Posted on 02/09/2024 11:05:13 AM PST by grundle
A decade ago, the #SanFrancisco #PublicSchools stopped teaching #algebra to 8th graders.
I support teaching algebra to 8th graders.
What do you think?
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Most SF “teachers” don’t know this homo named Al G. Bra.
I have no answer for that. I take it you didn’t attempt calculus.
I couldn’t grasp it in the 8th grade. So I was dropped from the class after 3 months. I took it again in 9th grade and got straight As. I say teach it if the students can understand it.
i moved from algebra I to algebra II in the same year and found myself struggling, but loved it.
I assume you mean the turn of the 19th century to the 20th.?? The text books my aunt used when she taught in the 1930s were so difficult!
In NY in the ‘60s, mandatory Algebra in 9th, Geometry in 10th, and Trig in 11th if you wanted a Regents diploma. At least, that how I remember it.
They don’t teach them to read or write. Why should they teach math?
Yes, until Dewey decided to make school easier.
Depends on the kid. It ABSOLUTELY should be an option.
No child left behind has become no child gets ahead. Pretty much sucks.
“Why not just teach basic math and leave Algebra to college level studies. You don’t need it until you get into the sciences anyway.”
I’m not anti-math but during my school years I had nothing but trouble understanding mathematics and I didn’t have a teacher that could break it down to its simple list form and make it understandable.
Trying to learn mathematics was like trying to learn Mandarin or Farsi.
You are completely correct. For the vast majority of the population it is much more important to understand percentages than it is to know that X plus X equals 2X. The public can be so fooled by politicians and fraudsters when they do not understand that 10% of a quantity is different from 0.1 percent of that quantity. .
Enough teachers to teach algebra? Teachers today have the students read the lessons on their computers. Every student is given a computer that they can take home to study the lessons. Then test time comes. Students take the test on the computer. The computer program grades the test, and the results are sent, by the computer, to the parents and students. The children are only given the test grades, They don’t even know what questions they got wrong.
That is how our children are being taught in many schools today.
No child left behind has become no child gets ahead. Pretty much sucks.
How can one teach algebra to kids that can barely read or write or do simple math like long division?
I would not be surprised to learn that many 8th graders couldn’t do their times tables with flash cards. In fact, I would bet on it.
Is it possibly algebra 2, taken after geometry in high school?
Nice. Reading Voltaire and Hugo in the original was a kick when I was younger, but I’m more glad for one year of Latin now than anything else.
Mandarin is approachable with the Hello Chinese app. I dabbled with Farsi 20 years ago, but there was no compelling reason to continue. One of my co-workers is fluent in Pashto from his military service in Afghanistan. I sampled that one in Duolingo...very different. My daily language study includes German and Welsh. I've made good strides in Italian, French and Spanish as well. Still trying to master Scot's Gaelic. The written and spoken forms are still challenging as I don't have all the "rules" figured out yet. Japanese is nicely phonetic with Hiragana/Katakana. That goes off the deep end with Kanji. Pure rote memory.
I do not know if it was a theory or somehow proven, but it was once thought that there is physiological change that takes place in the brain sometime in early adolescence that allows a person to deal with the abstraction involved in algebra. Prior to that happening it is extremely difficult for someone to learn algebra. After that development it is relatively easy.
Insisting that every person take algebra in either seventh grade or eighth grade seems to me like demanding that every child walk by eight months or 12 months. Some are simply not ready. When their body is ready they will walk easily. Prior to that readiness, one can practice and practice and practice with the child, but it will not happen well
I have heard it said, can’t attest to its accuracy, that those who are better in math are worse in languages. And vice versa.
I did quite well in math in HS, algebra and trig. Absolute disaster in Spanish (only F I ever got). Two years of a foreign language was a college bound requirement for students in Florida in the 60s.
My daughter is quite competent in math but no interest at all. Excels at and really enjoys languages.
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