Remedial math at Harvard University

American Thinker ^ | 09/07/2024 | Mike McDaniel

[SeekAndFind]

Teaching was my second career. I enjoyed teaching high school and college English, but there were frustrations. Among them were college teachers and administrators complaining about how unprepared incoming freshmen were. I know what you’re thinking: plenty of high school teachers are awful. It’s their fault when kids entering college can’t read or write or do math.

Without question, there are some poor teachers out there. After all, 50% of people in every endeavor are below average. However, there are two arguably more important factors to consider.

The first is the effort of each student. The greatest teacher in the world can only present the best materials their resources and abilities will allow. It’s up to each student, and their parents, to ensure they take advantage of that opportunity, and it’s hardly a secret many don’t. The second is our elite colleges and universities are accepting people plainly unfit for college. Their primary qualification for admission is a solvent bank account.

So serious is this problem, virtually every college has a remedial high school on campus. Freshmen are required to take remedial classes in many disciplines, paying full tuition for no credit, extending a four-year degree to seven years or so. Far too many drop out, deep in debt with no skills or certifications to pay that debt.

Charles Murray is a prolific author and writer on education. He notes:

For 40 years, American leaders have been unwilling to discuss the underlying differences in academic ability that children bring to the classroom. Over the same period, federal policy, backed by billions of taxpayer dollars in loans and grants, has aggressively encouraged more and more students to try to obtain a college education.

[SeekAndFind]

About half of all high-school graduates now enroll in four-year colleges, despite the ample evidence that just a small minority of American students — about 10-15% — have the academic ability to do well in college.

[SeekAndFind]

SOURCE:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/9/3/new-math-intro-course/

The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly.

The course, titled Math MA5, will run alongside two established math courses — Math MA and MB — with an expanded five-day schedule.

Kelly said that students in MA5 will meet with “one of two instructors all five days” with “a variety of different activities” on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[The Louiswu]

No surprise

[FirstFlaBn]

When I lived in the Baton Rouge area in the mid-80s, the local paper had an article that said half of LSU incoming freshman had to take remedial math. LSU was (supposedly) the flagship U. of the state.

Not a new problem.

[rdcbn1]

Harvard incoming freshmen need remedial algebra tutoring?

WOW, that is simply stunning.

Back in the day, incoming Harvard needed at least advanced placement algebra to get an admit.

Most had at least a semester of Calculus.

[Gaffer]

I had to take a remedial algebra class. I was out of service after 8 years in 1976-77 and applied to a pretty hard engineering school and miraculously got accepted. They wouldn’t even tell me what my SAT score was. I really think they only accepted me because it was a state school and a veteran inducted from there.

5 days a week....algebra problems and homework...lots. Didn’t count towards graduation.... I ended up getting an A which helped me tremendously with the other courses I was to take and I’m glad they had the program. Graduated 13 quarters later in 1980 with a 3.2.....

[dfwgator]

When I lived in the Baton Rouge area in the mid-80s, the local paper had an article that said half of LSU incoming freshman had to take remedial math. LSU was (supposedly) the flagship U. of the state. Not a new problem.

"College men from LSU. Went in dumb, come out dumb too." - Randy Newman

[struggle]

https://youtu.be/WJxBkE9d-TA
Good will Smith

[Chode]

everytime i saw a remedial Reading, English, Arithmetic textbook, it was always with a basetball player...

it’s nuts

[Bookshelf]

I had to take ‘Bonehead English’ on entering the U. of California, Berkeley. I blame it on my girlfriend and sports. Now, with 12 books published and twenty novels in the hopper, I must have improved. At least a little.

[fso301]

plenty of high school teachers are awful. It’s their fault when kids entering college can’t read or write or do math.

Wrong! Teachers are at the bottom of the education hierarchy.

[Kudsman]

Whoa. There are whole screaming blobs of unionized mindless that are completely offended by everything you just said. Nevermind that there is any truth in it. ATF says so.

[Mogger]

Much of the problem is because of how reading is “taught” in the first three grades.

[glorgau]

They need this class because they are highly selective in their admittance standards. Per capita.

[A strike]

Attending Cal is ‘bonehead’ proof.

[Herakles]

When I entered college in 67 I had to have the first year of calculus the first year of chemistry and a foreign language . when I went back to in ‘97 and everybody’s taking remedial algebra. PENN STATE

[FrogMom]

Rumor has it that there are very discrete classes on most military installations that teach reading to new officers. New officers of a largely certain demographic. Democrats have destroyed black America.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Democrats have destroyed black America.

I think that black children should all be given “forty acres and a mule.” Just like all the other children are.

“forty acres and a mule,” by themselves, feed nobody - what was taken for granted was that black slaves would, with that capitalization, work (farm) and feed themselves and their families.

What is free education, if not (in principle, at least) provision of the wherewithal for each child (black or other) to become a self-sustaining adult?

It is the failure of the free schools in that mission which is the problem. And at the root of that is tolerance for failure. Tolerance for failure, and the conversion of the education associations into unions.

[riverdawg]

“When I entered college in 67 I had to have the first year of calculus the first year of chemistry and a foreign language”

Same here, at UVA. There was no math class below calculus. Everyone had to take two years of foreign language, three semesters of English comp/lit, two semesters of science. The only easy path was geology for the science requirement (”rocks for jocks.”) The second semester of chemistry (organic) was a nightmare for non-science majors like me; half the students in the class were pre-med (or thought they were!)