and is now working on her PhD in Chemical Engineering.
“if not, maybe that person shouldn’t be granted a high school degree”
Dingdingdingding....winner, winner chicken dinner!
Now, the next step is figuring what % of the 14 year old population is capable. I say no more than 30%, probably less.
Ramanujan now there's a story !
Everyone go get the book ‘Ramanujan: The Man Who Knew Infinity”.
Almost completely self-taught!
First, Grandma lives within walking distance so don’t need gas. Second, that $75 would be going toward the electric bill to save the freezer from being cut off. Third, no one is going on a trip since they’re needed to help tend the garden to put food on the table and to do some major diy home repairs since there’s no spare money to pay a professional. That’s my real world.
Some people’s real world would be to dump the his/hers/theirs kids off at grandma’s because they can’t afford them even with foodstamps. Then bum $200 off grandma for gas, beer and smokes to get home.
Still no need to find x.
It’s taking me all day to read this thread. Lockhart’s Lament is interesting, but it lambasts the traditional math curriculum in favor of dreamy ideals. Not exactly the touchy feely approach, maybe, but it could be taken that way. His blast at Geometry is particularly disconcerting. I guess he’s just trying to make a point.
I did learn of Gauss’s “notions vs. notations” quote and tracked it down to an online edition of the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae ( linked by Wikipedia. ) I wondered what the Latin might be. Well, it’s “notionibus” and “notationibus”. I believe this is the “ablative of means” applied to “notio” and “notatio”. So that was interesting.
I love Algebra, too - it is beautiful patterns, amazing concepts, satisfying relationships. The textbooks are bad, though - what 8th grader needs to know OR understand “If a sparrow flies over Mt. Everest with a twig weighing 2 oz and a headwind of 6 kpm” (always metric, because the libs REALLY want us to be like Europe). They can handle plenty of rote as the learn it and not every single problem absolutely HAS to be applied Physics, imho.
The kids I tutor are always confused by the instructors and always afraid to ask. Often the instructor ‘used to be an engineer but now is a mom’ or has come from engineering and now is teaching. My dad was a Shop teacher, engineer-brain: I seldom asked him for math help, either. I got way too much information, he was impatient with my basic math level, and I always ended up in tears.
He was serving on the State Curriculum Commision of California, and it wasn't a mistake. The book hadn't been completed and the blank book was a required stand-in. And he didn't call the publisher, he raised the issue in a review meeting, saying he couldn't comment on it because he hadn't seen it. That's when he found out others had reviewed it.
This is in JUDGING BOOKS BY THEIR COVERS in "Surely You're Jokling, Mr. Feynman!" ( N.B. the quotes are part of the title ... and it's FEYNMAN ! )
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