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What Is the Value of Algebra?
The Washington Post ^ | February 16, 2006 | Richard Cohen

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: education; matheducation
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To: shelterguy

"Very few people anymore realize the amount of info on a framing square."

Yup. You just don't see them in use as much anymore. Now, I'm not an old-fashioned guy, and I'm as likely to pick up a calculator to figure something out as I am to do anything else. But a framing square is worth learning. An amazing tool, developed to make life simpler for the guy with the hammer and saw.

I learned it just because I wondered what all that stuff was about on the square. They had this little book at the lumber yard, so I got a copy. Amazing!

Do apprentices still learn how to use it? I have no idea, since I've never worked in the trade.


281 posted on 03/07/2006 11:37:04 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: george wythe

Someone who comes from a civilization that produced Teotihuacan, Palenque, or Machu Picchu will never convince me that they are too dumb to learn algebra. They just don't want to work hard at it.


282 posted on 03/07/2006 11:37:48 AM PST by Wage Slave
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To: RBroadfoot
In the article, Cohen admits that he doesn't understand algebra, can't even do percentages, and just doesn't get it. Though he admits his own stupidity in elementary mathematics, this liberal thinks himself qualified to opine on tax rates, budgets, economic development, inflation, monetary policy, military issues, etc.

Cohen believes in the other people (aka "the government") doing things for you -- including all the math. You shouldn't have to do any algebra, it should be pre-done for you. Need to compare to prices for two products of different sizes to find the better buy? You could set up a proportion ... or you can check the unit price for each item on the shelf.

Need to know how many fat calories that snack has? You could look at the number of grains of fat and multiply by 9. Or you can read the Fat Calories number right below the total calories number.

Can't balance your checkbook? So what! The bank will tell you. And besides, you can get a program for your pocketPC that will do it for you. Probably get one for your phone, too.

Need to know how much your withholding should be? Why? Someone will just take it out for you, and it's probably right, so why should you worry?

How much is that sweater on sale? Hey, they have a price-check scanner that will tell me without waiting on line. Cool. (Except, you may have to wait on a little line to get to the price-check scanner.)

No one will accuse Mr. Cohen of being an illiterate. He is, however, an innumerate and that is a worse thing.

283 posted on 03/07/2006 11:38:03 AM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: MineralMan

I've bought a new Swanson speed square just because I lost the book. At about $4 for the 6" plastic square (actually a triangle), the book is infinitely more valuable.


284 posted on 03/07/2006 11:38:28 AM PST by Toby06
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To: Jim Noble

A state requirement that all persons 14-16 attend school, and that all such persons pass "algebra", is an absurdity, since 75% of them (at least) - don't or are not taught correctly.


285 posted on 03/07/2006 11:39:03 AM PST by jjjf
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To: Dr. Zzyzx
people who say "I've gotten along fine in life without

Same people who go to H & R Block to get the simple 1040 done.

286 posted on 03/07/2006 11:39:09 AM PST by AmericaUnite
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To: Sofa King
Yeah, let's get rid of algebra. Then kids will be able to use those extra writing skills when they grow up to complain about jobs leaving the country because American kids can't compete in universities anymore.

I wish I had written that.

287 posted on 03/07/2006 11:41:35 AM PST by ladyjane
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To: AmericaUnite
Same people who go to H & R Block to get the simple 1040 done.

Why go to H & R when TaxCut is available? See, even Im not that stupid.

288 posted on 03/07/2006 11:41:49 AM PST by smith288 (http://angryprogrammer.typepad.com)
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To: veronica

The vast majority of what is taught in school is unnecessary for success in any particular profession.

Perhaps the most professionally worthless courses of study are history, government, and literature. Just how many jobs require more than a 4th grade education in either topic. Brain surgeon? No. Nuclear physicist? No. Politician? Obviously not, otherwise they'd demonstrate a better understanding of history.

But I don't think that a person is educated without a modicum of exposure to these subjects. Elementary algebra, the type taught in high school, has far more applications in real life, and it too is essential for one to be educated.


289 posted on 03/07/2006 11:42:52 AM PST by RBroadfoot
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To: jjjf
Robert Anson Heinlein is my favorite science fiction writer.

Second favorite is Harry Harrison.
290 posted on 03/07/2006 11:42:58 AM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (“Don't approach a Bull from the front, a Horse from the rear, or a Fool from any side.”)
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To: Taliesan
You got the right answer, the right way. People with more sophistication would tend to do some of the steps in their head, is all. Algegra is just a formal, systematic way of solving "word problems."

I was different from my classmates in grammar school; if the homework assignment in arithmetic was a page of number crunching, we'd all groan together. But if it was a page of "word problems," the rest of the class would really groan but I would rejoice: "Hey, only six problems! And the interesting kind, at that!"

I became an engineer - and more mathematically inclined than many other engineers, at that. I would however be diffident about claiming that one cannot have a succesful life without algebra. After all, people were having successful lives before algegra was invented!


291 posted on 03/07/2006 11:43:33 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters but PR.)
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To: RBroadfoot

There are three methods of acquiring knowledge known to man. Philosophy, science, and math. There was much written philosophy for thousands of years but it produced little or no new knowledge. Most knowledge has been produced since the middle ages when Aristotelian was accepted. Without math and science we would still be riding a donkey or leading a goat.


292 posted on 03/07/2006 11:44:06 AM PST by jec41 (Screaming Eagle)
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To: MineralMan

I doubt many people learn it anymore. Nowadays "rafters" are seldom cut, having been replaced by stamped together trusses. My Dad could cut every hip, jack and common rafter for a house just by knowing its' dimensions. They would be stacked up and ready for the guys to nail on. Never a measurement taken up on the roof. Vanishing breed I'm afraid.


293 posted on 03/07/2006 11:44:29 AM PST by shelterguy (I can hear "Jimi".)
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To: -YYZ-

For me and my friends in high school it was university prep ("UP" or academic program).




There we go, two different backgrounds, I never had any delusions of going to college. If it wasn't required by law I wouldn't have stayed in High School. I would have started working by age 15 in the woods, logging with my uncles'. As it is I developed an afinity for military service and for that reason alone, buckled down and graduated.


294 posted on 03/07/2006 11:45:00 AM PST by trubluolyguy (Islam, Religion of Peace and they'll kill you to prove it.)
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To: Tanniker Smith

Damn good post!


295 posted on 03/07/2006 11:47:16 AM PST by spinestein (Beware the Democrat's culture of fear and hate.)
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To: trubluolyguy
Primary education is to expose you to learning opportunities that allow you to know what in the world you not only can excel at, but what your aptitudes are or could be in the future of your educational experience...

Many kids enjoy the Arts, Sports, or leadership roles but are excellent at mathematics...a formal education helps to encourage and direct these students, with excellence in various academic disciplines, to have that opportunity...and if they have not the means provide the required aid...

Algebra is needed to understand clear reasoning and logical procedures...I can tell you that the kids who have not been exposed to the challenge of math will never know what their potential is...and those that are and are left puzzled, have at least learned what they do not want to do... For America...the sciences are the future for all of all of us either as a consumer or a producer...knowing what is best for us as individuals is why we have such a diverse curriculum up to our Sophomore year in College when we chose our Major Course of studies...

if you chose not to go to college, you have learned the lesson earlier what you can or wish to do...not all of us are best served with college...we all can make the most of the God given talents to be excellent in what ever we chose to do...

However without the exposure to explore what your Gifts are you are not being served well by our educational systems! no Jokes about the poor or bad schools...

In my opinion liberals do our kids a huge disservice by making it seem to kids that if they do not go to college, that they are academic failures, and therefore not as good as others who are??? All work is important or it would not be a job...work must be celebrated, and the Blue Collar is just as important to our healthy lives as other jobs...
296 posted on 03/07/2006 11:47:21 AM PST by Turborules
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To: taxcontrol

I love Calculus


297 posted on 03/07/2006 11:48:10 AM PST by FroedrickVonFreepenstein
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To: george wythe

8 x = 3.20
x = 3.20 / 8
x = 0.40




Admittedly, my eyes glazed over right about this point here. It's like when my brother tries to talk programming with me....I usually start mentally drawing on his face with a sharpie....he says "Are you even paying attention?" I reply, "No way sharpie man!"

He has never understood the reference.


298 posted on 03/07/2006 11:48:20 AM PST by trubluolyguy (Islam, Religion of Peace and they'll kill you to prove it.)
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To: RBroadfoot
"When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder that I can think at all" Paul Simon "Kodachrome"

We really do learn a lot of stuff that we will never use. Actually, I got "A"s in algebra, and still love to teach it to neighbor kids. But I remember asking my math teacher when I would ever use "imaginary numbers." He said it would be helpful in engineering.

Geometry, higher algebra, trig, calculus. I did them all in high school. Actually. solving algebra word problems is very necessary in businesses like stockbroker. In fact, Dean Whitter's preliminary test for potential stockbrokers has about 50 questions of algebra word problems to be completed in an hour. I got a perfect score. Their scorer said that he had never seen that done before. But I didn't take the job because I'm just not good at sales.

299 posted on 03/07/2006 11:52:28 AM PST by DeweyCA
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To: Beckwith

Start with 2 gals but make sure there is more in stock, buy more if needed.


300 posted on 03/07/2006 11:52:33 AM PST by tiki
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