Posted on 03/07/2006 10:12:59 AM PST by RBroadfoot
None, according to Richard Cohen of the Washington Post.
EXCERPT: I am haunted by Gabriela Ocampo. ... failing algebra six times in six semesters, trying it a seventh time and finally just despairing over ever getting it.
The L.A. school district now requires all students to pass a year of algebra ...
Here's the thing, Gabriela: You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it. ...
Gabriela, sooner or later someone's going to tell you that algebra teaches reasoning. This is a lie propagated by, among others, algebra teachers. Writing is the highest form of reasoning. This is a fact. Algebra is not. The proof of this, Gabriela, is all the people in my high school who were whizzes at math but did not know a thing about history and could not write a readable English sentence. ...
Algebra ruined many a day for me. Now it could ruin your life.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"I've managed to get to be 41 years old without learning algebra and I seem to get by just fine."
Wanna bet you use algebra and just don't know it? YOu learned it, maybe just not in a classroom.
y = x**2 + x + c parabola
I use both often, trig often, calculus very now and then all in everyday life. Plus I am faster in my head at addition then lots of people with an calculator.
"Every loser without a brain says exactly the same thing!"
I guess that would include me.
Anybody that's gotten through first semester calculus can 'divide by zero'.
So says Isaac Asimov. "Realm of Algebra" explains it in a way any kid could get, if read in small bites. The whole book is under 60 pages IIRC.
I didn't... I married a guy who knows the total at the grocery store before the clerk does, and fortunately, both our girls got a good dose of that 'math' gene.
I just want two pies. Two pies are 9.87 times better.
I'm with you Dave. I rarely set up algebraic equations to figure something out (sometimes I do), but I don't think I could flip numbers around in my head the way I do if I couldn't do it on an intuitive level. It was worth the pain.
OTOH, logic and reason are tools of the White Oppressor Man.
Now tell that's not useful.
You two are on the same wavelength with the George/Gracie-- pie is round, crackers/cornbread is square!
i totally agree with you that there is a math gene!
"You can write the next great novel, and know zip about algebra.
"
Sure, but try to determine if you were paid appropriately.
Haven't you ever been the the store and was just a little curious if that large box of soap was cheaper than the small box? Sometimes the large box is not cheaper (per oz) Most of the time it is cheaper.
I know that I use it but I call it simple mathematics and I use numbers for numbers and not letters for numbers.
This guy is a complete idiot. Just because something is hard, you shouldn't attempt to understand it and master it. I'm tired of this liberal dribel - the dummying of America one generation after the next.
Japanese and Chinese kids are doing calculus in the sixth grade and our high school grads can't do long division -
But at least America's kids self esteem is left intact (when they are flipping burgers and cleaning toilets at the age of 40.)
Voltaire, the epitome of the liberal intellectual translated Isaac Newton's 'Principia Mathematica' into french.
The idea that people like Cohen are intellectuals in any sense is preposterous.
What Is the Value of Algebra?
What in the world is algebra?
Is there something wrong or dirty about being a waitress or manicurist? I mean who is going to serve your food and who is going to do my nails?
"I can't beleive all the freepers here admitting they are idiots.
"
Fascinating, isn't it? People who want to brag they don't know Algebra but actually use routinely. This is like not knowing about the respiratory system and bragging that they don't use oxygen.
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